2008 Year in Review

Having already posted an analysis of last year’s resolutions (One, Two, and Three), I’ll turn now to some year-end miscellany:

Largest Pot Won

Though I played as high as 50/100 last year, my biggest win was in a recent 10/20 heads up game. It’s both the largest pot I’ve won in absolute dollars and also (I think) the largest in BB’s, nearly 1200 of them.

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.comHand History Converter

Hero (SB): $16,884.50
BB: $11,606

Pre-Flop: 6 T dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to $60, BB raises to $220, Hero raises to $588, BB raises to $1,225, Hero calls $637

Flop: ($2,450) 6 J 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $1,425, Hero raises to $3,659, BB raises to $10,381 and is All-In, Hero calls $6,722

Turn: ($23,212) T (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: ($23,212) 9 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $23,212 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed 6 T (a full house, Sixes full of Tens) and WON $23,211.50 (+$11,605.50 NET)
BB showed A A (two pair, Aces and Sixes) and LOST (-$11,606 NET)

A little epilogue here: I saw this guy sitting alone at a 50/100 table recently and took a seat. He played one hand and quit.

Largest Pot Lost

I wish I could say it was a bad beat or cold deck, but mostly it was just bad play:

Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.comHand History Converter

Hero (BB): $10,050
SB: $24,967.75

Pre-Flop: 4 A dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $124, Hero raises to $411, SB calls $287

Flop: ($822) Q 8 Q (2 Players)
Hero bets $589, SB raises to $1,670, Hero calls $1,081

Turn: ($4,162) 2 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets $2,575, Hero raises to $7,969 and is All-In, SB calls $5,394

River: ($20,100) 9 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $20,100 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed 4 A (a pair of Queens) and LOST (-$10,050 NET)
SB showed K Q (three of a kind, Queens) and WON $20,099.50 (+$10,049.50 NET)

Worst Bad Beat

As it happens, those are both from December. But I had to go all the way back to March and my days in the UB 25/50 heads up game to find the most annoying bad beat, defined as some combination of long odds and big pot:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 0: GASSITT ($4297.50) –
Seat 1: Foucault ($4500) –

PRE-FLOP:

Foucault posts small blind $25
GASSITT posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: Foucault

RAISE Foucault ($150)
CALL GASSITT ($150)

FLOP:

Pot: $350

CHECK GASSITT
BET Foucault ($200)
CALL Foucault ($200)

TURN:

Pot: $750

BET GASSITT ($525)
RAISE Foucault ($1650)
RAISE GASSITT ($3947.50)
CALL Foucault ($3947.50)

RIVER:

Pot: $10295

SHOWDOWN:
GASSITT:

MUCK Foucault

GASSITT collected $8594.5 from main pot with full house, fives full of jacks

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $8595 Rake: $.50

Final Board:

Seat 0: 5s Js 5h 5d Jd: full house, fives full of jacks. – Net Gain/Loss: ($3772)

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Largest Tournament Score

Yearly Profits Graph

Thanks to you all for following along this year, and best of luck at the tables (or wherever you ply your trade) in 2009.

Happy New Year!

6 thoughts on “2008 Year in Review”

  1. On the largest pot lost- it’s only a bad play if he has the Q…?

    He’s prob not getting 200bb’s in with 99-JJ here or Ax.

  2. Geoff,

    Thankfully that’s a function of my poor Excel skills rather than poor poker skills. I did not lose the year’s profits in a drunken stupor on New Year’s Eve as this graph suggests.

    Todd,

    Yes but against this particular player floating the flop is not good (though not awful- I was planning to fold if he bet the turn but that flush draw came….)

  3. Looks like after excluding the main event score you had a bit of an off year, at least by your expectations.

    Any idea what happened? Played fewer hours than anticipated after the main event?

  4. Andrew,

    Thanks for what you do on your blog, I really enjoy your poker analysis that goes along with your hand histories.

    Congrats again on a deep run at the WSOP!

    Good luck in 2009,

    Rick

  5. Rick,

    Thanks! And thanks for all your comments. Blogging is far more rewarding when I get to interact with regular readers.

    Anon,

    Yes and no. It’s the nature of tournament poker that even the best player will have many losses offset by occasional big wins. Thus, it’s not going to be very meaningful to look at my results minus my biggest tournament win, given that I spent nearly $120,000 on tournament entries over the course of the year. Of course I did occasionally win stuff other than the WSOP, including my WSOP seat in fact, but I’d still have a pretty pathetic ROI without it.

    On the other hand, it’s true that if you exclude tournaments altogether, my cash results also aren’t quite where I thought they’d be. That is, as you say, largely a result of not putting in the hours. Once I had damn near what I had aimed to make for the year locked up in early July, I was definitely less motivated to keep grinding for the remainder of the year.

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