Happy Holidays

It's that time of year, and I feel that I have a lot to be thankful for. Specifically, the heater that I've been on for the past month just continued burning right on through the weekend, like so:

21-Nov	20/40 Limit	Garden City	2018
22-Nov	20/40 Limit	Garden City	1033
24-Nov	20/40 Limit	Bay 101	696

My win rate at live 20/40 has gotten above 1.5 big bets per hour, and my standard deviation is just a tad over 11 big bets per hour. Using this tool with those numbers, you can see that I have reason to be happy. Mason Malmuth's bible on gambling for a living explains that the ratio between your expectation and standard deviation is the most important number in determining how successful and stressful your career as a professional gambler will be. He sites 1:10 as excellent. Mine is 1:7.3, which is clearly fantastic. If these numbers are accurate (and there is a chance they are not), then I have almost nothing to worry about :)

Now, on to the poker. As you can see above I continued to devastate the Garden City 20/40 game on Friday and Saturday. Over the course of those two days I ran hotter than the sun. In my very first hand Saturday I posted in and made a one card king high flush. On my 3rd hand I was dealt pocket jacks, bet them all the way down, and won the pot. In 3 hands and 5 minutes I was up over 15 big bets. I could simply do nothing wrong. Later in my session, just to illustrate the point further, the following happens:

A fellow two plus two-er (bakku) is waiting around to get into the game. I need to run to the bathroom, as I drank a round of beers with Stockton Thunder (who coincidentally asked me to go to Vegas with him "you know, just for a night or so, play a little, kick the tourists asses,"), so I decide to take advantage of the new Garden City rule that someone can play up to a whole round in your seat. I ask bakku to play my next hand and head off...when I return, the cards have just been dealt (I barely missed it, but wouldn't have gotten a hand) and get to sweat bakku. He beholds the monstrous pocket 3s and open-raises from a "few" spots off the button (perhaps only 2, but I think 3). This is a close play, and my default is to fold. The situation is then complicated by a 3-bet from the incredibly nitty button. One of the blinds joins the party and bakku flops just well enough to ensure he's gonna have to put more money into the pot: 652. He calls a bet, and all the while I'm standing behind him (at some point I finished my Guinness). The turn brings him no help, but the blind donks all in. In theory he probably has 6 outs (2 to make his set, and 4 more to the straight) so he can call profitably if the button isn't planning to raise. He hollywoods a bit, tries to get a tell, and eventually just calls. On the river.....4. bakku bets, the button calls, and he drags a pretty big pot. I cheer whole-heartedly and retake my seat to set about stacking the spoils.

Later on in the evening I open-raise the button with King-Five offsuit. I of course flop a king and bet all 3 streets. The same woman from the hand with bakku calls me all the way down and on the river asks "Ok, what is it?" and I respond "I've got a king". She says "What's your kicker?" and I respond "Oh that can't be good" and roll my pair, no kicker. She laughs out loud before mucking her hand (which I can only assume was like 2nd pair or something). I probably won't hear the end of that one for a while. Good players open-raise lots of stuff on the button, and the bad players in the game don't really know that. They seem to think that it's rude or impolite to raise on the button like that, when in fact it's just part of the game. Anyway, I was hearing about that raise for the rest of the night.

In closing, this poker thing is awesome.