Imo all these psychological rules should all be taken on strictly an individual level. All that matters if how many hours you're able to play your A game. If having a 5k buffer you don't actually intend to tap into helps you play better for longer, then it's an excellent rule for you. May not apply for other people but that's okay, you're not worried about how long they can play their A game.

Just hit 500 hours at 5/5, all at the Bike in LA.

Should I post my stats/giraffe?

Or don't jinx it and wait to hit 1000?

Only post if it’s worse than mine.

Poast!

Gthreadneedsmoregiraffes,imoG

Do it this thread needs a revival

I shot-took at a splashy $5-$100 Omaha game last week and dropped $2,000!

I’ve made back $1900 of it at $1-$2 Hold’em in the four sessions I’ve played since then, but, ugh, that’s gonna put a really ugly mark on my win rate this month!

You really do hate to see it

Well, at least it doesn't effect your hold 'em winrate!

Post it!

Okay, okay.

500 hours of 5/5 NLHE at the Parkwest Bicycle Hotel and Casino in Los Angeles, California.

First, the giraffe (by date and by hours):



In which we observe some early rungood which convinced us we should definitely play more 5/5 where they respect our raises (despite being severely under-rolled). Then we do a little 300 hour or so slightly-absurd swingy-as-hell breakeven stretch near the end of which I began to see how much my head was in my ass, in general, and how prone I was to tilt, in particular (having very much to do with being severely under-rolled).

Whereupon we finish our summer reading of The Mental Game of Poker/The Psychology of Poker/Poker Winners are Different and begin to get a decent grasp over tilt ("Holy ****, you can just, like, lose or run bad and not make it unnecessarily worse? Incredible.") as well as get a full-time job and hit a BBJ jackpot (eliminating our bankroll issues)...

The above, combined with the additional factors of starting to play consistent, shorter, time-limited sessions during the week due to getting a full-time job and decent (but seemingly not insane) rungood led to my playing much better poker and to a final 200 or so hours with an absurdly (and obv unsustainably) high WR.

Combine all that and you get this overall winrate:

$51/hr
10.20 BB/hr

And these stats:



lol sample size

Nice result!

Thank you, ser.

Yeah, it's just that innit, a nice result. I'm laughing watching my ego eat up those two nice round numbers ("10bb/hour over 500 hours...I'm pro!") knowing I'm in for all that this game can bring over the long haul.

Either way, it's enough of a confidence boost for me to finally believe that even if I'm not yet a solid winning player, I can definitely become one.

This is my graph since going full time as of August 26:



So far 243 hours played, $22,041 up, hourly rate of $91.

YTD winnings including when I played part time and had a day job is $101,021 over 645 in total hours for an hourly of $157.

Most common game is 5/5, but that is most commonly a 5/5/10/20. Some 5/10, 10/25, where the straddles are often reaching $50 and occasionally higher. But also a fair amount of 2/5 that usually straddles to $10 and 1/3 that straddles from $6 to $15.

I just keep my data in spreadsheets and haven't been great about keeping data on the blind level per session as sometimes I start at one stake and move to another in a session. But the true blind level is kind of elusive anyways when the straddle is always changing the size of the game anyways.

Very nice!

How are you feeling playing full-time? I'm actually enjoying playing more now that I have a job and that steady income coming in.

But I also have run/played better since starting the job so it's easy to find myself thinking I should just be playing full-time (only make around $30/hour at the job).

I am enjoying it a lot. I have already made about my previous annual salary in just 645 hours. My hourly has been considerably more than I made at a job where I was expected to work a minimum of 40 hours year round, and 50-55+ for 4 months out of the year with 5 weeks combined PTO/sick/vacation (all on the same bucket).

So far I have been averaging 35 hours of poker per week the last 7 weeks. I play a lot of 10a-12pm to 6pm, with a few later nights sprinkled in. I have a 7 year old who lives with me from a previous marriage and a fiancee who lives with me. I am probably not the usual demographic for someone starting their poker career.

I love the game and am passionate and obsessive about it in a way I could never be about my old job. The social aspect is also really cool.

The stress and emotions of losing when you don't have another source of income have been difficult at times, even when I have a sufficient bankroll. My first week full time I was down $5,800 after 52 hours. And even though I have lost more than $7k in one day on five seperate occasions (two of those days happening after I went full time) and I have had 3 $12k downswings in the last year and a half when I played part time, that first week was pretty demoralizing. Just working hard and losing money isn't fun, and no one feels sorry for you.

In that first week, I definitely let my emotions get the best of me when I was at home with my finacee, emotionally draining her. But I realized I can't expect her to just hold me and tell me everything is going to be alright when I decided to become a professional gambler. And I can't take it out on her either. I was able to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I decided I need to leave it at the poker table and not be so focused on the short term result. Don't put in excessive hours just to make up for recent losses.

The last few weeks have been really good for me personally. My fiancee and I have been working out together. She can tell I am happier than I have been in a long time. I am super hopeful and life is great.

Even when I think of the difficulties I have experienced playing poker these last few weeks, and it was nice to have a steady income, it was agonizing working a job for which I had lost all drive and passion, obsessively thinking about poker every day. Taking away evenings and weekends from my family to play live poker and playing unsatisfying, unrewarding 25c/50c online games to try to scratch that itch. Now I have so much more time with them and I couldn’t give a damn about what live poker games I am missing on Saturday night and rarely can I be arsed to get in the 25c 50c online streets.

@ quitebrazen

Nice giraffe!

And, yeah, sample size is small, but very nice start!

And ~10 bb/hr doesn't seem completely unsustainable for good players in a good game. Even idiot me had a 9.44 bb/hr winrate over my first 2000 hours at 1/3 NL (um, I am no longer rocking that winrate nearing 6000 hours in worsening conditions in my 1/3 NL game, but still doing ~ok).

Also, having a full time job and simply playing poker part time on the side is by far the nut line, imo.

Ggogogo!,imoG

I'm really surprised your game conditions are getting that much worse.

It's been my experience lately that games are better than ever.

Is it more a factor of increasing rake lowering your winrate or is it actually games are much tougher?

Rake in my 1/3 NL game has literally doubled since it started in 2010 (from original $5 maxrake + $1 BBJ to current $9 maxrake + $1 BBJ + $1 highhandpromo). That takes a toll in your run-of-the-mill LLSNL game, imo.

Also slight decrease in hands dealt per hour. In the past we had chip runners which would handle all the at-the-table rebuys so the dealers could just deal; but now all the rebuys are handled by dealers, which decreases the number of hands dealt per hour.

Actual quality of overall opponent pool is a little hard for me to get a grasp on. I feel there are a lot more good/solid/capable players in my game now. Although there are still a huge amount of terrible players (obviously). I'm somehow rocking my best yearly winrate in a ~decade (albeit only by like 1.5 bb/hr), although over a very small lol meaningless sample size, so I'm not really sure what to make of things overall.

GcluelessgameconditionsnoobG

Another thing to that could happen is that if people are getting really familiar with your play style and you play a lot of the same players, your winrate can go down.

Yeah, you would think there would definitely be some of this going on. Plus the fact that anyone who plays in the same game fairly regularly for a dozen+ years must somehow get at least a little better (so it is doubtful any of the long term survivors suck as much as they did years ago, although obviously they still suck).

Honestly, I have no idea what to make of the fact that my year-to-year winrate has remained ~fairly consistent in spite of the constant rake increases; I'm actually quite shocked my winrate hasn't plummeted to OMC rates. Lol sample sizes? Enough turnover in pool that enough terribad players are still introduced / cycled to go broke over a few years? Somehow getting slightly better myself (when in reality I feel I'm simply getting nittier)?

GcluelessingeneralnoobG

There are generally only 1-2 tables running in my $2-$100 spread-limit game (in the hours I play—weekday 9AM-5PM), so the regulars in it all know each other *extremely* well.

I think that factor kinda balances out in the end, though: yes, they know my habits better, but I also know theirs, and since I’m better at poker than they are, I’m better able to make use of that knowledge.

Geez. Ive been complaining about my room recently going from 5+2 to 5+3.

At least the high hand promos are technically not a totally sunk cost like the rake is. I mean, yeah, there's a 10% management fee right off the top, and the promos are paid back at a higher rate to the looser players versus the tighter ones. And perhaps some argument that they encourage looser play creating better games. But, yeah, still a hit overall, imo.

From what little I've read regarding rakes in various parts of the world (not an expert on this by any means), it would be my guess that the U.S. LLSNL rake is lagging far behind (and kinda not close). Only a matter of time before it catches up.

GcourseIalsothoughtthatabouttheirtakeonthemetricsy stemtoo,lolG

come to Australia and pay 10% to $15 per hand

Thats brutal

The rake is why every winning player should be playing the $5 blind level as soon as possible.