Honesty on this site..

[ThrillFactor]

What happened to me? Well, to sum up a very long story, I discovered that playing for a living completely took the fun out of the game for me. By the end of February, it took all the willpower I could muster just to make myself sit down at the computer. In March I accepted a job managing a new nightclub at about 85% of my prior pay working about 60% of the hours. I am now back to playing for fun and to suppliment my income. That and the big news... I am enrolled in school for the summer semester - time to finish my MBA!

I stopped the updates very early on b/c there seemed to be no real interest from the forum. Most had already made up their minds that it couldn't be done, it's not like it was all that original of a topic (GO David!!!, btw, great job man - still read everything that you post), and I'm not that great a writer in the first place. So be it, no big deal. What playing for those two months did do for me was give me plenty of free time to sit back, evaluate the big picture, decide what was really important to me in life, and set a course to reach my goals. I (1) found myself steady employment and a reliable source of income, (2) got myself back into grad school, (3) organized my personal finances and outlined a plan to be debt free by the end of the year, (4) and perhaps most importantly, made a committment to my on-again, off-again grlfriend of the last six years - she stood by me 100% through this endeavour and I always had her support in whatever made me happy. "Playing online micro-limits for a living" turned out quite differently than I expected, but I must say that in hind-sight, it's probably the smartest move I've made in quite some time.

Now, on to the other issue. I am sick and tired of sooooo many posters here being sooooo quick to tell everyone what can and can't be done. Much of these BB/hr stats have to come from years of B&M experience, and in that context I'm sure they are accurate. But online is simply different. It's another world, plain and simple. My pokertracker starts for Jan-Feb 2004 at Party/Empire .5/1.00:

Sessions - 1188
Hands - 32686
$ Won - $2891.35
BB/hr - 4.64
BB/100 - 8.85
VP$IP - 21.95%

True win rate: 233.27 hours/12.40 BB per hour

This was usually 3 tables at a time with VP$IP a little high causing some relatively large swings. Also chased a little too much post-flop.

Took March and most of April off from the tables almost completely. Just starting putting in some serious hours again about 2 weeks ago. Those stats:

Party Poker .5/1 usually 4 tables

Sessions - 137
Hands - 4390
$ Won - $336.00
BB/hr - 4.51
BB/100 - 7.67
VP$IP - 19.01

True win rate: 27.67 hrs/12.17 BB per hour

Tightened up a little both pre- and post-flop, plugged a few leaks but have a few more to work on, but also haven't had any really good over-the-top winning sessions. I believe when I hit a couple of those in a row - and I will - that bb/hr figure will come up a little.

Anyway, moral of the story, I'm glad I tried it and if anyone tries to tell you that Party micro multi-tabling is only good for 4-6 BB/hr, then I suggest that they either aren't as good as they think they are, or have not allowed themselves to adjust properly to these games.

-Will

[Matty]

Wait, you were living off of less than $5 an hour?

Are any taxes taken out of that?

[ThrillFactor]

$12.40/hr. And yes, I knew it would be tight going into it. But I also knew that it would be only temporary. Either I would work my way up in levels to increase the $$$ figure, or find some other method of gainful employment.

[MMMMMM]

It's real easy to have a pretty good run and make BB or more or whatever per hour. Pretty decent (not spectacular) runs can last a pretty long time sometimes.

A few posters probably actually are expected to make what they post or claim. But I would guess that most, when they figure in the most horrid runs that have occurred--or will yet occur-- won't make anything like what they pleasantly think they are making right now. Just my 2c after playing 15 years +.

Also, the games are especially good right now. This will probably last a couple years or so, maybe even more. But it won't last forever. Regulars get better and suckers eventually quit (usually) or quit playing so much. Without new blood, games always get tougher. Opponents also pick up on your playing style and give you less money. So I suspect some of the posted amounts are not to be expected to continue. Also, realize that when winning it is fun to post or discuss your winnings. When losing it is less fun and fewer losing players post or discuss their decreased win rates, or loss rates, for this reason. So just take it all in stride, that's my best view on it all, and enjoy it while it lasts.

[Matty]

[ QUOTE ]
$12.40/hr.

[/ QUOTE ]Wait, so how do I figure out my "true win rate"?

PokerTracker says I make $2.10 an hour, but I play three tables at a time - so should I triple that number?

[ThrillFactor]

Poker Tracker, session notes page. In the middle there is a line that says "True Win Rate". The program calculates actual hours plays (whether you were 1, 2, 3, or more tables, and how that all overlapped) to give you a "True" win rate per hour playing.

You can't just multiply be 3 because you are not "always" on 3 tables (waiting on a seat, moving tables, etc.).

[J_V]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with everything that you say. I also know that you're the best player who posts on this board who isn't named Zee.


[/ QUOTE ]


This statement is probably not true, albeit very subjective.

[Softrock]

Interestingly I have a very different response to this post.

My first thought was do people lie here anymore than they lie to themselves? Ask the players at your local room how they fare overall and most will tell you they are small winners or break even players. We know that's not true for most of them. Are they lying? I think many of them are saying what they have convinced themselves is true (by definition it's not lying if you actually believe it even if it's not really true).

This really is a poker topic - others have said it long before me. One of the biggest hindrances to being a winning poker player is the inability to level with yourself. What I believe we hear on here often is what players think they ought to be doing but many of them know they don't actually do it or do it inconsistently.

But you know what - I don't care. If the post poses a question or situation that can further enlighten me I don't care if it's a complete fabrication.

I personally have never knowingly lied on this forum or elswhere regarding poker. What I have done is talk alot more about my well-played hands and talked less about the poorly played ones (which I submit is probably backwards if one is really interested in bettering oneself).