Profitable and unprofitable months

One month is a good length of time for an observation window. I've now played online poker in 190 distinct months. 122 of them were profitable. This year, although I'm still in the red, at least I'm trending upwards. No matter what happens in today's session, this month will still be a profitable one :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     340   81    96        0    34
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     322   81   119        0    25

delta: $-100,000
2025 balance: $-897,000
2025 blue distance: $897,000
balance: $15,400,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.43 (1306 of 3152)

Three call ins and a fall in

It's rare for me to go all in to open the betting on a street. When all my chips go into the middle, the most common reason is that I called a bet that was at least as big as my chip stack; that's what I call a "call in".  It's also rare for me to allow my stack to get so short that it gets eaten up by the forced bets before the hole cards are even dealt, with no volition on my part; that's what I call a "fall in". Last night, I had three call ins and a fall in. I was lucky enough to survive the fall in and the first two call ins. That helped me last long enough to reach the fifth money jump above a min cash.

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     309   81    31   135000    52

delta: $85,000
2025 balance: $-797,000
2025 blue distance: $797,000
balance: $15,500,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.46 (1306 of 3150)

KK KO'd

I have enough hand data now to notice some anomalies. One of the glaring ones is my winning percentage with cowboys (pocket kings). It's  as low as it can possibly be. I've received them 3 times in 827 hands, and have lost at showdown each time. Let's just say my cowboys are getting KO'd. In other news, I failed to complete a turducken on Sunday. Time to start a new streak :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     471  117   145        0    22

delta: $-50,000
2025 balance: $-882,000
2025 blue distance: $882,000
balance: $15,415,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.44 (1305 of 3149)

Looking for a turducken

On Friday, I completed my first hambone of the year. My streak of consecutive in the money finishes is now at four, and still alive. If I finish in the money in the first tournament I play today, the streak will improve to five, and still be alive. I've decided to call such a streak a turducken, since it's two better than a turkey :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     237   63    42    99000    38

delta: $49,000
2025 balance: $-832,000
2025 blue distance: $832,000
balance: $15,465,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.45 (1305 of 3148)

Looking for a hambone

I love poker slang, and slang in general. It's fun to create new poker slang, and also fun to borrow known slang terms from non-poker contexts and use them in a poker context. In bowling, three consecutive strikes is a turkey. In poker, I define a turkey to be three consecutive tournaments where I finish in the money. Yesterday, I completed my third turkey of the year. In bowling, four consecutive strikes is a hambone. If I finish in the money in the first tournament I play today, I'll complete my first hambone of the year :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     313   81    79    68000    28
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     340   81    73    74000    30

delta: $42,000
2025 balance: $-881,000
2025 blue distance: $881,000
balance: $15,416,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.44 (1304 of 3147)

Under the lights

Yesterday I had a nice rebound from the session before. I got under the lights (i.e., made it to the final table) for the second time this year. That extrapolates to 14 times for the year, which is on a par with what I had in 2023 and 2024. Getting under the lights never gets old :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     211   54     9   194000    60

delta: $144,000
2025 balance: $-923,000
2025 blue distance: $923,000
balance: $15,374,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.40 (1302 of 3145)

None and done

On Tuesday I played three tournaments, and missed the money by a country mile in all of them. Not only that, they were three of the shortest tournaments I've played in recent memory. To top it all off, I failed to win a single pot in the shortest of the three. That's only the second time that's happened in the 22 tournaments I've played since I started manually recording the minimum viable poker hand data. I call that a none and done tournament :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     249   63   136        0    12
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     325   81   137        0    15
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     259   72   125        0     9

delta: $-150,000
2025 balance: $-1,067,000
2025 blue distance: $1,067,000
balance: $15,230,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.38 (1301 of 3144)