Keeping your own stats
How many of you keep a count of playing stats? Also, what details do you record?
Obviously with online play, you can usually get pretty detailed stats about how you played (pre-flop raises, folds, post-flop moves, percentages etc), but what about home games or casino games?
I have kept basic information like, initial chip count, end of the night chip count, and hours played. I don't usually have the time or concentration necessary to keep information on each hand while playing.
I keep a record of all our home games in a database, and share that information with all of our players and you can see it at http://poker.perldev.org/.
Everything is driven using dynamic web content and a database. I was just wondering what other useful information or suggestions some of you may have for what to keep, what to show etc. Really this is just for fun, and we're all good friend's, so there isn't much need to hide the information from each other. Also, don't pay attention to the "Experience Chart" on the player stats page; again, that's just for fun. :P
Thanks,
djw
Obviously with online play, you can usually get pretty detailed stats about how you played (pre-flop raises, folds, post-flop moves, percentages etc), but what about home games or casino games?
I have kept basic information like, initial chip count, end of the night chip count, and hours played. I don't usually have the time or concentration necessary to keep information on each hand while playing.
I keep a record of all our home games in a database, and share that information with all of our players and you can see it at http://poker.perldev.org/.
Everything is driven using dynamic web content and a database. I was just wondering what other useful information or suggestions some of you may have for what to keep, what to show etc. Really this is just for fun, and we're all good friend's, so there isn't much need to hide the information from each other. Also, don't pay attention to the "Experience Chart" on the player stats page; again, that's just for fun. :P
Thanks,
djw
Comments
After each session, I record:
Profit/Loss
Hours played
Location
Limit (or tournament buy-in)
This way I can compute profit/loss per hour, and also see where I have the best results (either in dollars per hour, or big blinds per hour) by location and limit.
ScottyZ
At some point in the future I may even have the courage to play for real money at a casino or on-line.
I use that for tracking my general win/loss performance. I also use pokertracker to keep a history of all my online hands. Pokertracker cost me 40 bucks (i think its more now) but definetely worth it if you are serious about playing online. they have a trial version to try.
I only keep stats for online play mainly because I've only played in friendly home games where winning money is not a top concern and my play reflects that. I'll probalby keep track of my live play too when I start playing in casino or some serious games.
I know that in my case, keeping track is REMARKABLY important to my success. I use Statking and I really like the graph function since it shows your total amount won as it moves up and down -- hopefully in a general up direction. It is VERY motivating to work hard to keep the line moving up.
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Tracking Your Poker Results – are you a Winner, a Loser, or a Liar?
By Dave Scharf
If you are not keeping track of all your poker wins and losses, you must start. Not next week or next month or next year, you must start keeping track immediately.
Tonight, when you go to the casino or turn on your favourite online poker room write down the following: (1) What you played – game and limit; (2) How long you played – rounded off to the nearest quarter-hour; and (3) How much you won or lost – net not gross. Start tonight. And, do it every single time you play poker. It doesn't matter whether the game is in a casino, online, or dorm-room. It doesn't matter if the game is for $0.25 or for $1000.00. It doesn't matter if the game is hold'em or Crazy-Pineapple-With-A-Pitch. Keep track! Do it starting tonight.
Here I will give you just three good reasons to keep track. I apologize. There should be a "top ten reasons" for keeping track of your poker wins and losses (damn you David Letterman), but space and my imagination can only give you three.
(1) You will discover that you are a winner, a loser or a liar.
Ask around at your local poker room. How many of the regulars consider themselves winning poker players? My educated guess is that 80% of casino poker players will tell you that they are winners at the end of the year. The other 20% will tell you that they do it for recreation, and that they more-or-less break even at the end of the year. The truth is, at least 90% of casino poker players are losers. Why? There is a rake. The house takes 10% of the pot to a maximum of $4.00 each and every single hand. That means for every hour of play, the house make about $120.00. That's a lot of money coming out of the game. There is no way most casino poker players are winners. To be a winner you must not only be a better player than your opponents, you must be better by a margin sufficient to overcome the rake!
Start keeping track and you will know if you are a winner or a loser. You will not be able to lie to yourself. You will not be able to fool yourself. You will discover that you are a winner, a loser, or a liar. As a side note, I recommend keeping track of all gambling - bingo, sports betting, lottery tickets, blackjack, slots etc. I suspect that you will be surprised by what you discover. I keep track of all of my results using StatKing poker software. It is available at www.conjelco.com.
(2) You will learn to love losing.
Poker is a game of skill. Chances are that if you are reading this column you already believe that. On the other hand, if there is any doubt in your mind, then skip directly to bingo and lottery tickets and forget about poker. Sorry to have wasted your time. Poker is a game of skill. Believe it. In the long run, the most skillful players will make money. In fact, if the game went on forever... the single most skillful player would get all the money.
Is there a "but"? I mean, there is always a "but" right? Sorry to say, in the case of poker there is a "but." In the long run the best player wins, but in the short run it is luck that determines the winner.
For example, suppose I were to play one hand of no-limit hold'em against Doyle Brunson (the most famous and possibly the best no-limit hold'em player in history). Suppose also that Doyle and I agreed to put all of our money in without looking at our cards. If I could get Doyle to agree (I couldn't) then it would be a 50/50 shot – a coin flip.
Now suppose that Doyle and I played 100 hands, or 1000 hands. With each hand, Doyle and I will each face many decisions: bet, raise, fold, or call. For every single decision that I am wrong and Doyle is right, his chance of winning my money increases. Suddenly, it's not a coin flip. Suddenly, it's "Doyle gets rich and I go home broke... guaranteed."
The point is that in the short run you will either win or lose. In the long run (if you are Doyle) you will win. Track all of your results and you will come to see this fact: short-term = luck and long-term = skill. Then, when a horrible player goes runner-runner straight flush to two perfect cards to beat your flopped four of a kind (989-1 by the way) then you will be able to shrug your shoulders and say: "Whatever will be will be." In other words, if you have proven to yourself that you are a winning player in the long run then short term losses will not bother you because all they mean is that the bad player got lucky – this time. You will learn to love losing. If you never lost, there would be no sheep to fleece in the long run. There would be no fish in the sea.
(3) It is not NASCAR... nothing happens quickly.
When I find myself at a table with a loudmouth schmuck who is constantly berating the other players at the table I ask the schmuck one question: "How much money do you make per hour playing poker?" If the schmuck is actually a winning player, and he or she actually keeps track of all his or her wins and losses then he or she will know the answer. More often than not the schmucks don't know the answer and they reveal themselves to be what you suspected all along... schmucks.
The truth is that it is almost impossible to win more than two big bets per hour at a casino poker game. Translation? In a 3-6 hold'em game the maximum that you can win is around $12/hour. In the short term it will be a lot more or a lot less (that is the effect of luck). In the long term, however, it will be about $12/hour. Good players don't win every hand. Bad players win lots of hands. At the end of the year you will find that you make about $12/hour in a 3-6 hold'em game.
So, nothing happens fast. At times it seems to. You make or lose $1000 in a single evening of $10-20 hold'em and you feel like you are Doyle Brunson. Start tracking all of your results and you will see that you are a skillful player who got damn lucky over that short-term period. In the long run, you will make $40/hour in that game. In other words, accumulating money-playing poker takes time. It's not NASCAR. Nothing happens quickly. Be patient.
I second that. Pokertracker is very useful if you play any of the online sites that it supports. Even without spending any money on it, the trial version keeps track for 1000 hands. Though, if you use it, you will almost certainly pay the money for it as you reach 1000.
http://www.13cards.com/poker/
use to track Whoring money, home games etc. The combo of the two gives me a detailed account of wtf is going on.
I too started doing this on Dave's advice. During the swings, "the book" helps me relax, and Poker Tracker helps me review hands/stats/etc during the good times and the bad.
The one advantage to not keeping stats is that it is easier to lie to yourself and others when asked are you a "Winning Poker Player?"!
Date
Length of Play
Amount won/loss
Limit
# Hands
Hands won %
SDW %
FS%
WFS%
Total Hours
Total Sessions
Standard Deviation
Bankroll Needed to stay within an element of ruin
Bonus Amounts.
Justin
I had a run of bad luck (so it seemed) during one month. After looking at my stats, I noticed that my best sessions were the ones where I had regular meals at my regular times. All my bad sessions had very quick meal breaks at odd times (not my regular meal times). For me, I think it's a blood sugar thing and how it relates to my mood. Good mood == good results.
Cheers
Magi
Bill
My Stats : Analysis
Sessions 120
Hours played 1,192.25
Average session length 9.94
Overall Profit / Loss +2,255.43
Winning streak 2
Overall Return (per session) +18.80
Overall Win Rate (per hour) +1.89
Average Win Rate (per hour) -5.11
Standard Deviation (Return) 199.45
Standard Deviation (Win Rate) 37.06
Longest winning streak 6 from 05-Jan-05 to 16-Jan-05
Longest losing streak 4 from 02-Aug-4 to 07-Aug-04
i often bulk together my internet sessions based-on cash-outs and monies lost. keeping track of every penny in live games and on the net is quite useful though as i used to admittedtly be a losing player for my first 8 months. not the most accurate way, to keep track that i use, but it works.
for instance, i now only play almost exclusively online at Party.....
Overall Profit / Loss +3,132.54=do the math for all other locations
YIKES!