Pokertracker is the Devil

[Voltron87]

The last couple weeks I've started taking much more care to import all my SNGs to PT and keep better records. After about 320 games I've played at a 23% ROI (yes I know 320 games is the last word in sample sizes), despite going on gorilla tilt/bad run yesterday, as bad as the good run I had from games 40-160. I'm happy with this number, and I'm happy with my hourly rate and though I could be earning more playing higher, I'm making money for the summer with low variance, my risk is not too high.

So in these roughly 20 days, I've seen a couple trends-

1) It feels good to import stats when you are running hot, and seeing PT pop out a nice high number is rewarding and makes you happy. The flip side to that is when you play 30-40 SNGs at a breakeven pace, you import them and your ROI drops. This makes you feel bad, but it shouldn't since breaking even for 40 games is nothing unusual at all. PT fucks with my zen, I used to have a losing day and say "Ok, I'll come back tomorrow and win" and now I sort of want to say "ugh, another bad day for the ROI".

2) So PT stats can be unhealthy for my SNG poker mindset. I used to just try play my best, and if I was up a couple hundred bucks, yay, and if I was down or even I would just tell myself that if you keep playing well the cash will come. Stats can get in the way of this.

3) But as distracting as they can be, it still is important to know your ROI and winrate. At the end of a couple months, you want to be able to say "yeah I'm beating this level for this much and this level for this much".


So my compromise is that I will import my stats every 200 games. 200 games is not a huge amount, but you can look at it and see "for the last week I've been winning at this rate", which is helpful, even if you can't say "I'll win at this rate forever!". What do other people think, how do you use your stats?

[Freudian]

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3) But as distracting as they can be, it still is important to know your ROI and winrate. At the end of a couple months, you want to be able to say "yeah I'm beating this level for this much and this level for this much".

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Why? Or rather what does ROI tell you that the cashier window doesn't? And what do you find out from either of them?

Personally I don't check my ROI once a week anymore. It doesn't really tell me anything. For example yesterday I felt I played as good a poker as I ever have, but I lost money at the end of the day. But I felt I constantly made good decisions. I picked off bluff steals all the time, only to be punished by the board etc. If I play as well today, I have every hope of winning back what I lost and more.

But everyone is different of course. Some feel good collecting and going through their stats in spreadsheets while for some it creates stress. Of course it is good to have some idea about how you are doing. It helps with bankroll management and feeling compfort when moving up.

[dfscott]

I tried to delay importing, but I just couldn't do it due to my accounting background. At the end of each night's session, I like to foot all my account balances to my starting + profit and I have a cow if it doesn't balance to the penny.

As a result, I suffered through a lot of what you are suffering through. One thing I've done that helps me is that I always set the date filter to be since the first of the current month. This does a couple of things:

1) A bad run can look really bad, but I know that and I've seen it bounce back enough times so it doesn't really bother me as much.

2) No matter how bad last month is, I know a fresh start is right around the corner.

If I want to see overall progress, I just look at the "year" tab on my SnG spreadsheet. It tells me all I need to know.

Edit: one thing I wish is that you could add a trendline to the total earnings plot (for some reason, Excel won't let you do this). I used to do this for my limit spreadsheet, and it helps smooth out the variance and gives you a better picture of your actual progress.

[xLukex]

Man, your email box is going to get really big.

I import them to both SNG tracker and PT.

I like both. I like stats.

[dfscott]

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Man, your email box is going to get really big.

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Why?

Edit: FWIW, I'm a stats junkie, too. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Phoenix1010]

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Man, your email box is going to get really big.

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Why?

Edit: FWIW, I'm a stats junkie, too. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Because PT deletes the Emails as it imports, and if you play a lot without importing, the Emails pile up. Certainly not a big deal, I just don't like the clutter.

-Phoenix

[1C5]

I don't look at stats anymore. Just my bankroll. Me much happier.

[GoldenHorde]

I'm a hardcore stats junkie, I used to keep track of everything on paper and was constantly figuring out my ITM, ROI, % for each place by hand while I was playing. So needless to say now that I have programs to do it for me I add after every game while im playing.