Just to throw it out there...

If you play a 10 hour session, and you win 1500$ (which I'm sure a lot or us have done before.)

And then you play 10 5 hour sessions
And you make an average 250$ profit in each one, you've made 4000$
And you have played for 60 hours, you've averaged ~66$/hr.
This is not that impossible, and seems fairly reasonable when you look at it like that.


I'm currently on a 78 hour, 63.97$/hr heater since December 9th. *shrug*

(I'm not saying I'm super good,I actually have a lot of leaks I'm working on correcting, but I found my self in some good spots a lot in the last few weeks.)

lol, ty been a long day of grinding. And ya that does make sense if I would have just thought about it.

Clearly those numbers are a fabrication. There is no way you can win that much playing 1/2.

So far for 2013 I am -725 over 7 hours for a -$90.63/hour winrate. WEEEEE for $2/5 shot taking

Its actually -103/hr lol.

If you put in an 8 hour session but take a 1 hour dinner break what will you put for hours played? Same for two 15 minute breaks?

Typo, 8 hour session. Thanks for the correction though, haha

Reporting live from red rock. 2013 is off to a good pace with an hourly rate of $240. 120bb/hr seems sustainable.

sure you can. buy in for 100 BB. if you dip below $1000 and don't want to replenish, might want to go to a shorter buyin but just play tight.

how often are you planning to play? weekends?

Of course you can. BR management guidelines are really only important for players that are trying to live off poker. If you can easily replace the money, then you don't need to carry a large BR to reduce your "risk of going broke", because you can just rebuy out of your life roll.

I'd say just take the $1500, buy in for a stack size that you're comfortable playing, and see what happens.


I won't dispute that all of those session results are possible. Winning $1500 in a single session in most games is ... rare. Winning $200-300 in 5 hours is very normal, but so are losing $200 and winning $4.

Add three losing sessions (-$250) and two break even sessions (+$0) in your sample and you're down to $38/hr ($3250/85). Still good, but close to half your original number. Remove the huge session entirely and you're down to $23/hr ($1750/75). Which is more in line with the kinds of numbers that people report for handily beating these games.

One reason why some people might have better hourly rates is they put in more hours per [winning] session. You might have a $40/hr normal rate but with a huge stack and a winning image your hourly might be $80/hr. The 4-6 hour session guy is mostly never reaching that stage but the 8-12 hour guy is occasionally.

If the $1500 is replaceable, then it is not your entire bankroll. Your entire bankroll consists of all the money you are willing to spend on poker, whether you currently have it or not.

You may spend some time out of action while replenishing (say, if you go busto mid-way between two pay days), but that's the only concern.

If it is a 100BB capped game, I would buy in for that. I think $1500 is fine as a starting point for a $1/2 roll. If you run hot, then obviously keep your profits in your roll. But unless you get really unlucky, you won't bust it to start. It is possible though.

Well 2013 off to good start lol.
Someone stole my phone and didn't have my PJ backed up for like last five months
But I was at like $45/hr for the last 120 hours at 1/2
Atm I'm at 8 hours for 2013 and 100/hr haha.
Def gotta keep up the godmode.

I found myself reading this thread over vacation and some of it is crazy, while a few have a relatively good idea of what they are talking about. The whole downswing thing started driving me nuts so I figured I'd post something.

This is all 1/2 & 1/3 from last 2 years. I know this will sound ridiculous, but my winrate suffered a lot in 2012 from boredom/"hero calls"/making calls pegging a range on 1 hand haha......none of it matters though. Just figured maybe someone get a decent idea of something since I thing this is most hours shown by anyone.

The dead spots in graph are most likely times when I was on vacation for 2 weeks or so or just didn't feel like playing.

Backing up poker journal = +EV

I try to do it every 2 weeks or so.

Here are my stats in my current game since it has been available. All 1/2 NL $300 max or 100% of the biggest stack (mirin my local game?)

Whothat, super small sample so it really isn't relevant yet, but you have any idea of average buyin. I actually play in a 1/2 game $500 max at the start and after the game starts they don't really care what you buyin for. I was just looking to see if anyone had some numbers from a similar game structure.

Yes, sample size is obviously irrelevant - Still a nice heater though . I didn't want to dillute results with all my 200max results (where I have averaged ~$18/hr).

Average buyin is probably around $300 with Friday and saturday nights playing substantially deeper.

Where the hell is this 100% or $300 buy in 1/2. Home Game?
I want so bad.
God if this was the structure at my casino I really think my winrate would double (okay at least increase by 50%)

x2, would love that structure. Don't think there's a casino anywhere in LV with that option.

My casino (Columbus) is set up this way. #win

What do I do?

I had an 8800 bankroll a month ago and now I have a 5400 bankroll.

Biggest downswing I have ever had due to getting a little overconfident and comfortable so I started playing too loose pf which has put me in too many spots where I wanted to bluff which has put me in to many spots where I got donk called most the time which put me on tilt which led to the big losses.

Starting to doubt myself and lose a little confidence... keep grinding away @ 1/2? Or drop down to 1/1 and set a goal to reach before playing 1/2 again which is really tilting for me bc id have to drive 15min further and I was just about to take a serious shot @ 2/5 now I'm thinking possibilities of 1/1 !? Wtf !!!.. and should I be buying in for 200 or 300 when I play @ 1/2? I was buying in for $200 for a long time and doing well but then when I realized if I bought in for 300 I could more correctly make those calls with pckt pairs or hands you want to get in there with for those $12-17 raises I felt like I couldn't buyin for 200 anymore??

Downswings suck. They happen.
They happen to all poker players.
The thing is, if you're a winning player, making 8-11BB/hour, a 10 buy in down swing is somewhat standard to have. If you're a 3-5BB/hour player, I would expect a 15 buy in down swing (which is sounds like you're on) is just about as likely. It doesn't take too many coin flips for 400$ before you take an ugly down turn. Just keep grinding away at 1/2, and remember that getting pissed off will only make you play worse and hurt your win rate even more.

Keep playing $1/$2.
Downswings suck but it's sounds like it is very much part of playing bad, leaking money.
Fix your leaks.