Thursday, July 31, 2014

Rolled up jacks

Last night, I won my biggest pot of the session on hand 28, with rolled up jacks. I raised on every street. I wasn't sure I'd win, but knew I had an excellent chance. The pot was worth $36,800, $25,160 of which was other people's money. That's the second biggest hand delta of my limit stud career. The biggest was $34,600; that was back on July 7th when I started playing stud again after a long absence. Due to the limit nature of this poker flavor, I know I'll likely never win a pot over $50,000, which is a far cry from the largest no limit hold'em pot I ever won, $231,500. The thing is, every poker flavor has its monster pots, they're just differently sized :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 30 hands and:
- saw fourth street 23 times (76%)
- saw fifth street 18 times (60%)
- saw sixth street 14 times (46%)
- reached showdown 8 times (26%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 8 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $24,923
cash game 7 card stud balance: $110,298
balance: $10,196,032

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Tenliness is next to quadliness

Last night, I won my second biggest pot of the session on hand 42, when I made four of a kind, tens, on seventh street. The hand was well disguised, since only one of the tens was showing. It's silly to have a favorite quad hand, but I do. You won't be surprised to hear that it's quad tens. I've had this particular quad hand more times recently than any other quad. As an added bonus, it provides me with a great blog post title :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 47 hands and:
- saw fourth street 33 times (70%)
- saw fifth street 27 times (57%)
- saw sixth street 19 times (40%)
- reached showdown 9 times (19%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 9 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $5,159
cash game 7 card stud balance: $85,375
balance: $10,171,109

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The ignorant straight

In hold'em, you have to be wary of backing the ignorant end of a straight. That is, you shouldn't bet too heavily when you've made the low end, since an opponent might well have made the high end. In stud, there's no such thing as a low end or a high end to straights, since there are no community cards. If you've made a straight, what you have to be wary of is an opponent having made a completely separate, better straight. In such a case, your whole straight is ignorant; just call it the ignorant straight :-) Last night, when I had made it almost all the way back into the black, I made an ignorant straight on seventh street. Blinded by my zeal to return to profitability, I confess I didn't even check to see what my opponent's up cards were; I simply "knew" my hand would win. Sheer folly! My opponent had made a better straight on sixth street. I had no business raising on seventh, but did anyway. I've now fallen from the lapis ratio in stud to the platinum ratio. I have a strong hunch I won't be able to get back to lapis, so I'll aim for maintaining platinum.

During current Stud session you were dealt 104 hands and:
- saw fourth street 84 times (80%)
- saw fifth street 73 times (70%)
- saw sixth street 63 times (60%)
- reached showdown 32 times (30%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 32 (28%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-16,691
cash game 7 card stud balance: $80,216
balance: $10,165,950

Monday, July 28, 2014

Twelved

On Saturday night, I got twelved. That is, on the final hand of the session, my hand was beaten on seventh street by a 12 percent underdog. To be precise, it was an 11.92 percent underdog. I wasn't all in, but didn't realize that I wasn't, and quit since I didn't feel like reupping. It's very possible I set a personal best for the largest percentage of starting stack lost without hitting the felt; I'll check this out sometime.

During current Stud session you were dealt 87 hands and:
- saw fourth street 75 times (86%)
- saw fifth street 65 times (74%)
- saw sixth street 50 times (57%)
- reached showdown 19 times (21%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 19 (31%)
 Pots won without showdown - 12

delta: $-39,780
cash game 7 card stud balance: $96,907
balance: $10,182,641

Saturday, July 26, 2014

The 39 steps

Last night, my session lasted 39 hands. If you think of each hand as a partial conclusion, you could say that my session consisted of 39 steps. Of course, "The 39 Steps" is the name of a classic Hitchcock movie. I got curious to see how well I've done in my career in 39 hand sessions. Here are the results:

+-------+--------------------+
| delta | poker_session_date |
+-------+--------------------+
|  2000 | 2010-10-21         |
| -6000 | 2011-02-23         |
| 19926 | 2013-01-17         |
|  8452 | 2013-02-19         |
| 15555 | 2013-03-31         |
| 40115 | 2013-08-09         |
|  7403 | 2013-08-28         |
| 21160 | 2014-07-25         |
+-------+--------------------+


Of course, these results can't be repeated simply by playing 39 hands and then quitting; they can only be repeated by playing the right 39 hands and then quitting :-) When you play the wrong 39 hands, there's no sense in quitting at that moment.

During current Stud session you were dealt 39 hands and:
- saw fourth street 30 times (76%)
- saw fifth street 23 times (58%)
- saw sixth street 18 times (46%)
- reached showdown 7 times (17%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 7 (71%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $21,160
cash game 7 card stud balance: $136,687
balance: $10,222,421

Friday, July 25, 2014

Lucky 13

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this is actually the fourth time I've used this blog post title. I knew I'd used it before, but three times? Get outa here! Here's the skinny on my 13 hand cash game sessions:

+--------+--------------------+
| delta  | poker_session_date |
+--------+--------------------+
|  11500 | 2010-10-05         |
|   1140 | 2011-03-03         |
| -40000 | 2012-11-26         |
|  53999 | 2013-04-19         |
|  47456 | 2014-01-02         |
|  11313 | 2014-07-24         |
+--------+--------------------+


I've come to the conclusion that 7 card stud has a different, and lower, profit sweet spot from that of no limit hold'em. The profit sweet spot of no limit hold'em, in my opinion, is half your starting stack. My experience so far in stud is telling me that the profit sweet spot of stud is one quarter of your starting stack. That's what I achieved last night.

During current Stud session you were dealt 13 hands and:
- saw fourth street 8 times (61%)
- saw fifth street 8 times (61%)
- saw sixth street 7 times (53%)
- reached showdown 5 times (38%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 5 (40%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $11,313
cash game 7 card stud balance: $115,527
balance: $10,201,261

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Blue percentage

In poker, I like all things blue. The gold standard of blueness is blue percentage. That's the percentage of your sessions where you ended up in the blue (i.e. when your balance hit a new all-time high). My blue percentage in cash game sessions is 23.33 (283 of 1213). My blue percentage in cash game no limit holdem sessions is 28.94 (211 of 729). My blue percentage in cash game 7 card stud sessions is a whopping 55.17 (16 of 29). Is it any wonder I'm loving stud?

During current Stud session you were dealt 16 hands and:
- saw fourth street 12 times (75%)
- saw fifth street 9 times (56%)
- saw sixth street 7 times (43%)
- reached showdown 3 times (18%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $12,400
cash game 7 card stud balance: $104,214
balance: $10,189,948

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The high chaparral

This is the second time I've used this blog post title. The first time, the context was sit and gos. What I mean by the high chaparral in a cash game context is the number of positive deltas at the top of the list of a session's hand deltas, when this list has been sorted in descending order by absolute value. In general, the higher this number is, the better. In 662 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em for which I have the hand histories, the highest high chaparral number I ever achieved was 11. In 14 sessions of limit 7 card stud for which I have the hand histories, the highest high chaparral number I've achieved so far is 9, which I did last night. I haven't had a high chaparral number of 0 yet in 7 card stud; in hold'em, I had a monstrous 176 sessions with a high chaparral number of 0. If you want to make slow steady money, stud is definitely the right game to play :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 89 hands and:
- saw fourth street 60 times (67%)
- saw fifth street 51 times (57%)
- saw sixth street 36 times (40%)
- reached showdown 19 times (21%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 19 (47%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $9,400
cash game 7 card stud balance: $91,814
balance: $10,177,548

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

First miniature in 6 months

In chess, a miniature is a short game which demonstrates the brilliance of one of the players. In poker, a miniature is a short session which demonstrates both the skill and the luck of one of the players. For the purposes of this discussion, I'll define a poker miniature as a session of 10 hands or less. Last night, I had my first miniature in 6 months. For the record, I've now earned a cool $1,531,408 in 46 poker miniatures.

During current Stud session you were dealt 10 hands and:
- saw fourth street 9 times (90%)
- saw fifth street 7 times (70%)
- saw sixth street 5 times (50%)
- reached showdown 2 times (20%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 2 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $20,864
cash game 7 card stud balance: $82,414
balance: $10,168,148

Monday, July 21, 2014

Accentuate the positive

When you've played poker as long as I have, no matter how good your winning sessions to losing sessions ratio is, you're going to get a lot of practice at losing sessions. I recently surpassed 400 losing cash game sessions. That's over a calendar year of futility! One technique I use to help myself feel better about losing a session is to look for any positives I can take away from it. The positive I take away from last night's losing session is that the top six hands in terms of the absolute values of the deltas were all hands I won. I have a hunch that's a personal best for a losing session.

During current Stud session you were dealt 102 hands and:
- saw fourth street 76 times (74%)
- saw fifth street 69 times (67%)
- saw sixth street 52 times (50%)
- reached showdown 22 times (21%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 22 (45%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $-18,407
cash game 7 card stud balance: $61,550
balance: $10,147,284

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Traction

To make a profit playing poker, you need to gain traction. In order to gain traction you need to have patience. The vast majority of the time, you're going to start out a session by losing money. You'll feel like you're spinning your wheels. You have to wait until they start gripping the road; if and when they do, that's when you need to put your foot down on the accelerator. Don't let up until your wheels start slipping again! Or better yet, quit the session before that happens. It's never a bad move to quit when you've made a profit equal to about half the size of your starting stack. That's what I did last night.

During current Stud session you were dealt 51 hands and:
- saw fourth street 42 times (82%)
- saw fifth street 34 times (66%)
- saw sixth street 27 times (52%)
- reached showdown 17 times (33%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 17 (52%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $19,514
cash game 7 card stud balance: $79,957
balance: $10,165,691

Friday, July 18, 2014

Fingerfehler

I've talked about fingerfehlers in this space before. A fingerfelher is a German word for a slip of the finger. In the context of online poker, a fingerfehler is when you click on a button you didn't intend to click on. That happened to me last night, very early on - so early, in fact, that I hadn't yet played a hand. At the 7 card stud tables I like to join, the minimum buy-in is $16,000, and the maximum is $1,000,000. It's rather silly to have such a high maximum, since in the limit format, big stacks can't bully small stacks the way they can in the no limit format. From my no limit hold'em experience, I've very comfortable with buy-ins of $40,000, so that's what I've been choosing for limit stud as well. The problem is, to get that buy-in, I have to type that exact amount into a text box each time I join a stud table. Last night, for some reason, I selected the maximum and then clicked on the Okay button, all on autopilot. I guess that actually counts for two fingerfehlers. Maybe I was so impatient to start playing I unconsciously took the path of least resistance. I realized as the session wore on that there are two drawbacks to buying in for such a huge amount:

1. psychologically, a player with a big stack feels a heavier burden trying to protect it than he would feel trying to protect a smaller stack; any amount lost feels like a larger loss than it otherwise would, since it's hurting a bigger stack. This is illogical, but an actual phenomenon.

2. players with smaller stacks often play back harder at big stacks than they would at smaller ones; the reason is equally as illogical as the one in drawback 1, but just as real - if a smaller stack wins a hand against a big stack, the amount won feels larger than it otherwise would, since it came from a bigger stack.

With this in mind, I'll be sure to type "40000" into the text box tonight when I join my table :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 122 hands and:
- saw fourth street 103 times (84%)
- saw fifth street 93 times (76%)
- saw sixth street 82 times (67%)
- reached showdown 40 times (32%)
 Pots won at showdown - 16 of 40 (40%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $-27,178
cash game 7 card stud balance: $60,443
balance: $10,146,177

Thursday, July 17, 2014

A house on seventh street

Even though my favorite type of hand is a flush, I have to admit I have a different favorite when it comes to ending a session. There's no better way to go out than with a winning full house. It's even better when you hit it on the river. That's what happened to me last night. Actually, that's not strictly accurate. Years of hold'em play has accustomed me to think of the last card dealt in a poker hand as the river, but when the game is seven card stud, the correct name for that card is actually seventh street. The full house I made on seventh street on hand 42 won a pot worth $27,240, fully $20,400 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money). I knew it was time to get out of Dodge, so I did.

During current Stud session you were dealt 43 hands and:
- saw fourth street 33 times (76%)
- saw fifth street 26 times (60%)
- saw sixth street 19 times (44%)
- reached showdown 12 times (27%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 12 (58%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $31,638
cash game 7 card stud balance: $87,621
balance: $10,173,355

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Seven fours

Last night, something highly unusual occurred. I had seven fours! No wild cards were involved, I promise. The truth is, it took two hands to get them. What made the fours extra special was that the two hands were back to back. On hand 67, I was dealt 3c 4d 4c 4h 2c 4s 6s, and won a pot worth $10,840. On hand 68, I was dealt 5d 6d 4h 3d 4d Th 4s, and won a pot worth $10,040. That vaulted my stack into the black, and I quit one upswing later.

During current Stud session you were dealt 82 hands and:
- saw fourth street 66 times (80%)
- saw fifth street 53 times (64%)
- saw sixth street 43 times (52%)
- reached showdown 17 times (20%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 17 (58%)
 Pots won without showdown - 10

delta: $16,002
cash game 7 card stud balance: $55,983
balance: $10,141,717

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Queenliness is next to quadliness

Last night, I won my biggest pot of the session with four of a kind, queens. Queenliness is next to quadliness! It was a superbly disguised hand, since all of my hole cards were queens. That came relatively early on, on hand 9. That put my stack into the black, and I never looked back. When I'd made a profit of half my starting stack, I decided that was good enough to call it a night.

During current Stud session you were dealt 33 hands and:
- saw fourth street 23 times (69%)
- saw fifth street 19 times (57%)
- saw sixth street 16 times (48%)
- reached showdown 9 times (27%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 9 (44%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $20,216
cash game 7 card stud balance: $39,981
balance: $10,125,715

Monday, July 14, 2014

Check swing home run

One of the most impressive baseball feats I ever saw was a check swing home run, accomplished by Red Sox slugger Jim Rice a long time ago. He had the sheer power to hit the ball out of the park without even taking a full swing at it. On Saturday night, I experienced a poker equivalent of sorts, except that the reason I won the pot had nothing to do with power, and everything to do with a surprising winning combination of inattention and stupidity. I was dealt rolled up sixes (in other words, my first two hole cards and my first up card were all sixes), and made a full house of sixes full of jacks on the river. Due to my inattention, I didn't notice that I'd made a full house, and thought I just had a set. Due to my stupidity, I called an $800 bet on the river when it was clear from his betting pattern that my opponent had a full house. Fortunately for me, not only did I also have one, but mine was better. I won a pot worth $17,280, by biggest pot of the night, on a check swing :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 38 hands and:
- saw fourth street 29 times (76%)
- saw fifth street 25 times (65%)
- saw sixth street 19 times (50%)
- reached showdown 9 times (23%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 9 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $17,209
cash game 7 card stud balance: $19,765
balance: $10,105,499

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Why no limit stud makes no sense

I looked for no limit stud tables on PokerStars last night, but couldn't find any. There was a very good reason for that, once I thought about it. No limit stud wouldn't make any sense. The reason is pretty simple. Hold'em has four betting rounds, but stud has five. There's just not enough information early on in stud to justify allowing players to go all in. If you did allow it, you wouldn't be playing poker, you'd be playing bingo. If I really value skill poker flavors, as I claim, I have to play them on their own terms. There are no shortcuts. I see now that stud is a grinder's game, but that suits me just fine.

During current Stud session you were dealt 77 hands and:
- saw fourth street 53 times (68%)
- saw fifth street 48 times (62%)
- saw sixth street 31 times (40%)
- reached showdown 17 times (22%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 17 (58%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $14,026
cash game 7 card stud balance: $2,556
balance: $10,088,290

Friday, July 11, 2014

Bound and yearning to be free

I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Warren D. Goldfarb. Some thirty odd years ago, I took his course on symbolic logic at Harvard. His love of logic was infectious. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be a software engineer today had I not taken that course. Professor Goldfarb made logic fun, and injected his sense of humor into the lectures. One of his punning phrases which has stuck with me all these years is "bound and yearning to be free". He was referring to bound variables, and ascribing human emotions to them. In my short limit 7 card stud career, I've discovered that I feel bound by the limit, and am yearning to be free :-) I guess I'm not as patient as I thought I was. When you've played no limit poker as long as I have, and suddenly switch to limit, you miss being able to turn the dial to 11. Tonight, I'm going to see if I can't find a no limit 7 card stud table.

During current Stud session you were dealt 103 hands and:
- saw fourth street 83 times (80%)
- saw fifth street 73 times (70%)
- saw sixth street 58 times (56%)
- reached showdown 32 times (31%)
 Pots won at showdown - 11 of 32 (34%)
 Pots won without showdown - 11

delta: $-40,000
cash game 7 card stud balance: $-11,470
balance: $10,074,264

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Predestination vs. free will

One very interesting fact I've realized about 7 card stud is that there's no such thing as a cold deck. The deck itself is not intrinsically cold; it can only have the appearance of being cold. In reality, its coldness is purely a result of the actions of the players at the table. That sounds clear as mud, so let me try explaining it a little better. In hold'em, the deck itself can intrinsically and unequivocally be cold. The reason why is simple - no action on the part of any player can in any way alter what is the best five card hand which can be made from their two hole cards and the five community cards. The hands are predestined. If my predestined hand is a full house and your predestined hand is a four of a kind, I'm in for a world of hurt, no matter what. Nothing I do, and nothing you do, can prevent my hand from being a full house, or your hand from being a four of a kind. This is absolutely not the case in 7 card stud. Since there are no community cards in 7 card stud, any player who folds their hand alters the cards which the remaining players will be dealt. The hands aren't predestined at all; they're the result of the separate free will actions of the players at the table. So an interesting side effect of playing 7 card stud is the paradoxical feeling of power you get whenever you decide to fold :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 40 hands and:
- saw fourth street 29 times (72%)
- saw fifth street 25 times (62%)
- saw sixth street 19 times (47%)
- reached showdown 11 times (27%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 11 (45%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $17,283
cash game 7 card stud balance: $28,530
balance: $10,114,264

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Lapis for neo

On September 30, 2011, I wrote a blog post entitled "No lapis for neo". Here's an excerpt:

The ratio you don't know about, which I only recently dreamed up, is what I call the lapis ratio - four times as many winning sessions as losing ones. Lapis, of course, is shorthand for lapis lazuli. I picked lapis as the name for this ratio since for me it has the aura of something extraordinary, something magical, and something mystical.

Had I won last night's session, I would have achieved lapis in deuce. Needless to say, I didn't win.


The session before last night's session, I achieved lapis in 7 card stud. Last night, I won again. In my young 7 card stud career, I've had 13 winning sessions and only 3 losing ones. The main ingredient for playing 7 card stud successfully appears to be patience, and thankfully I have a healthy supply :-)

During current Stud session you were dealt 114 hands and:
- saw fourth street 96 times (84%)
- saw fifth street 83 times (72%)
- saw sixth street 61 times (53%)
- reached showdown 29 times (25%)
 Pots won at showdown - 12 of 29 (41%)
 Pots won without showdown - 20

delta: $6,441
cash game 7 card stud balance: $11,247
balance: $10,096,981

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

My new old love

Last night, I played two different poker flavors - deuce and 7 card stud. Both were of the limit variety. The deuce table had small stakes - the blinds were only $10/$20. That was just as well, since I rediscovered the high variance in deuce. I've decided deuce just has too high a luck component for my liking. It's not as bad as Omaha, but then nothing is :-) I felt right at home playing 7 card stud. There are many crossover skills between 7 card stud and hold'em; for one thing, the values of the hands are the same. What I mean by that is that when you think you have a good hand in 7 card stud, based on your hold'em experience, you actually do have a good hand. When you think you have a good hand in Omaha, what you usually have is shit :-)

I looked it up in the archives, and it's been nearly four years since I played 7 card stud. I was actually doing pretty well, stats-wise, but essentially gave it up for hold'em. 7 card stud is my new old love! It's an older game than hold'em, and based on both my observations and gut feeling, has an even higher skill component. The higher the skill component of the game, the closer to poker nirvana I get. On the spur of the moment, I've decided to set myself a new goal: I aim for my cash game 7 card stud balance to hit the play million plateau within the next calendar year.

During current 2-7 Triple Draw session you were dealt 69 hands
 Pots won if drawing - 8 of 34 (23%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 14 (28%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-897
cash game 2-7 triple draw balance: $15,285
balance: $10,068,733

During current Stud session you were dealt 79 hands and:
- saw fourth street 64 times (81%)
- saw fifth street 46 times (58%)
- saw sixth street 32 times (40%)
- reached showdown 18 times (22%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 18 (44%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $21,807
cash game 7 card stud balance: $4,806
balance: $10,090,540

Monday, July 7, 2014

The big ten

On Friday night, I had my third best cash game session ever, just two sessions after my best cash game session ever. On the strength of it, I hit the big ten - that is, the ten million play dollar plateau. To celebrate, I'm going to play some deuce tonight. Each time I switch to deuce, I hope that PokerStars will have created higher stakes deuce tables since the last time I checked, but I'm not too hopeful. The thing is, it's a good idea to switch to other poker flavors every now and then, so that no limit hold'em will stay "forever young" for me. It's my absolute favorite poker flavor, and just the thought of not playing it for a week or two already has me feeling nostalgic for it :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 52 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 7 times while in big blind (71%)
 - 5 out of 6 times while in small blind (83%)
 - 23 out of 39 times in other positions (58%)
 - a total of 33 out of 52 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 12 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $209,008
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $7,011,927
balance: $10,069,630

Friday, July 4, 2014

Broadway bust

Broadway (an ace high straight) is a good hand to make, but you need to be careful with it. Last night, I made Broadway on the final hand of the session, but got busted with it, as I ran into a flush. I guess that qualifies as not being careful enough :-) I knew the table was playing pretty tight, so when an opponent went over the top of me on the turn, I should have folded. I just couldn't pull the trigger. That's one of the funny things about folding; it takes as much volition as any other betting action except for checking. That's why you have to pull the trigger to fold, just as you have to pull the trigger to bet, call, or raise. What this all boils down to is that there's more than one trigger to pull, and you have to pick the right one :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 85 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 13 times while in big blind (84%)
 - 5 out of 13 times while in small blind (38%)
 - 35 out of 59 times in other positions (59%)
 - a total of 51 out of 85 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 1 of 9 (11%)
 Pots won without showdown - 17

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,802,919
balance: $9,860,622

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Best cash game session ever

The title of this blog post says it all. Last night, I had my best cash game session ever. When you've played 1,199 such sessions, that's saying a lot. Here are my top 10:

$262,204  2014-07-02
$209,400  2012-06-30
$155,069  2014-02-04
$153,040  2014-06-12
$144,895  2014-04-11
$144,816  2014-02-05
$140,537  2013-03-03
$130,702  2014-05-05
$129,469  2013-10-18
$128,758  2014-04-29


The ten million play dollar plateau is so close I can taste it!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 46 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 5 times while in big blind (60%)
 - 6 out of 7 times while in small blind (85%)
 - 21 out of 34 times in other positions (61%)
 - a total of 30 out of 46 (65%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 9 (77%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $262,204
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,852,919
balance: $9,910,622

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The money play

There's a surprising truth buried deep in the heart of my poker data. I've discovered it before, but it's so counter-intuitive I'd kind of forgotten about it. That truth is simply this - going all in is the money play in poker. I've now played 49,567 hands of cash game no limit hold'em poker. Of those hands, I've gone all in on 773 of them. My aggregate delta for the 48,794 hands where I didn't go all in is $-1,002,180. My aggregate delta for the 773 hands where I did go all in is $6,857,620. The truth is plain - I don't make money on hands where I don't go all in, and I make a ton of it on hands where I do. What does this mean? Should I change my playing style? No. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. All it means is that it's a fact of poker life that on the vast majority of your hands, you're not going to make a profit. That means that on those rare, extra special hands, you need to be prepared to make a killing :-)

Last night, I went all in twice, and won both times. I've won nine of the last 10 times I've gone all in. My career all in winning percentage is a respectable 61.5.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 44 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 6 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 5 out of 6 times while in small blind (83%)
 - 12 out of 32 times in other positions (37%)
 - a total of 22 out of 44 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 4 (75%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $61,056
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,590,715
balance: $9,648,418

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

229th blue jump

Last night, I achieved bluidity again. That is, my overall balance reached a new all-time high. It was my 229th blue jump. It took me 85 sessions in the wilderness to get there, which is my fifth longest blue jump slump. I'm going to go out on a limb, and predict that it will take far fewer sessions to get to my next blue jump :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 140 hands and saw flop:
 - 18 out of 19 times while in big blind (94%)
 - 10 out of 20 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 49 out of 101 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 77 out of 140 (55%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 20 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 11

delta: $67,909
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,529,659
balance: $9,587,362