First year results...

[ricdaman]

As of today, I have just completed my first year playing poker with real money. I am curious how others have compared to my first year. I don't feel I did that well, but then again, maybe anything other than a loss is good for an amatuer such as myself.

After one year, I am up $2,080. About $500 of this came from tourney play, the other $1500 from ring games.

I have played everything from .01/.02 NL to 2/4 NL and everything from .10/.25 limit to 5/10 limit. I have played tourneys from freeroll to $100+$9. Of course, when playing the high limits, I stupidly didn't have the bankroll for them, but didn't run into too bad of luck, so was able to win overall. i.e. I played 2 sessions of 5/10 limit. I won $800 in the first session, and lost $600 in the second session.

I don't have an accurate knowledge of my BB/100, but I would have to guess that I've probably played about 35,000 hands over the past year, with an average BB of $1.

I feel I should have done better, but then again this is about 6BB/100. The reason I feel I should have done better is because I am comparing myself to my brother who won just under $9000 in his first year with about twice as many hands played.

Keep in mind I started my Poker play with $50 that my brother loaned to me. I lost it. I then read a poker book, and after finishing it, bought in with $75. I turned that $75 into $2130, and after paying my brother back netted $2080.

<font color="red"> How do you compare to this for your first year? Please respond with some commentary as well as answering the poll. </font>

[ricdaman]

I incorrectly posted my BB/100 at 6... I just realized that some of that $2000 was tourney money, which isn't calculated in the 35,000 ring hands I've played. My actual BB/100 is 4, which seems to be about average. I am interested in hearing some thoughts on people's first year playing poker, good or bad.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
My actual BB/100 is 4, which seems to be about average

[/ QUOTE ]

4BB/100 over a signicant sample size is excellent play and not average by any means (you don't have quite enough hands to be accurate in your win rate, but it's not totally insignificant, Bison feel free to step in and correct me). you should really move up if you can beat your current game for 4 BB/100 over 35K hands.

[ACW]

I don't know what it is in BB/100, although I do know that I currently (16 months in) make 4BB/hr at 1/2 Limit, and around 40BB/hour at low stakes NL/PL, provided I exercise good table selection.

I started by depositing GBP50 ($80 at the time), promptly lost 80% of it, then learnt how to play and built it back.
With no rebuys, but a GBP10 bonus that came in when I was back at around GBP30, I closed the first year up around GBP650 (around $1100). After four more months, I'm up a further GBP1000 ($1800). I've not yet ventured beyond 1/2 Limit and 0.50/1.00 NL/PL much.

I've certainly been very pleasantly surprised at my success - long may it continue! It seems we've had pretty similar results all told, so I suspect our experiences are typical of the few players who actually put some effort into learning to play well.

[Cosimo]

I think 10BB/100h is so completely unrealistic for anyone playing more than 10,000 hands, and above 1c/2c. So the spread on this poll is bogus.

I'd post this poll with different groups, but I think that's vampirism, and vampires are evil, and then Jesus wouldn't love me anymore.

And I've got a Poker Diary, not a Poker Spreadsheet, so I don't have an easy way of calculating my win other than the old-fashioned way: manually entering it into a spreadsheet.

[dogmeat]

Congratulations on showing a profit!

It is very difficult to obtain a realistic BB/100 win if you have played so many limits and also NL and Limit games. If you are hitting above 10BB/100 in NL or above 4BB/100 at limit, you may be able to move up to a higher limit if you are comfortable with your bankroll.

FWIW, my overall poker tracker number is 5.5BB/100, but this includes everything from .50/$1 to $5/$10 and NL from .50 to $2 sb. The NL really throws the BB/100 number off.

Dogmeat /images/graemlins/spade.gif

[levi]

Sorry, but I can't give a first year result as yet, since I've only been playing online for 2 weeks ( 20 years otherwise ). However, I started out with a 500 deposit @ Paradise, and in 13 days it's standing at 10,000. This is without tournament play, starting at 5-10. As they say, "Past results are not indicative of future expectations". I also might have gotten just a tiny bit lucky. (once or, maybe, twice)

[AncientPC]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, but I can't give a first year result as yet, since I've only been playing online for 2 weeks ( 20 years otherwise ). However, I started out with a 500 deposit @ Paradise, and in 13 days it's standing at 10,000. This is without tournament play, starting at 5-10. As they say, "Past results are not indicative of future expectations". I also might have gotten just a tiny bit lucky. (once or, maybe, twice)

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you got very lucky playing your 50BB bankroll at 5/10. However, congratulations on not busting out.

[adamstewart]

TO THE PLAYERS WHO SELECTED ANYTHING OVER 4-5 BB/100:

You obviously didn't play enough hands in your first year.
(with the possible exceptions of "no-limit" players).

[Steve Chase]

Well, I didn't play a full year yet.
I started in July. I made a deposit of $1000 at Pokerstars and lost all of them in July and Aug.
I made another $1000 deposit in Sep, now I have $600 left.

I seldom play in ring games. Most my money are spend in tournaments. I played $215 buy in tournament at Pokerstars four times (never win anything).

I have read two poker books and played tournament almost everyday. I cashed out a little a few times. But my net total is negative so far.

I play poker for fun. Not for making money.
I heard good player can often win in ring games?
What is your pecentage of winning? Win 8 out of every 10 days?

Will good players often win in tournaments?
If so, what kind of percentage is normal?
Win 3 out of every 10 tournaments?

Sorry, I am not familiar with BB/100 stuff.

Thanks

[Reef]

I'm at about 7 months and doing about 10 cents/ hand. I play primarily at .50/1 and 1/2. I have had quite the advantage though: My best friend went pro a couple months ago and has served as a teacher. HIS teacher is the #1 player at Party (yes, really). I have also read numerous books. One thing though, is that he feels I have stunted my own growth by playing mostly at the small tables. I don't even know why I stay there, when I have had success at 2/4.

[Jim C]

[ QUOTE ]

What is your pecentage of winning? Win 8 out of every 10 days?

Will good players often win in tournaments?
If so, what kind of percentage is normal?
Win 3 out of every 10 tournaments?

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

WOW!!! You must be made of money!

Umm... okay... I have been playing serious poker for a little under a month. I used to play when i was around 20, and now I'm 31.

Went broke during the TECH crash and just starting again. Am a good backgammon player, and used to be able to make a profit playing poker when I was 20, so thought i would try again. (game was draw poker then - Came 5th in the Australian Titles back in 1993).

So.. I armed myself with a few books, and then got in a lot of practice with playmoney. After spending a few weeks reading and training, started playing freerolls. (in royal vegas poker) Won a few against a few thousand ppl, which kickstarted my bankroll. (around 500)

Cashed this out, and went to my local casino and been playing $4 - $8 holdem. Over last 4 weeks, I have built this bank into $2,400. I win 90% of my sessions and I have 8 - 12 hour sessions with only a max of 10 minute breaks.

I have ordered more books, and am focused on training hard.

My max SitnGo tourney wins with 10 ppl is 7. I generally win around 30% of the sitnGo's at the money level I play at. $5-$10.

I play around 40 hours in ring games in real casino + 10 hours online a week.

I am hoping to learn to become a solid player within a year.

[Ray Of Light]

So.. I armed myself with a few books, and then got in a lot of practice with playmoney. After spending a few weeks reading and training, started playing freerolls. (in royal vegas poker) Won a few against a few thousand ppl, which kickstarted my bankroll. (around 500)

Cashed this out, and went to my local casino and been playing $4 - $8 holdem. Over last 4 weeks, I have built this bank into $2,400. I win 90% of my sessions and I have 8 - 12 hour sessions with only a max of 10 minute breaks.

You sat down and whilst playing one table at a time, turned 500 into 2400 (237BB profit) whilst only losing 1 out of every 10 sessions?... that is one helluva hot streak /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Jim C]

Yeah... I was shocked at how bad the play is.

PPL don't even know starting requirements. NOthing about semibluffing, freecard, or other fundamental concepts.

And so loose/aggressive makes you wanna cry. Especially when the drunks arrive.

Of course you get bad beat a lot... (and I do mean a lot) but over a long session, you generally tend to get em.

I don't even cash the $400 anymore. (though I do keep it in my pocket just in case) Rare for me to break the first hundred.

The customer service at this casino truly sucks, but great action if you are a poker player.

[MrX]

I have played about 13 months and am up about 18-20k. I did bust out my first 100 I deposited and redeposited 50 bucks and played the 5-1 SNG's at party to bulid the roll to 200 when I started playing the 10-1's. Pretty soon started 3-tabling and then 4-tabling once party changed to allow 4 tables and I climbed to quad tabling the 20's and then the 30's.

Played a lot of 1-2 6m limit at party along with 2-4 limit and a brief stint at 5-10 when I was following some 2-4 "fish" who made the leap.

Played a ton of tri and quad tabling the 6max NL 100 buy in tables at Prima. They seemd super fishy for a while and I made about 3k in 1 month there, but since then the play seemed less wild.

Wish I could give you some harder data from my poker tracker but I am out of town without it. Good luck in the coming year.

MrX

[fujowpai]

I think you need to be VERY suspicious of whatever results you get. I keep very good records, and I've concluded that results consistent with what you'd expect from pure chance AND increased risk (which when you are attempting to jump levels is inevitable) can sometimes yield seemingly spectacular results. If you happen to drop down in risk level, you appear to be a winner. If you stay at an increased risk level (relative to bankroll), it is probably only a matter of time before it vanishes.

Eric

[adamstewart]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you need to be VERY suspicious of whatever results you get. I keep very good records, and I've concluded that results consistent with what you'd expect from pure chance AND increased risk (which when you are attempting to jump levels is inevitable) can sometimes yield seemingly spectacular results. If you happen to drop down in risk level, you appear to be a winner. If you stay at an increased risk level (relative to bankroll), it is probably only a matter of time before it vanishes.

Eric

[/ QUOTE ]


.... great. Now, can anyone translate this into English for me?

[chainSmoker]

i've been playing for 18 months now. i have no idea what my BB/100 hands is since i have my data spread over 4 or 5 pokerracker databases. but i have hourly rates - total, per limit, etc. i probably played more hours than a lot of players, but hey, i'm a fiend. i started in june '03 playing 3-6 live, then moved to online poker at the end of july. started at 2-4, then moved to 3-6 in Nov, 5-10 in Jan, 15-30 in March.

so my results for yr 1 (june 03 - may 04).
$40,700, 1200 hours played for about $34/hr.

broken into calendar years....
2003 (june - dec): $8200, 584 hrs, $14/hr

2004 (jan - may): $32,500 [not including rake rebate which totaled an extra $3300], 630 hrs, $52/hr.

i was fortunate enough to have several friends/coaches who have been successful live and online players for several years. at the beginning, i would call 2 or 3 of them after each session i played and discuss several key hands with them. it was very interesting and educational to hear several responses (often differing) to each question i had. one guy focused more on the math behind the decisions, another focused on the handreading and psychology, another didn't want to talk about specific hands at all but more about poker in general.

what i'm wondering is... is this a large enough sample size to make generalizations or predict future earnings? i estimate that i played 100,000 hands in jan-may 2004 and maybe 60,000 in 2003. from june '04 through today, my winrate has stayed around $50-55/hr and doesn't seem to be changing much. i do notice that playing only 15-30 now, my bankroll swings a LOT more, and i'm pretty sure it's not just because of the higher limit. i seem to require a lot more psychological bankroll than before, seeing that now, $2000 swings within a 2-3 hr session are not uncommon. i mean, before august, the worst losing streak i ever hit was like 200 BB over maybe 1 week. then in august, in 2.5 weeks (53 hrs of play), i lost $9k or 300 bb (on top of that, another $3k lost in blackjack). i used to pride myself on not tilting too much or whatever, but in august i got several noise complaints from my upstairs neighbors saying there was random shouting at a computer, throwing things, crashing at odd hours. i almost told them i have turret's so i could keep doing that stuff, but the run ended. that worst streak was followed by my best streak ever, +$12k in the next 57 hrs of play.

is this what i should expect from here on out? do these kind of swings seem normal? i thought 300 bb swings up or down in such short periods of time were extreme and not the norm, but i seriously cannot tell.

any advice/comments is much appreciated,
AK

[fujowpai]

Yes. Until you can prove otherwise, you're just lucky.

[fujowpai]

This is why you "normalize" the results into BB/100 or per hour or whatever. Otherwise, it is difficult to see the impact of changing limits.