What's a good winrate?

[Basil]

I've read about 3BB/100 being good.
Is that equal to being $3 plus in a 1/2 game after 100 hands or 10 orbits?

[playersare]

[ QUOTE ]
I've read about 3BB/100 being good.
Is that equal to being $3 plus in a 1/2 game after 100 hands or 10 orbits?

[/ QUOTE ]
no, 3BB/100 is $6 at $1/2 limits, not $3. and yes, 3BB is pretty good for limit hold em at that level, though higher is possible too.

[Basil]

I thought 3BB = 3 big blinds and thus being $3 since the big blind is $1 in a $1/2? Is that not correct?

[playersare]

a BB (capital letters) stands for Big Bets. in limit hold em that would be the mimimum amount to come in on 4th and 5th streets. so 3BB's at $1/2 LHE = $6.

a bb (lower case) stands for big blinds. in no-limit and pot-limit games, 3bb at $1/2 still = $6.

however, 3BB's is a lot better than 3bb's. i'd say your long term win rate at NL should be at least twice as many bb's as BB's for the equivalent LHE rate.

[jb9]

BB = big bets (i.e., the turn and river bets) when talking about limit wins and losses.

It means 'big blind' when talking about position at the table.

[haarley]

It's 3 big bets not big blinds thus 3bb/100 at 1/2 would be 6

[Pov]

[ QUOTE ]
I've read about 3BB/100 being good.
Is that equal to being $3 plus in a 1/2 game after 100 hands or 10 orbits?

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like others have addressed your BB vs. bb question. The /100 means 100 hands. Orbits are different because there might not always be 10 players playing so it will usually be more than 10 orbits. If the table is 9max, 6max or just not full it will be significantly more than 10 orbits.

3BB/100 is quite good and generally only sustainable at pretty low limits. If you're at 3BB/100 after 30,000 or 40,000 hands I would almost certainly look into sliding up to the next level.

[Basil]

I've played roughly 700 hands per day for 30 days straight. Lets say 20.000 hands.
I started at $2 and now have $50. Been playing .05/.10 all this time.

I still belive it's more luck than anything though as I'm new to poker. I'm reading a lot between games and I think I improve every day by reading SSHE and this board.

Maybe I should try .10/.20 /images/graemlins/smile.gif

But it's not about the money, I want to master the game, so playing at a really low level is easier since I'm not afraid of losing money.

Thanks for clearing up bb and BB for me.

[Pov]

[ QUOTE ]
I've played roughly 700 hands per day for 30 days straight. Lets say 20.000 hands.
I started at $2 and now have $50. Been playing .05/.10 all this time.

I still belive it's more luck than anything though as I'm new to poker. I'm reading a lot between games and I think I improve every day by reading SSHE and this board.

Maybe I should try .10/.20 /images/graemlins/smile.gif

But it's not about the money, I want to master the game, so playing at a really low level is easier since I'm not afraid of losing money.


[/ QUOTE ]

I would go ahead and start sprinkling in the .10/.20 game if I were you. Don't move to it exclusively just yet, just try it out. I'm not sure at those levels if the game will necessarily really get all that much *harder*, but it will start to change. I don't find much difference in the amount of effort it takes me to beat 1/2 over .5/1 for instance, but the games frequently play a lot differently. It takes some time to adjust to the optimal strategies for this new set of opponents. Give yourself a chance to ease into it.

If it turns out you're still doing well at .10/.20 you'll be glad you moved up earlier rather than later since you'll likely almost double your profit as I doubt your winrate will drop that much. At this point you may be learning fast enough it won't go down at all. If you do experience a bad run of luck or have trouble adjusting, just drop back down to .05/.10 and build back up for a bit.

Never get too comfortable, never go broke - that way you don't bust, but you don't stagnate from playing it too safe either. I think you have to continue to challenge yourself if your goal is improvement. Some risk is a good thing.

[AASooted]

[ QUOTE ]
I've played roughly 700 hands per day for 30 days straight. Lets say 20.000 hands.
I started at $2 and now have $50. Been playing .05/.10 all this time.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you've made 480 BB in 20,000 hands (assuming that's all poker winnings without bonuses mixed in). That's about 2.4BB/100. That's not bad, but I would think there's more to be made there. I never played at that level, so I don't know for sure what an expert player can expect to make there. People talk about 3BB/100 or more at $.50/1.

[ QUOTE ]
I still belive it's more luck than anything though as I'm new to poker. I'm reading a lot between games and I think I improve every day by reading SSHE and this board.

Maybe I should try .10/.20 /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd suggest moving up and continuing to study. If you run into problems at $.10/.20, you can always move back down.

[Basil]

I've found that the players at .05/.10 play better than the ones at .25/.50 or even .50/1 games.
I think this might be because the players that deposit $100 and play wild thinking the will get "lucky" dont bother with the nano limits.
The ones at the nano limits are there to learn, not to make money. Which means they all read books and play somewhat correct.

[aargh57]

I disagree. If you look at sites that have nano limits and show % of players seeing the flop it progressively gets higher the lower the levels. While it's true some people that are in the nano's are there to learn I think the vast majority are just there to have fun. While this can probably be said of the .5/1 tables the players there usually have some type of starting standards and there are more good players the higher up you go (at least tight players, there are still tons of bad ones).

Also, if you're not already doing it,

BONUS WHORE!!!

[Basil]

I need to check bonus whoring out.
But isnt it a lot of depositing and withdrawing back and forth? Not sure I'm up for that, I want to play and learn poker :P

[aargh57]

It is a lot of depositing and withdrawing depending on how much you play. However, once you have a neteller account set up it's not that hard. When you clear the bonus keep playing until you're done for the night then withdraw it back to neteller. It should be available to deposit the next day to the next one so you shouldn't lose much play time.

I am not sure bonus whoring at the nano limits will be worth while. It will take ages to clear a bonus and With your current bankroll you wont get full value for your deposits.

Having said that bonus whoring is what has allowed me to build a roll from $300 to $3000 while learning how to play the game and currently being only a little better than a break even player. 50,000 in total hands at 0.5/1 and 1/2. 0.5/100 BB win rate. When I am winning it increases my winrate and if I am losing it is effectively subsidising my losses whilst I learn how to play poker.

when you do consider bonus whoring I would look on the bonus whores website at the 'whoring 101' sticky. I am sure there is a link through from 2+2

[aargh57]

Here's a good post about building your bankroll up with as little as $50 playing very low limits:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=micro&Number=1991448&fpart =&PHPSESSID=

It has you playing the nanos at Pokerstarts until you have $200 then going on to Paradise (although he uses the GRANNY bonus which isn't around anymore so you have to use the pokernews bonus (see p.13 of the thread)).
It stresses building up your initial roll through winnings first and also stresses bankroll management. It also links to Homer's post about building a bankroll for newbies and bounuswhores101 guide.

[theben]

plus 6$. yes, 3BB/100 in limit is good, esp. if you multitable