Newbie bankroll question
For the fellow hobbyists:
What is the merit of bankroll tracking? I can understand that for pros this is important part of their business; however for a hobbyist like myself who will not be using poker winnings to obtain credit or as part of my income taxable earnings (so says my accountant) it seems an unnecessary hassle.
I'm certain I must be overlooking something ..so many of the members here regard bankroll tracking as essential.
Once you have me thoroughly convinced that I MUST track this-and I'm sure you will..what programs are best?
What is the merit of bankroll tracking? I can understand that for pros this is important part of their business; however for a hobbyist like myself who will not be using poker winnings to obtain credit or as part of my income taxable earnings (so says my accountant) it seems an unnecessary hassle.
I'm certain I must be overlooking something ..so many of the members here regard bankroll tracking as essential.
Once you have me thoroughly convinced that I MUST track this-and I'm sure you will..what programs are best?
Comments
For online, PokerTracker hands-down (although some will say PokerOffice
I am intriqued by the HH tracking and would like to take you up on your kind offer to borrow the book- if I can't find it to buy myself. I'm sure it will be money well spent. I'm presuming through your phrasing that Dave Scharf only has one book on the market? If not, could you please post the full title?
Thanks for your help
Very nice Kristy.
I'm sure that you have spent some of this money and invested some to maintain a bankroll.
The biggest thing that I find about bankroll management, is that it helps me through the downswings (and they will come) to keep me out of trouble and deciding when it is time to move up/down in the games that I play.
I use Poker Tracker for online HH, but I have been using pokertracking.com for bankroll management as this is when PT falls short IMO.
PT cannot track live ring games. I was suprised to see, when I entered my live ring games as well as my PT ring games into the site that I was doing much better than I thought :-).
PS can I have a few bucks, I used to play for thousands and lost it all. :-)
I'll make sure to bring it with me to the next tourney we're both at - just PM me if you find it before then.
Having said that, I have only ever made two deposits in my life. One on a site calle Poker Now in 2002 - (this was started by two ladies from this area - I cashed out when I felt online poker was interferring with my social life) and then I made a Poker Room deposit some time last year - each time I deposited $50. I have only cashed out since.
I would start to use a tracking system if I thought I was losing but I dont feel that I am largely because I am always considering "the monsters under my bed." Some players critisize me however it has allowed me to play profitablely for over 4 years now. I dont get huge upswings - but I also dont get huge down swings.
I have used winnings for everything from a good shopping trip to Harry Rosen or Holt to paying for my upcoming trip to the Dominican.
I could see tracker coming in handy if I started to go on a huge losing streak - but at that time I may just decided to stop playing. Here's hoping it doesnt come....
I am not saying that you shouldnt track but I think that is dependent on whether or not you are playing to make money you need or whether your profits are just to provide a few extras you may not normally buy.
LOL
Beanie you are so much more clever than I-you checked online...I just went to Chapters and found that out the hard way.
I'm so old school that I even still own a physical encyclopedia set [For the kids: 'encyclopedias' are a series of books designed to answer all the questions you "google"
Acidjoeshoe..if you read this thread I picked up the Annie Duke book you recommended, look forward to talking about it at some point.
Hobbes, you're next on my list to back..right after my Cool-Teen investment pays off.
benefits of tracking? i suppose for some people so they know they aren't deluding themselves into thinking they are doing better than they really are. also, before considering going pro, i know i'd track my results for a considerable period to convince myself i actually am a winning player and help me to weather the downturns. and finally, for those who care about what others think, so you can 'officially' show the naysayers what your results are in the hopes they will butt out. i don't think any of these apply to me so that may explain why i haven't started tracking yet.
If he were up and using total bankroll to track, he would appear to be a winner, and wouldn't notice this leak (except through anecdotal evidence - ie empty pockets after every NL session
Again, tracking isn't for everyone, since maybe you're just having fun and who cares (like Tom mentioned). But in order to plug holes in your game you need to find them, and bankroll tracking is a great tool for that.
p.s. 13 - I trust you take this correctly, no offense is intended. Nice to see somebody show their stuff honestly... And on a side-note, I suck at limit (and almost went bust figuring that out), so I've been in the exact/opposite position!
http://www.canadianpoker.com/amateur-poker-player/amateur04.htm
I track my result for all poker that I play. I find that tracking my results help me figure out what games I'm good at and which ones I am weak at, also if I have a bad run I can use the results and figure out why I'm having that bad run.
I too put $100 on two years ago now and by playing pretty much $0.50/1.00 limit exclusively have now won over $4,000 US. It's nothing great but it's certainly better then losing anything.
I tried PokerTracker and PokerOffice and honestly they are both good, I think PokerTracker has support for more poker rooms then Office but I'm really not hung up on tracking hand histories anymore, it's just not for me..I have no ambitions of becoming a pro...this is and will always be a hobby to me.
What I do continue to do is use a custom spreadsheet to track all my sessions, my bankroll, and my spending. It allows me to see that I have been mildly successful and by tracking each session one of the cool things I have done is create a pivot chart that allows me to select many different graphs using any/all the data I collect...day, time, game type, buyin, length of session, profit/loss,etc, etc, etc. One I find very useful is the profit by weekday graph....it shows me how I fair on each site any day of the week depending on game type. For example weekdays on Party playing limit show less of a profit then weekends so I'll wait until the weekend to play there and it usually results in a winning session.
The bottom line I think is that everyone is in this for different reasons or have different goals so depending on what you want to accomplish your tracking requirements may differ from others. I'd suggest keep it simple and record only what you think you want to...sure the programs can be kinda cool but they can also take up a lot of your time, keep it simple.
I only started playing in the spring of this year so have never had to consider the tax implications of my winning. Is this true? I was under the impression all net income from poker was taxable.
Along those same lines: I've been tracking since the beginning and am up about $1700. I'd guess that about half of that is online bonus money though. If winnings are taxable, are bonuses considered winnings? Anyone know?
Thanks.