The perils of divided attention

I go back and forth on the desirability / advisability of adding on in an MTT-R NHLE tournament. At the moment, my belief that it's generally a good thing is back in the ascendancy. That's what made my failure to add on in last night's tournament regrettable. Why didn't I add on? For the simple reason that my attention was focused elsewhere. I was surfing the net for the whole two minutes of the add on period. Oops!

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    39      65   15    45        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $21,027,500
2017 balance: $21,926,955
balance: $33,344,785

Putting in the time

Like no other poker style/flavor combination I know, MTT-R NLHE richly rewards putting in the time. You're going to fail to make the money roughly 63% of the time, but when you do make it, you'll have a chance to make a real killing. Your window of observation should be large enough so that you only see profit in it :-) You just need to get used to losing a million or two in swings here and there, since you'll win multiple millions in other swings elsewhere. I'd say I'm pretty used to all the swings by now :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    77      62   15    20        0

delta: $-250,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $21,227,500
2017 balance: $22,126,955
balance: $33,544,785

Interlude

I couldn't play any MTT-R NLHEs last night, since I wouldn't have been able to save the hand histories. Instead, I played some KOs. The reason why I wouldn't have been able to save the hand histories? The new PokerStars client I downloaded was conspicuously missing that feature. The reason I had to download a new PokerStars client? The old client stopped working. Will I be able to save the hand histories tonight? Yes. Why? I downloaded yet another PokerStars client, and this latest one has that feature :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9     -       9    3     3    59500
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9     -       9    3     2    78625
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9     -       9    3     4        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    10       9    3     6        0

delta: $-61,875
KO no limit hold'em balance: $-68,689
balance: $33,794,785

Competing against yourself

When you do something really well, you're creating a worthy future opponent. To be more precise, this opponent will eventually be a worthy past opponent; he'll be someone you measure yourself against in the future, but his accomplishments will have occurred in the past. In the last five sessions, I've made a packet of play money - $3,653,375 to be exact. However, since I've done so well this year, this latest five bagger doesn't crack my all-time top ten; it falls just outside, in 11th place. Amazingly enough, the top 39 spots on my career five bagger list all fall in 2017. The year of the rebuy :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    46       9    3     1    95625
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    71      64   15    26        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   125      49   12     3  1735000

delta: $1,365,625
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $21,477,500
2017 balance: $22,438,830
balance: $33,856,660

My blue heaven

Last night, I got most of what I was aiming for:

- back in the blue? yes ($32,491,035)
- three straight MTT-R NLHE final tables? no :-(
- most final tables in a 5 MTT-R NLHE stretch? no :-(
- most final tables in a 6 MTT-R NLHE stretch? yes (4)
- largest profit for a calendar year? yes ($21,073,205)

This continues to be a career year. These are the good old days :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    40      82   18    47        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   163      68   15     6   915000

delta: $565,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $20,242,500
2017 balance: $21,073,205
balance: $32,491,035

Blue proximity

The last time my overall balance was in the blue was on August 6th. On August 7th, I lost $158,800. With last night's profit, my overall balance has come the closest to being back in the blue since August 7th; my blue distance is now $193,070. If I play a single tournament tonight and make the final table, I'll achieve all of the following:

1. my overall balance will be back in the blue
2. I'll set a new personal record of three straight tournaments under the lights
3. I'll set a new personal record of four out of five tournaments under the lights

I have a lot to play for, and I'm going for it :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   115      57   12     6   694000

delta: $494,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $19,677,500
2017 balance: $20,508,205
balance: $31,926,035

The delicious dozen

When I started this blog, I never imagined it would be possible for me to make a profit of a million play dollars in a single session. I wasn't entirely sure I'd even ever be able to make a profit of a million play dollars, regardless of the number of sessions. Last night, I made a single session profit of a million play dollars for the twelfth time in my career. I'm calling those sessions the delicious dozen :-)

Making such a massive profit took most of the sting out of how my second tournament ended - I hit the rail with pocket aces, when my opponent hit a two outer on the river. Had I won that hand, I think the odds are better than 50 50 that I would have won it all.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    43      71   15    29        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   123      63   15     4  1376000

delta: $1,076,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $19,183,500
2017 balance: $20,014,205
balance: $31,432,035