Tough centuries

A century (100 hands) is the yardstick of a successful tournament. It's practically impossible to play that many hands and not do well. In 81 MTT 8-games, I've had 25 centuries; in those 25, I made the money 24 times. In 31 MTT NLHEs, I've had exactly 0 centuries. It's pretty clear that MTT NLHE centuries are really tough to get. Last night, I came the closest I ever have yet to getting one. Not surprisingly, given the number of hands I played, I made the money.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   NLHE      900   100       6    94   111     2480

delta: $1,480
MTT NLHE balance: $-29,040
balance: $7,420,004

Fish and chips

I've now played 9 no limit hold'em MTTs with fields of 900 players or more, and have made the money in 4 of those, including last night's. I've played 16 no limit hold'em MTTs with fields of less than 900 players, and have made the money in only 4 of those. Although the sample size is too small to draw any conclusions, my gut feeling is that the more players that enter an MTT, the better are my chances of making the money. Thinking about why this should be, I think the answer is that the more players that enter, the greater the odds that I'll encounter fish along the way. You need to encounter fish in order to do well. That's the dirty little secret of poker, which I've mentioned before. Fish, and chips, are the lifeblood of poker :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   NLHE      900   100       6    69   163     2010

delta: $1,010
MTT NLHE balance: $-30,520
balance: $7,418,524

A consolation stat

I have a bunch of poker stats which can tell me how good I was. I've just invented one which can tell me how good I almost was :-) I call it the missed the money percentile. It tells you where you stood in the ranks of also-rans in an MTT. I played two huge field MTTs last night. I didn't make the money in either one, but came very close. In the first one, I fell into the 95th missed the money percentile; that is, I placed higher than 95% of the other players who missed the money. In the second one, I fell into the 98th missed the money percentile.

It may sound strange, but I don't really care if my overall balance ever hits a new high again. I'm having too much fun playing MTTs to even think about that :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   NLHE      900   100       9    45   316        0
MTT   NLHE      900   100       9    48   291        0

delta: $-2,000
MTT NLHE balance: $-31,530
balance: $7,417,514

El folderissimo

Many a time, I've imparted my words of poker wisdom via this blog. This post will be no different. I used to announce, periodically and in a grandiose manner, the secret to success at poker. The secret chafed under this behavior, and promptly changed itself :-) I'll try to dial back on what I'm claiming this time around. What I'm about to impart to you is a special case; rather than being the secret to success at poker in general, this is the secret to success at huge field MTTs. Though it's easy to state, it's considerably harder to obey.

Fold, fold, and fold again. After that, just for spite, fold some more. The majority of poker players can't follow this simple advice for the life of them. I can't quite follow it myself :-) Of course, if you folded every single hand, you couldn't win, so I'm exaggerating here - but only by a tiny bit.

Of the 771 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em I've played for which I have the complete hand histories, my lowest seeing the flop percentage is 22.22 (2 for 9). Last night, in the second huge field MTT I entered, my seeing the flop percentage was just a squeak higher - 22.78 (18 for 79). I made the money. At 1,208 players, it was the most massive field I've played in yet; I'm hoping for an even bigger one tonight.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    22    52        0
MTT   NLHE      900   100       6    14   566        0
MTT   NLHE      900   100       9    79   141     2554

delta: $-4,446
MTT NLHE balance: $-29,530
balance: $7,419,514

Above the crowd

I have a real fascination with huge field MTTs. Without exception, the largest ones are no limit hold'em. Only a super popular poker flavor could attract such huge numbers of players. At first I thought a field of over 200 was big, but that's puppy food :-) The largest field of any MTT I've played was a whopping 1,200 players. I actually made the money in that one, coming in 79th.

If I get knocked out of an MTT before the late registration period has ended, which is rare, I consider that MTT as unavailable for any statistic involving field size. One such statistic which I've started to keep my eye on is percentile. In the 1,200 player tournament mentioned above, I fell into the 93rd percentile; that is, I outperformed 93 percent of my opponents. Defining a huge field as 750 players or more, that was my highest huge field MTT percentile until last night. In my final MTT, I came in 51st out of 891 players, which falls in the 94th percentile.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    27    42        0
MTT   NLHE      900   100       9     2   796        0
MTT   NLHE     4500   500       6    11    83        0
MTT   NLHE      900   100       9    68    51     3688

delta: $-8,312
MTT NLHE balance: $-30,084
balance: $7,423,960

Another stop-time failure

Last night, I played my first MTTs in over two weeks. I find I really enjoy them. They're a mellower tournament experience than sit and gos, since the buy ins are generally much lower. I love the feeling of outlasting so many other players (which doesn't always happen, of course). Unfortunately, I had another stop-time failure in the second MTT I played. As a refresher, stop-time in poker is when a tournament reaches the money bubble. In this case, 42 players would be paid, and there were 43 players left. I was one of the two shortest stacks. I'd already been folding with regularity for some time when my final hand came up. I'd been dealt A8o (ace eight offsuit), and figured it was good enough to shove with. Unfortunately, my one caller had been dealt a big slick, and it held up. If I'd simply folded, I might have been able to make the money. My problem was that I was sick of folding :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    72    31        0
MTT   NLHE     4500   500       6    53    43        0

delta: $-10,000
MTT NLHE balance: $-26,772
balance: $7,432,272

A million dollar mistake

One major difference between cash games and tournaments is that in tournaments, there's no visible relationship between chips and money. Tournaments with vastly different buy ins can, and often do, have the same number of starting chips. This difference means it's possible to make a huge mistake when selecting a tournament, and not realize it until it's much too late. That happened to me on February 13th, 2014, when I mistakenly registered for a tournament with a buy in of $450,000, thinking I was registering for one with a $45,000 buy in. As a matter of fact, I made that mistake twice in a row before discovering my error. Very luckily for me, I made the money in both tournaments. Last night, I wasn't so lucky. Through some strange fluke, thinking I was registering for a tournament with a $22,500 buy in, I actually registered for one with a $900,000 buy in, plus a $100,000 entry fee. I came in fourth, and just like that, my bankroll had shed a million play dollars. That dwarfs the most money I'd previously lost playing a single sit and go, which was a mere $201,500. Last night's $1,030,500 loss is also a career worst, topping the $1,024,500 I lost on July 21st, 2012. All I can say is "Ouch" :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE    22500   2500       6    52     2    47250
SNG   NLHE    45000   5000       6    23     5        0
SNG   NLHE    22500   2500       6    29     5        0
SNG   NLHE   900000 100000       6    29     4        0
SNG   NLHE    22500   2500       6   103     2    47250

delta: $-1,030,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $223,200
balance: $7,442,272

Bad turn betting

I've talked before about bad river betting, and about good turn betting; however, I haven't talked very much about bad turn betting. I'd remedy that in this post, since I made a really bad turn bet in the second sit and go I played last night. While the vast majority of bad river bets are too large, it seems clear that the majority of bad turn bets are too small. If you believe you have the best hand at the moment, but the turn card puts some kind of draw out there, you must protect your hand by making a big enough bet to price out an opponent who's on a draw. I didn't do that, and paid the price. I flopped a set of fours, but the turn card put two spades out there. I needed to protect my set by overbetting the pot, but I didn't. A third spade on the river sealed my doom. I compounded my error by making a bad river call. I would have been much better served getting those chips in on the street before. Live and learn! On the positive side, I came out with a profit on the night.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 22500  2500       6    20     4        0
 22500  2500       6     3     6        0
 22500  2500       6    69     1    87750
 22500  2500       6    73     1    87750
 22500  2500       6    16     4        0

delta: $50,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,253,700
balance: $8,472,772

Doppelsession

Last night's session was a doppelsession; the results were almost identical to those of the night before. In terms of money places, the results were identical - no firsts, and one second, in six sit and gos played. If I keep duplicating this dubious "feat", my bankroll will hit 0 in 82 more sessions :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    47     4        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    59     2    47250
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    30     6        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    32     5        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    52     3        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    47     3        0

delta: $-102,750
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,203,200
balance: $8,422,272

$48,285,080

The title of this post is the amount of play money I've wagered so far in my career on sit and go tournaments. That includes the $150,000 I wagered last night, trying a buy in level I'd tried only once before, the $22,500 buy in level. Thinking over all the poker styles and flavors, I have to say that sit and go no limit hold'em is my favorite combination. It gives me the best admixture of challenge, excitement, and enjoyment. Accordingly, that's the combination I'll play for the foreseeable future, my stack and its golden ratios and blue distances be damned.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    66     2    47250
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    33     5        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    36     5        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    42     3        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6     7     5        0
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    64     4        0

delta: $-102,750
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,305,950
balance: $8,525,022

No safe harbor

This year, I've been in poker freefall. There's no safe harbor for me right now. No poker flavor I try has been able to turn around my fortunes. I need to batten down the hatches and ride out this horrible slump somehow. How's that for a collection of mixed metaphors? :-)

Let me try to quantify just how bad this year has been. I never had a loss in any year prior to this one, and right now I'm at a loss of $994,558 for 2015. There's not much chance I can end this year in the black, but I'll do my level best. My overall blue distance is now at an all-time high of $1,877,607. It feels inevitable that it'll hit $2,000,000 before it turns around. My cash game no limit hold'em blue distance is now at an all-time high of $966,852. It feels inevitable that it'll hit $1,000,000 before it turns around. Here's the breakdown by style and flavor of how I've fared this year:

    sum  count          avg    style       flavor
=======  =====  ===========  =========   ================
 132300    184     719.0217  Sit & Go    No Limit Hold'em
  38020     60     633.6667  MTT         8-Game
   2600      1    2600.0000  Sit & Go    HORSE
 -13372     18    -742.8889  MTT         No Limit Hold'em
 -64160     25   -2566.4000  MTT         HORSE
-536690     35  -15334.0000  Sit & Go    8-Game
-553256     37  -14952.8649  Cash game   No Limit Hold'em

I can't seem to stick to any resolution I make. Maybe I should stop making them :-) Looking at the style and flavor numbers, sit and go no limit hold'em is looking mighty tempting right about now. It's one of the few bright spots of the year.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 47 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 8 times while in big blind (62%)
 - 3 out of 7 times while in small blind (42%)
 - 18 out of 32 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 26 out of 47 (55%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 7 (42%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,627,772

Double blunder

In chess, a double blunder is when one player makes a blunder, and his opponent doesn't notice it, which is the second blunder. It's a bit different in poker, since not all blunders are irretrievable. As long as it's not the final betting round, blunders can be reversed by the next card which peels off the deck, giving other players the chance to blunder in their turn. Last night, there was a double blunder on hand 12. One of my opponents blundered on the turn, and I blundered on the river. I'd been dealt Tc Kc, and my opponent had been dealt 6c 9s. The flop came Ts 5h 6d, and the turn was Ks. I knew my hand, a two pair of kings and tens, was very strong; accordingly, I made a big bet of half the pot. My opponent, who only had a pair of sixes, called. I consider this a blunder on his part. In order to justify his call, his pair of sixes would have to win about a quarter of the time. I think that's asking just a little bit too much of middle pair. My blunder was much worse. The river was 6s, giving my opponent trips. I shouldn't have bet a single penny on the river, since the board had paired; instead, I bet half the pot again. I ended up losing $28,195 on the hand, and never recovered. I ran the numbers and it turns out my opponent hit a two outer on the river; I'd been a 95.45% favorite after the turn. It's no use crying over spilt chips, however :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 144 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 17 times while in big blind (64%)
 - 9 out of 18 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 51 out of 109 times in other positions (46%)
 - a total of 71 out of 144 (49%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 16 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $-44,647
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,727,772

The best of a bad thing

It's bad to have a 100% underwater session. It's even worse to have a long 100% underwater session, since the odds are you will end up having lost more money than you would have had the session been shorter. My yardstick for a long session is 100 hands or more. Last night, I made the best of a bad thing. I had my 34th 100% underwater session of 100 hands or more, but only lost $15,465. That clocked in as my sixth smallest loss of those sessions.

Along the way, the poker gods redressed a wrong I'd suffered recently, namely the time I lost $20,750 when my king high flush lost to an ace high flush. The tables were turned, as this time I had the ace high flush to my opponent's king high flush, and won a pot worth $76,111, $42,620 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money).

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 101 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 13 times while in big blind (46%)
 - 5 out of 13 times while in small blind (38%)
 - 25 out of 75 times in other positions (33%)
 - a total of 36 out of 101 (35%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 12 (33%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-15,465
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,772,419

Another top 5

I looked long and hard at last night's session to see if anything stood out, in relation to other cash game no limit hold'em sessions. The bar chart of my stack size over the course of the session suggested several possibilities, but none of them panned out. Finally, by some fluke, I thought to look at a stat I came up with a long time ago but hadn't looked at recently, namely zero bet percentage. As a refresher, this is the percentage of the hands where it's possible to bet no money that you actually bet no money. Of course, hands where you're in the small blind or big blind don't count. I decided to restrict my search to sessions of 100 hands or more. Bingo! Another top 5. Here are my top 10 zero bet percentages:

0.675676 (50  74) 2014/0410
0.617284 (50  81) 2015/0710
0.595506 (53  89) 2015/0624
0.587500 (47  80) 2013/0428
0.583333 (49  84) 2015/0817
0.573333 (43  75) 2013/0103
0.556701 (54  97) 2015/0815
0.529412 (54 102) 2015/0707
0.528846 (55 104) 2015/0415
0.528302 (56 106) 2015/0428

As I'm rediscovering, there are many benefits to folding early and often :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 121 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 17 times while in big blind (58%)
 - 11 out of 18 times while in small blind (61%)
 - 34 out of 86 times in other positions (39%)
 - a total of 55 out of 121 (45%)
 Pots won at showdown - 11 of 18 (61%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $11,603
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,787,884

Top flight session

Last night, for a change, I had a good cash game session. It was so good, in fact, that it inspired me to come up with a name for how good it was. I'm calling it a top flight session. A top flight session has three defining characteristics:

1. you win the first hand
2. your balance is never underwater (actually, this characteristic implies the first one, but I wanted to list the first one separately anyway)
3. when you end the session, your stack is at its peak

Let me check the archives, to see how many top flight cash game sessions I've had in my career. Drumroll, please ...

Of the 767 cash game no limit hold'em sessions for which I have the hand histories, 18 have been top flight ones. Last night's was my first of 2015.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 44 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 8 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 3 out of 8 times while in small blind (37%)
 - 14 out of 28 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 21 out of 44 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 5 (80%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $50,976
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,776,281

Third worst rockets ever

Rockets are a volatile hand. You're most likely to win with them, and even win big, but in the event you lose, you're quite likely to lose big. That's what happened to me last night, on hand 53. I was dealt Ah As, and the flop came 3s 2d Ts. When the ace of clubs showed up on the turn, my eyes got as big as saucers and I failed to note that it put a straight draw on the board in addition to giving me a set. An opponent I had covered went all in, and I foolishly called. I lost $41,957 on the hand, which is my third worst rockets hand ever. After that, it was a long, slow grind back to semi-respectability.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 131 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 15 times while in big blind (60%)
 - 9 out of 19 times while in small blind (47%)
 - 42 out of 97 times in other positions (43%)
 - a total of 60 out of 131 (45%)
 Pots won at showdown - 11 of 15 (73%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-16,067
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,725,305

The cruelest uberflush

Uberflushes are to be expected in Omaha; that's one of the many reasons I don't play Omaha :-) In hold'em, however, uberflushes are much less likely, and consequently inflict much more anguish when they occur. The cruelest uberflush is when you've made a king high flush with king x suited, and end up losing to the ace high uberflush. That's what happened to me on hand 127 last night. Only the fact that I had the winner covered at the start of the hand saved me from hitting the felt. As it was, I hit the felt twice on the night. If I'd won the uberflush hand, my loss on the night would have been just over half what it actually was. My blue distance has now reached a new personal best (i.e., worst) of $1,764,007. In the immortal words of Cedric Maxwell, I'm going to "stop the bitch" before it reaches $2,000,000.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 167 hands and saw flop:
 - 20 out of 24 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 12 out of 26 times while in small blind (46%)
 - 54 out of 117 times in other positions (46%)
 - a total of 86 out of 167 (51%)
 Pots won at showdown - 12 of 26 (46%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,741,372

Heartbeat hands

For your stack to maintain its current size, let alone grow, there must be regular infusions of large numbers of chips. I call these heartbeat hands. A heartbeat hand should have a delta at least as large as your initial stake. For instance, a heartbeat hand when the initial stake is $50,000 should have a delta of at least $50,000. Last night, I finally had another heartbeat hand, after 703 hands in the wilderness. On hand 54, I won a pot worth $97,316, good for a hand delta of $51,783. I did some research and discovered that my longest sojourn between heartbeat hands was a whopping 4,043 hands, back in July and August of 2013.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 97 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 14 times while in big blind (78%)
 - 6 out of 15 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 20 out of 68 times in other positions (29%)
 - a total of 37 out of 97 (38%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 8 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $45,199
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,258,675
balance: $8,841,372

T'otherest hands

One of my very favorite novels is Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend". I realized when rereading it some years ago that it's at least two, and probably even three or four, novels, all in one. It just doesn't seem possible that so many highly realized characters could inhabit the same book.

One of the villainous characters refers to one of the other characters as "t'otherest". This is his vernacular to indicate a second remove of familiarity. The speaker knows who one person is well, marginally knows who a second person ("t'other"), who is associated with the first person, is, and has no earthly idea who a third person ("t'otherest"), who is associated with the second person, could be.

In poker, beware t'otherest hands! Alas, this is a warning which is destined not to be heeded, by definition. A t'otherest hand is a hand you haven't even imagined is possible, so of course it's not possible to be wary of it.

On Monday night, I hit the felt three times. The second time hurt the most. I was up against a t'otherest hand. I'd been dealt 6c 8c. The flop came 6d Jc 6h. The turn was 8s, giving me a full house, and the river was 7s. I went all in on the river, and lost to an opponent who'd been dealt a pair of jacks. Hitting the flop as hard as I did, and then turning a full house, I just couldn't imagine a hand which could beat me. I stopped thinking, which is always a bad thing.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 128 hands and saw flop:
 - 14 out of 18 times while in big blind (77%)
 - 11 out of 20 times while in small blind (55%)
 - 38 out of 90 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 63 out of 128 (49%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 16 (37%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-150,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,213,476
balance: $8,796,173

The poker nomad decides to move on (again)

Even though I have a lot of fun playing them, I've decided to stop playing sit and gos for now, and return to cash games. As I've said before, the easiest person to kid is yourself, and I was kidding myself that I could be content with my bankroll diminishing, or even with it being stagnant. For my own sense of poker self-worth, I need to see my bankroll always on the rise, over the long haul. For me, the only way to achieve that is through cash games. Here are the numbers, which (as you know) don't lie:

    sum        count     average      style
$7,538,793     1,345   $5,605.05    Cash game
$1,239,250       842   $1,471.79    Sit and Go
   $79,388       124     $640.23    MTT

On average, I make nearly 4 times as much money playing a session of cash as I do when I play a sit and go, and nearly 9 times as much money playing a session of cash as I do when I play an MTT. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - cash is king!

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    41     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6     1     6        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    47     3        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    68     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    66     3        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6   101     1    35100

delta: $-6,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,408,700
balance: $8,946,173

A dearth of firsts

Last night, I played five more sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments, and again came in second in three of them. I've now failed to win the last eight tournaments where I got to heads up play. Should I be worried? On the one hand, it's an excellent result to have finished in second place in seven of the last eleven tournaments I've played. On the other, eight straight heads up failures isn't particularly encouraging :-) On the whole, I don't think I should be worried. The firsts will eventually return, and in the meantime, it can't be bad to be racking up seconds at my current clip.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    13     6        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    24     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    61     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    80     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    87     2    18900

delta: $6,700
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,414,700
balance: $8,952,173

Three deuces

Last night, I couldn't bring myself to play another sit and go 8-game tournament, given my poor recent record. I hedged for two tournaments, trying out MTTs again, but failed rather convincingly in both of them. Then, like a swallow, I returned to the Capistrano of sit and go no limit hold'em. No matter what I say, this is the style and flavor of poker which feels most like home to me. I try to swear off it, but it has an irresistible appeal. To put it bluntly, there are just too many players out there who overvalue their no limit hold'em skill not to go seek them out :-) In five sit and gos, although I didn't score any firsts, I managed to come in second three times. Three deuces out of five chances isn't too shabby :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   HORSE    4500   500       8     8    58        0
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    24    67        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    19     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    50     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    43     3        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    66     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    90     2    18900

delta: $-3,300
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,408,000
balance: $8,945,473

Saved by razz

Two sessions after my razz nightmare, I was saved by razz. I mean that ironically, since it was the only poker flavor I had a positive aggregate in last night. One flavor's positive could never outweigh negatives in the other seven. Here was my tale of woe:

      -350          0       -350      5 Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball Limit
      -275          0       -275      7 Hold'em Limit
      -400        175       -575      4 Omaha Hi/Lo Limit
       189        456       -267     11 Razz Limit
       -15        180       -195      7 7 Card Stud Limit
      -150          0       -150      7 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit
      -499          0       -499      5 Hold'em No Limit
         0          0          0      0 Omaha Pot Limit

I didn't last long enough to play any Omaha Pot Limit; if I had, I'm sure my aggregate would have been negative in that flavor, too :-) As a poker player, you just have to accept that there'll be nights like this occasionally.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

  9000  1000       6    46     5        0

delta: $-10,000
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $85,100
balance: $8,948,773

Polar hands

Including last night, I've now played 2,312 hands of sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy-in poker. In the one tournament I played last night, my largest positive hand delta tied for fifth highest of those 2,312 hands, and my largest negative hand delta came in at 2,290th highest. That's what you call polar hands :-)

On hand 47, playing no limit hold'em, I had a delta of $1,310 when my ace high flush beat a queen high flush. Just 14 hands later, playing deuce, I had a delta of $-1,500 when my 8 6 low lost to a 7 6 low.

I've bubbled two of the last three tournaments I've played, so I'm knocking on the door. Somebody please let me in :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    68     3        0

delta: $-10,000
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $95,100
balance: $8,958,773

Razz nightmare

I really like razz. Except, of course, for the times when I really hate it :-) Last night, I really hated it. I couldn't buy a good razz hand in the first sit and go I played. Here are the flavor aggregates:

       825       1500       -675     10 Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball Limit
      -140       1050      -1190     20 Hold'em Limit
      -975       2000      -2975     14 Omaha Hi/Lo Limit
     -1227        275      -1502     25 Razz Limit
      -105          0       -105      8 7 Card Stud Limit
       142        197        -55      7 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit
        50        170       -120      9 Hold'em No Limit
       -70          0        -70      8 Omaha Pot Limit

I felt like the poker gods were messing with my head. The one bright spot of the tournament was that it lasted longer than a century, which is always a nice achievement.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   101     3        0
SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    84     4        0

delta: $-20,000
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $105,100
balance: $8,968,773

Getting to heads up broke

Counting last night, I've now played 64 sit and go 8-game tournaments. Of those, I've had 28 money finishes. Of those 28, I've only gotten to heads up play with less chips than I had at that point in last night's first tournament twice. I only had 1,683 chips, so I was facing an opponent with 7,317 chips. Not surprisingly, I didn't win.

Getting to heads up broke is good news and bad news. The good news is that you made the money. The bad news is that you'll probably end up in second place in short order.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   114     2    18900
SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    41     6        0

delta: $-1,100
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $125,100
balance: $8,988,773

Tough crowd

Every now and then, you run into a really tough crowd in a sit and go. Generally speaking, you can expect to find at least a couple of weak players at the table. When you don't, however, you may be forced to concede that you're the weakest player there. That's hard to accept, especially when you've been running roughshod over people; however, you have to accept it when it's the truth.

Last night, I was one of the weakest players at the table. I was never above water. The silver lining to finishing out of the money was that I played the most hands I've ever played when my underwater percentage was a perfect 100 - a full 73. The next most hands I've played in such a tournament was 56. On the whole, I'd have to say I played pretty well :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    73     5        0

delta: $-10,000
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $126,200
balance: $8,989,873

Fishing for five bites

As I sit here typing these words, I'm waiting for a sit and go 8-game table to fill up. So far, there's only one player sitting at it - namely, me. This turns out to be the norm. I can't remember the last time I wasn't the first player sitting at such a table. You could say I'm a fisherman of sorts; however, instead of waiting for a nibble, I'm actually waiting for five bites :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   111     1    35100

delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $136,200
balance: $8,999,873

Poker slalom

Although I was never that good a skier, and haven't skied in over a quarter of a century, I have a pretty good idea of how great it must feel to be a great skier. Great skiers prepare for the next gate roughly half the distance between gates ahead of time. They know what's coming, and prepare for it early, so they can parlay that into preparing early for the next thing after that. A successful slalom run has them one step ahead of the mountain the whole way down the mountain - what a rush!

In online poker, the equivalent of preparing early for the coming thing is hovering your cursor over the button you think you're most likely to need to click next. Sometimes you don't even think - you just know. As you move your cursor alternatively to the left and right, and continually end up clicking exactly where you thought you were going to click, you begin to feel the way a champion skier feels. In a word, invincible :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   180     1    35100

delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game $9,000 buy in balance: $111,100
balance: $8,974,773