1. You are tipping WAY TOO MUCH! My win rate is close to 2x yours, I don't tip anywhere near what you do, yet my tip expense in 2017 was 10.xx% of my gross!
Unless you are crushing 1/2 & 1/3NL [12BB+], it is hard to keep that expense down.
Giving the dealer $1 when you win the blinds is ridiculous! They don't expect a tip. Do you know how much they make? Where I play, they avg over 60K a year! Some drive a Mercedes, others a Lexus! $400 watches that have text capability!! Ladies wearing $3K worth of jewelry!!! With nothing but a H.S. education!!

That's why they chat it up with the table & talk sports etc. They want everyone to think that they like everyone, but when was the last time you had dinner with them? They are an expense & nothing but an expense.

If I profit $15 & take it down otf, I give them $1 every other time. If it goes to the river I give them $1.00. Otherwise, it's $1.00 per $100 profit. Sometimes $2.00 to the dealers I see outside the poker room.

When we didn't have legalized gambling here, we had home games with dealers. Some had only 1 table of cash & 2 dealers, so they only dealt 30 minutes out of the hour. A friend of mine dealt & said if everyone tipped him $1.00 every hand, he'd be a happy camper. It was 5/5NL.

So STOP IT!

Vlogs: Jaman is a good one to watch. Neeme, well I don't know how he makes a living. I truly believes he makes up some of those hands that he calls down with to get action from those in Vegas who watch. It takes him an avg of 9 hrs to edit a video & he's made 100 of them. That's 900 hours. If 1/2 that time was personal & playing time he gave up, that's 450 hrs away from the table. If he's not playing 2/5NL & he avg just 8BBs per hr, that's $18,000.00 in lost revenue!! And don't forget: he also plays 5/10NL. Where's the upside to that?
Finally: Neeme often says "I don't know" ...........really?! He doesn't know & he's playing 5/10NL?? Bullshytt!!!! I watch strictly for the entertainment value.

Splitsuit & PokerBank vids are a better way to spend your time.

Do not get married to a table!!!!! Always be on the prowl for the best game!!!!!

And of course, always be studying your game, which requires you to make notes on important hands for later study.

Finally: Get a poker session app where you can keep notes on players, unless the player pool is so large you hardly ever see the same player twice.

Welcome to the LLSNL forum, ssomega.

You've found a place to talk poker. Post some hands. Ask about lines. You're not crushing, but anything winning over 1K+ hours is good, and 5+BB/hr is nothing to sneeze at.

If you plug the three leaks you've already identified (overtipping, trying to bluff stations and paying off river bets), you'll likely increase your winrate significantly.

Strong work on all fronts mang!

Preach. This one is the hardest. Write down something like "The 5 commandments" for yourself and read before each session.

Commandment 1: "I shall not bluff. I will play as if my opponents feel physical pain when they fold."

Preach

Commandment 2: "I shall not check/call river, and I shall fold to river donks"

Preach

Commandment 3: "I shall not open up my game until 1 hour has passed. I shall fold AQ/88 utg. I shall 3bet AK/QQ+ only until this hour has passed"

happy new year everyone & gl with your 2018 goals!

2017 Results:

Graph: https://imgur.com/a/7TpGH

Main Games:
2/5NL: +42,037; 513 hrs; 81.92/hr; 16.38bb/hr
T/TNL: +44,787; 235 hrs; 190.92/hr; 19.09bb/hr

Other:
1/2NL: -108; 27 hrs
1/3NL: +139; 3 hrs
2/2PLO: -1561; 25 hrs
5/5PLO: -290; 3 hrs
MTTs:-225; 3 hrs

Total: +84,779; 808 hrs; 104.91/hr; 14.96bb/hr

very happy with the year - finished strong after a little downswing. 1/2, PLO, and MTTs obv unbeatable though

2018 may be the year i move to full-time...but we shall see...

I'll coach you in plo if you coach me in T/T

Cliffs of our sessions:

2nd worst year for me results wise out of my 8 recreational years at 1/3 NL.



Flatlined for my first third of 2017.

Sunrunned (after tweaking my overall strategy to even more nittier and starting with a short BI) for my second third of 2017.

Then last third of 2017 I tied my biggest ever downswing (to the dollar) and spent the rest of 2017 trying to dig out of it.

$8.78/hr (2.93 bb/hr) over 578 hours, puke. $1.02/hr better than my worst year in 2015, but $11.04 worse than my third worst year in 2016, and a whopping $26.70/hr worse than my best year in 2013. Gross.

Overall, it's pretty clear where my game conditions are headed, and my overall winrate of $20.85 over 3745 hours doesn't remotely reflect what I think is capable in my game now (at least by me). There's a rumour that the maximum rake will be increased yet again for the third year running (up to $8 max + $1 BBJ drop, so crippling if that happens, imo). Even last year I speculated that a $15/hr winrate in my room would be a very good winrate (even though that would have been my second worse result by about $5/hr). I don't keep track of my all-in EV a la M and Mike Starr, but my guess is I probably would have come close to that estimate had I simply not run terrible in every big pot I played this year (my fave being 1 outed twice within an hour last week, lol, didn't think that was even mathematically possible).

Got in my most number of sessions this year, and came up 4 hours short of most hours, but I expect I'll be reduced in both in 2018 (expecting about 500 - 550 hours).

Overall, still having fun, and still winning (although barely). If the rake is increased, my guess is that $12/hr (4 bb/hr) would be a good reasonable / (hopefully) attainable target for me in 2018 (not that I have targets).

Ggoodluckin2018!G

RE: Standard deviation

My Poker Journal has my Standard Deviation at $469.24 / session, having played 478 1/3 NL sessions over 3744:50 hours.

I have no idea what that means nor whether it is computed correctly within Poker Journal. Also, the first x session entries were copied directly from Excel as simply what I won or lost, whereas since then I've inputted exactly what I've bought in over a session (i.e. I have no clue if buying in for $200 and cashing out $100 is equivalent to buying in for $200 + $200 + $100 and cashing out $400, although I think bip once said it didn't matter).

Gwhatever,imoG

those results are just lol. mtt fish confirmed though..

Year End Results:

Purely part time Friday/Saturday's 1-2 times per week over the last 4 months. (I had a 3-4 year break due to new children).

Game: $1/3 NL - $300 Max Buy In

Hours Played: 132
Won/Loss: $9634
BB/HR: 24.3
$/HR: $72.98

Finished hard on a $700 loss on New Years Eve, losing a $400 all in pf with AKss to KJhh when the flop comes jjx. Nonetheless, a great year and I hope to significantly increase my hours this next year.

i've basically taken a big step away from poker toward the end of the month. mostly because ive been busy with graduate school along with work and family stuff. it was a bit hard to be away at first but it got easier and when i started playing a bit again, i realized i dont enjoy the game as much anymore.

results for 2017:
$2/5
620 hours
10.68 bb/hr
+$33.1k

80 sessions won (~70%)
34 sessions lost (~30%)

average session is 5.5 hours

$5/10 did not go as well. i won ~2bb/hr over like 80 hours. i had some huge lost pots, which obv will skew a small sample size.

planning on just not playing much poker but we'll see how long that lasts. gl and happy new year all

still awesome results jc - solid year. gl with both life + any poker endeavors in 2018.

That's incredible.

Finished the year at +$19443 over 767 hrs, all at 1/2 for a winrate of $25.35/hr, or 12.7 bb/hr. Last year I won $10/hr and I feel theres been some good improvement in my game since then. My city is combining their poker rooms finally in a few months so I'm looking forward to playing 2/5 semi regularly to see how that goes.

Any reason for playing so tight UTG when people are bad? I mean I open any Axs, PP, SCs down to 87s or 76s depending on how the table looks, all suited broadways and AQo+. My games do play deeper than 100bb usually though otherwise I wouldn't open some of the marginal hands.

2018 is over. Last session of the year was a roller coaster that ended well (in for $1,000, out for $1,369 at 1/3 nl).

Overall Results:
1,396 hours 57 minutes
$35,396 profit
9.4 BB/hr

Overall graph: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YQ5BG62ZI4bAovfI2

By stake/ game:

-$1,445 in 1 h 30 m of 5/T PLO-Mix
+$860 in 1 h 45 m of 5/5 PLO-Mix
+$1,142 in 4 h 50 m of 2/5 PLO-Mix
-$3,216 in 49 h 45 m of 2/5 NL (Play bad in Vegas in March, Run-Bad against same people I crush at 1/$ in home casino.)
+$36,371 in 1,322 h 8 m of 1/3 NL ($27.75/HR, 9.3BB/HR)
+$884 in 14 h 23 m of 1/2 NL
+800 in 2 h 30 m of 1/1 PLO (started this at Bally's one night).

$4,860 downswing (-$3,326 at 1/3 home casino, -$1,297 in Vegas) after month-long $7k heater (1/25 to 2/21). I think I had winner's tilt and refocused for a stretch I'm really proud of.

I quit a job I like to play poker "full time" at the end of June. Basically, I decided to play cards instead of work weekends.

+$21,737 in 704 h 10 m since then
Started off w/ a +$2,042 trip to Vegas to kick off being jobless.

Quitting job has allowed me to play Friday and Saturday nights again. This has made a huge difference. I was basically playing Mon-Wed OMC shift and after work (tired) on Thursday and Saturday (after 12 hour shift) nights.

Home casino 1/3 w/ job vs. w/o job
With job 1-1/6-30: +$13,815, $22.07/hr in 637 h 19 m
Without job 7-1/12-31: +$21,028, $32.90/hr in 704 h 25 m

Another pretty good downswing at 1/3 home casino to end October; -$2.4k over 4-straight losing sessions.

Ended November on another bad swing after losing $1.5k in 5/T PLO, and $1.5k in 2/5 NL at home casino.

These were super frustrating as I ended both months only up $800 or so. Terrible decision to play the 5/T game after being stuck that night in 1/3 NL.

Ended Year on a tear, going 20-2 in December for $6,724 in 116 hours of 1/3 NL.

Got to play in Vegas, Arizona, Colorado and enjoy freedom of not having to clock in and work a job schedule. Overall a fun year.

EDIT: can we no longer post pics from Googe Photos or Facebook?

You should start a poker and goals blog. Post some hands and get some feedback.

I am starting to play more after sometime off as well. Would be willing to exchange hands and give feedback once I start playing again. You can send me some hands that I can take a look at and give feedback on.

Protip: stop watching Vaughan if you want to learn how to play poker.

Always impressive stuff from you mate. To make nearly 100k in < 1k hours is absolutely mental. I'd love to see what you could do if you play 2k hours a year and play max peak hours... Like idk how much you make @ your job, but with results like these, I'd verrryy seriously consider going full time!

Extremely impressive nonetheless!

Crushing, vwp.

Largely to do with the multiway nature of live poker. Suited connectors are not going to function well multiway and hands like AT/AJo are going to struggle too. Small PPs are largely going to lose from UTG in most lineups because you have no way to win the hand post most the time when you don't hit a set.

Limping PPs on some tables UTG might be a good option too... The benefit of playing 55 for example is getting into a 4+ handed pot, bloated if possible, and flopping a set. You can literally limp/call a variety of iso sizes profitably with these hands. But again, all depends on your game dynamic as to what you can get away with and how wide you should be from UTG.

Killed it, well done!

Now that 2017 is over and completed, it's time for an update.

Let's start with the overall stats from 7/2/2008:

$37,626 in winnings over 5355.6 hours, $7.03/hr

Giraffe!


How about by game?

Most of that time has been spent at $1/2 NLHE, accounting for $34,638 in winnings over 4398.7 hours ($7.87/hr).

The next most common game is either $1/2 RxR or $1/2 PLO. I'm going to lump these games together, combining the $2 bring in and $5 bring in games, along with a few random $0/5 and $1/3 sessions. I don't think there's significant difference between RxR and PLO as the PLO rounds take three times longer than the NLHE rounds, and so many players fold or get up during NLHE.

$4,444 in winnings (weird number but it's correct) over 741.4 hours for $5.99/hr.

There are a smattering of other structures and tournaments that aren't important, but are the difference between the red and the green in the figure:



Pretty clear that my NLHE game has gotten better since I started, and more consistent. If you zoom in on the line and draw upper and lower bounds on where it bounces around there's a pretty clear $700-1000 band of week to week variability.

PLO has been a bit of a struggle so far. Very swingy and generally a downward trajectory to start off. Followed by a little karmic justice to right the ship.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

So on to this year:

$7349 in winnings over 631.1 hours, netting a WR of $11.64/hr.

Not super great, but I'll take it after some of the run-bad I had. Pretty good volume too.
I managed to get 163 sessions in (there are a few 2-3 session days) with an average length of 3.87 hours.
65 NLHE sessions, 93 PLO/RxR sessions. That's attributable to my local home game switching from mostly NLHE with some RxR or PLO later in the evening towards RxR to start and earlier and earlier transitions from RxR to PLO (went from midnight to 11 to now 9pm).

NLHE: +$1548 over 226.4 hours for $6.84/hr
PLO: +$5761 over 390.3 hours for $14.76/hr

In graph form:


As you can see my year started off pretty marginally, ran it up, bled it back down, then went on a nice little PLO heater. Despite the 2017 results, I really want to get more NLHE time in for 2018. It's still my better game overall.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

For some additional analysis, here's my favorite figure:


Trailing winrate is defined by looking at each session and calculating the winnings of the previous 500 or 100 hours (or as close as we can get with the discrete session lengths). This is only for $1/2 NLHE, so it's pretty similar to the last time I made it. Shows the large variability and near uselessness of 100 hours samples, the large differences that occur in even 500 hour samples, and the difficulty in moving our overall rate as our sample gets large.

The corresponding standard deviation figure is:

Using the correction factor mentioned a few posts up-thread.
Final value is just about $73/hr.

My lifetime (all games) distribution of session length is:


With no strong correlation between winrate and session length:



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

There's periodically a discussion of day-of-the-week impact on WR ... so:

Mon -$694.5 1169.4 hrs -$0.59/hr
Tue $2904.5 375.6 hrs $7.73/hr
Wed $3905 371.5 hrs $10.51/hr
Thu $3516 468.7 hrs $7.5/hr
Fri $4160 550.1 hrs $7.56/hr
Sat $11,162 1312.2 hrs $8.51/hr
Sun $12,673 1108.1 hrs $11.44/hr

These are classified by the session *end* time.

I'm really not sure why Mondays are so bad. Could be that we used to play PLO on Sunday nights. Could be something else. Otherwise this looks like there is little difference between the days. My eyeballs tell me that this is because of the weird charity room situation in MI where we have crazy games during the week 2 blocks from people's houses *IN* a bar, but the stats don't really make that clear.

Angrist you would do really well in Corp finance imo

No offence to him because I don't know him at all, but that seems like a baseless statement. All he did was extract info from his app and put a couple more sentences then most people, corp finance is a very difficult/competitive industry.

I'm an engineer by trade. So I'm sure corporate finance would be fine technically ... if I could handle the politics without blowing my brains out.

There's a little more to that analysis than "extract info from the app" (which I don't use BTW). But of course none of it is all that complicated (although you'd be surprised how hard it is for many people to do any kind of analysis themselves). However, I never see anyone else plot different games, or long term winrate sampling data.

Ty!

Thanks meale - it was a much better year than I ever expected and I was lucky to run well. Definitely a lot to consider when thinking about going full time, but it's something I've been debating for awhile and wasn't going to do without being in a really good spot with both my roll/savings and having full confidence in my game.

I don't want to get into too much personal stuff in this thread but this year may present a good opportunity for me to give full time a try - so we will see what happens.

I was just being facetious bc in the corporate environment those with the most charts win. I did enjoy them though, and it shows the greatness of good ole' fashioned excel (which is also what I use).

No.