Ever less shutout

An ever less session is one where you play less hands each succeeding tournament. An ever less shutout is an ever less session where you failed to make the money in any tournament. It's not something you ever want to achieve, but I achieved it last night. It turned out to be only the second ever less shutout MTT NLHE session of my career; the first was on November 2nd of last year. Here's hoping I won't have another for a good long while :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    48     134   36    47        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    38      51   15     -        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    24     381   96   260        0

delta: $-120,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,189,748
2017 balance: $272,600
balance: $11,690,430

A change in philosophy

I know it's a bad idea to join a 9 max MTT too early *; there's just too much variance to make that a good play. It's much better to let a bunch of other players get knocked out before you join. I never bothered to reevaluate this philosophy with respect to 6 max, but that was a mistake. There's way less variance in 6 max; so much less, in fact, that I think it's fine to join a 6 max MTT at any time, even at the very beginning of the late registration period. It stands to reason that the better a player you are, the longer you give your greater skills a chance to work on the lesser skills of your opponents, the better.

Last night, I joined a 6 max MTT NLHE with more than 20 minutes left in the late registration period. I had some ups and downs, but got a nice chip infusion just before the late registration period ended, when I was dealt rockets. I parlayed that luck into a decent profit.

* truth be told, it's a bad idea to join a 9 max MTT in general :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6   122     148   36    24   106000

delta: $56,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,309,748
2017 balance: $392,600
balance: $11,810,430

The prescription for making one million a year

The prescription for making one million play dollars a year is quite simple; it has only two parts:

1. play at least 10,000 hands of MTT NLHE in the year
2. make an average of 100 play dollars a hand, taking the buy ins and entry fees into account

The first part is simple to achieve; the second is not as easy, but can be done. Last year, I played 13,389 hands of MTT NLHE, and averaged just shy of 143 play dollars a hand. If I'd stuck to just that style and flavor, I would have made a profit of 1,913,096 on the year; however, since I mucked around with other styles and flavors, and didn't do well in any of the others, I ended up with less than a million in profit. The nice thing about this prescription is that it can easily be adjusted. If you can't make an average of 100 play dollars a hand, you can still make a million by taking the simple expedient of playing more hands :-)

In 2017, I'm averaging 133 play dollars an MTT NLHE hand. If I can keep up that average, I only need to play 7,519 hands to make my million.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    68     376   96    79    32200

delta: $12,200
MTT NLHE balance: $2,253,748
2017 balance: $336,600
balance: $11,754,430

85 million play dollars lost

A little over four and a half years ago, I thought it notable that to that point in my career, I'd lost nearly 7 million play dollars. Here's what I wrote then:

There's a great joke which has as its coda the following remark and rejoinder:

"I've never been so insulted in my life!"
"Well, you should get out more!"

The poker equivalent to this might be:

"I've never lost so much money in my life!"
"Well, you should play more!"

The truth behind this humor is that you'll never be able to win a massive amount of money without losing a massive amount of money along the way.

Recently, I surpassed the 85 million mark in play dollars lost. Here's to many more play millions lost in the future :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    35     488  114   190        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    19      83   21     0        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    11     420   96   293        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9     8      92   27     0        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    14     575  117   252        0

delta: $-160,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,241,548
2017 balance: $324,400
balance: $11,742,230

Splurging

As you know, I avoid 9 max tournaments like the plague. Sometimes, though, it's okay to splurge on one. That's what I did last night, after making the money in the first MTT I entered, which was a 6 max. Since I'd made a profit of $40,000 on that first tournament, I knew I could afford to play a $20,000 9 max. Even if I failed to make the money, I'd still come out ahead on the night (I'd already decided I was only going to play two tournaments). I hit the rail on hand 13, when I called all in with an ace and nine of hearts.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    85     112   30    21    90000
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    13     430   90   161        0

delta: $20,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,401,548
2017 balance: $484,400
balance: $11,902,230

Evermore in vain

New definition: an evermore in vain session is an evermore session where I failed to make the money in any tournament. Last night, I had such a session, and thought it might have been my very first one. Analyzing my MTT NLHE data, that turned out to be false. I've had 12 evermore MTT NLHE sessions; two of them have been in vain.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    25     144   36    47        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    30     134   36    74        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    36     357   84   144        0

delta: $-120,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,381,548
2017 balance: $464,400
balance: $11,882,230

Evermore and ever better

The first time I used this blog post title was on December 9, 2015; here's what I had to say:

An evermore session is one where you play multiple tournaments, and manage to play more hands each tournament than you did in the previous one. An ever better session is one where you play multiple tournaments, and manage to place better each tournament than you did in the previous one. An evermore and ever better session is, as you'd expect, an session which is both an evermore session and an ever better session.

Last night, I had another such session. I just missed going 3 for 3, since I bubbled the first tournament.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    41     158   42    43        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    53     138   36    35    74000
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    95     131   36    16   112000

delta: $36,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,501,548
2017 balance: $584,400
balance: $12,002,230