The nice thing about an app is, after a session you plug the data into your phone.

You skip the step of writing it down on a piece of paper or a note in your phone, then into your computer later.

The easiest way to do this is to post the BB as a column. Then you can do a few different things with it.

I currently have something that looks a lot like:
This Spreadsheet
The stakes, and the cash out amounts are changed, but the ideas are still the same.

Much like Avarita was saying, you can then filter it based on the day of week, stake, month, any other relevant data that you are interested in tracking.

You can add additional information, add more details, have other summaries.
Really anything that you want.

Any data that you can write down, you can put into your spread sheet.

I'm also starting to track vpip/cBet/3bet/prf and other stats. Which I'm going to start adding into my sheet. Then you can start to see when you win/lose how loose/tight you are playing and things of that nature.

I'm fairly good with excel, so if you have questions about getting summaries of data or really most other things with excel PM me or post it here and I'll be glad to try and help you.

I keep track using the stop watch on my android phone and then I use google keep which is a note taking app to keep track of when I started(in case my phone crashes and erases the timer) and how much I cashed out + any other misc notes. The great thing about google keep is it instantaneously puts my notes in my google keep apps on my laptop and tablet.

Then with either my laptop or tablet i enter my data into www.pokerdominator.com

Hey avi I'd be interested in that. I can figure out how to get around in excel but by the time I've done the research whatever I'm working on isn't important anymore and I forget it before I need it again.

Cleaned up my spreadsheet so session entries of all games/stakes are on the same sheet. Added column filters along with new columns for game + stake. Couldn't figure out how to have final results + graph on the same page, as the filters would potentially hide the rows they were visible on. Minor inconvenience to have results + graph on a separate sheet, but overall it seems much cleaner.

Yea poppa I would think you'd want three sheets. 1) Raw data dump (session logger w/columns we discussed. 2) Then a summary sheet (has like w/r, hours, sd, etc, by stake). 3) then a graphs tab.

Spike I will post some pics and a quick walk through of the spreadsheet in the next few weeks if I can get some free time to revamp mine.

Final thoughts on the app vs. Excel, it's very likely that I'm just so used to excel that I favor it. But I do like being able to see how the data is working + having a workable/save-able*/transferable file.

Like when using an app you enter the data and it just adds to the total pool of inputs and recalculates your current status. So as the end user you are only seeing the final output. I like being able to see my data line by line and know that I can analyze at whatever detail I need. Also like I have found discrepancies/mistakes before where my br was off by say $54 and I can see that I entered something incorrectly in my second to last session. With the app you are just off $54 and need to suck it up.

*Ive seen many instances where people lose their data with the app. I have my excel file saved on my comp & on a USB.

To be fair, the app does have an export feature. It's still a pain in the ass, but it at least gets the data off the phone. A lot of it is filterable. I would like having more control over things though sometimes, so I may just start doing both.

Keep all your excel stuff in the cloud AINEC imo. Nothing thats like "dangerous" from a NSEC perspective (from what I can tell).

Dropbox is what I use for all cloud storage. Don't put anything private on it (like bank account numbers etc).

I use google docs for everything.
Like ever.
And I feel great about it.

Likely hood that google drive fails me <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< likely hood that any other system fails me.

College diploma and no idea, but luckily anyone with a pre school diploma can use poker journal

I've been using Excel for a while to track all of my personal finance stuff. I have budget pages, net worth pages, investment pages, ... ad infinitum.

My poker page has the following columns:

-- date
-- location (e.g. Foxwoods, Jim's Homegame, etc.)
-- game (e.g. 2/5NL, 1/2NL)
-- big blind (makes later calculations easier to have it listed explicitly)
-- Buy-in (e.g. am I buying in full for 100bb or short, etc. argument is in $)
-- re-buys (this is the total amount for the session)
-- Session Result
-- Profit/loss (i.e. result - (buy-in+rebuys))
-- P/L percent (e.g. buyin for $200 + $100 top up and cash out $425 = +41.67%)
-- Session time
-- $/hr
-- bb/hr
-- Session Swing in $/BI (i.e. how many buy-ins am I up or down in the current session)
-- Session Notes (e.g. "B+ Game. Really tough loss here. Table was not difficiult.")

The top 10 rows are a split pane that has aggregate calculations which are tallied on a yearly basis (i.e. each sheet in this spreadsheet is a year):

-- Total hours played
-- Average $/hr
-- Standard deviation $/hr
-- Average bb/hr
-- Standard deviation bb/hr
-- Average BI swing (+/-)

To the staking/making money discussion... If I may take Avaritia's comments a step further.

I encourage folks to look at things from the bigger picture. Assume you are crushing the game for 10bb/hr, but that you can only manage 20hrs weekly for like 45 weeks a year.

At 2/5NL, this is going to be $45k Nice little salary you have for a part time job. And even better, its probably going to be tax free...

However, how much money are you putting at risk?

20hrs weekly is like 3 sessions a week. And let's say that you're session win rate is something like 60%. This is something like (3*$500*45/.60) = $112,500 in buyins per year for an ROI of 40% (which is ridiculously huge).

My point is, you should find a way to take a large part of those buy-ins and develop some sort of passive, or largely passive investment that will earn you income or dividends while you are otherwise doing something else.

If you take 20% of your poker winnings, $9k per year, and buy some reliable dividend paying stock at like 3-8% (SDRL, SFL, RIG, DO, BMO, to name a few), you'll start to develop some income developing assets that you can count on in the future.

When you have a 3 month downswing, you'll be happy you put away 2bb/hr into SDRL, and 5 years from now you might have a big enough dividend to pay the rent from.

Funny Lapi, I didn't go into detail of what my Excel looked like, just the high level, but yours is nearly identical. Ha

Only recently decided to start tracking location (part of the revamp) and regret not doing so sooner because I have a feeling one room is much more profitable than another for me.

Me Too. I created multiple tabs that link to each other so that once I enter my session log, everything is automatically generated, including plots and monthly totals.

I know what you are trying to say (and I agree 100%) but the way you described it is incorrect. What you put at risk is your bankroll, not your total buy-ins.

Your total buy-ins have nothing to do with your win rate. In the above example, the total buy-ins are simply $67,500 (3*500*45). Whether I win every session or lose every session, the total buy-ins will remain the same. You do not put $67,500 at risk. What you risk is your bankroll.

Consequently, you should strongly consider investing part of your winnings (which you stated in the subsequent paragraph), not part of your total buy-ins. But this applies to every other profession, not just poker players.

I just wanted to clear that up in case anyone got the idea that they were risking far more than what they actually risked.

Is a Financial Apocalypse Coming?

I started with Excel and upgraded to the Google Docs version of excel. Very helpful if you're ever going to share your info with other people.

It does all the same things Poker Journal does as long as you know how to write some simple equations. I like it more because you can add or subtract any category you think is relevant. For example I keep my net session profit, session hours, tournament win/loss, net win/loss from selling action, etc.

It's all personal preference obviously, but how can you not enjoy something you customized for yourself?

For all of you that use excel, and you track the number of buy ins that you use, how do you deal with topping off?
Is it just simple a function of total buy in / initial buy in?

What if you buy in for 100BB for example, (table max 150BB) but then a fish comes along, with table max and you want to cover him, so you top off for 50BB. What do you use as your 'buy in' amount for that?

It's really all just semantics as in the end $'s and BB's is most of what matters, but I'm still curious how you deal with that.

I have separate columns for the initial BI and rebuys (top-offs are considered rebuys).

I further have a column that computes the BIs won or lost in the session based on the buyin size for that session.

Speaking of "topoff", how do you guys and gals topoff in a live cash game? I keep $25 chips in my pocket and secretly reach in and put it in my stack after I've folded a hand but before I've been dealt the next hand.

That's exactly what I do.

However if I lose a big hand I'll normally add on for $100 bills so that I don't have a stack of just $25 chips. Like if I'm sitting on $300, lose a $250 pot, I'll normally pull out 2x $25 chips, and add on for $200 more in cash.

I only top off on my button. I don't make any secret about it, but I don't say anything either.

But yeah, green chips, in my nasty little pocketses.

Otherwise, I just pull out another Benjamin.

^ +1
I usually wait to top off till I'm on my button unless im down a significant amount of BBs

Literally top off as soon as the stack is under 500.

Always keep 500 in green, 500 in black, and a couple purples on me on top of my initial buy in. $100-150 of greens in the back pocket, and rest in the bag. Blacks always in the bag.

Really don't bring much cash anymore really. Bills don't play anyway, so no real point and rather just avoid buying chips repeatedly or calling the chip runner.

Personally I don't really feel the need to keep track of buy-ins and top offs separate. I also play in uncapped games for the most part, but just having one number which i my net total on the day is much cleaner for me.

The only reason to keep track of buy ins would be if you're trying to discover a stoploss for yourself, and see how many buy ins you can lose and keep playing well.