Background: (Can be skipped)
I've been playing poker for about 20 years. Started playing a lot in college and then online during college. Mostly $0.25/$0.50 LHE with friends until I was 21 and able to go to Foxwoods and play 2-4 LHE. I moved to 1-2NL after college, playing about 2-3 sessions per month at Foxwoods and played some online before Black Friday. I was a pretty consistent winner and moved up to 2-5NL, where I was also fairly consistently winning. At about 28, I moved and it wasn't as easy to get to a casino, so I started playing less, probably 1 or 2 live sessions at Foxwoods or Mohegan per quarter. Then marriage, then kids, and I was playing an occasional $50-100 buy-in mixed game with friends, and getting to the casino once or twice a year, and maybe to Vegas once every 2 or 3 years. Let's just say I wasn't playing much.

Recent history:
Fast forward to 2018-2019 and I discovered the New Hampshire poker rooms, and then Encore opened in Boston, and I started to play more consistently, getting about 3-4 sessions per month on average at 1-2NL or 2-5 NL, and then started playing some 2-2 PLO. Again, winning more than losing, but nothing to make me rich or famous.

When the pandemic hit, a friend got me into an online club on the Pokerrrr2 app, and I started playing more because I had no social life and more time at home. First it was 1-2 nights a week at 1-2NL or 1-2 PLO, and now it's been 3-4 hours per night 4-6 days per week playing 2-5 PLO.

Here's where I need some advice: I want some help understanding how good of a PLO player I am.

Since April 2021, when I started tracking my daily results, I've played about 30,000 hands and am up $4000 total. I routinely have weeks where I am +/- $5000, but have never been up or down more than $10,000 overall. My wife jokes that no matter how much I play, or how much I win/lose in a given day/week/month, I always end up close to even. I hate to admit this publicly, but she's right.

The quality of play at the online club is pretty good. There are a number of players who have some good tournament results (thanks Google!), and a solid group who seem to be "pros" based on how often they play, how many tables they play, and my detective skills. Of the "regular" 2-5 PLO players, I definitely get the sense I am one of the few with a real 9-5.

Considering I haven't lost my shirt over 30,000 hands in a 2-5 PLO game with good quality of players, I think I'm a pretty good player, but I'd love some help figuring out if that's true or not, and what my results mean. Do these results show someone who is good? Could I just be very lucky? What do I need to do to assess the quality of my play and get better?

I play poker for fun/recreation and don't have any interest in making it my profession, but I am VERY competitive and want to be a winning player. I'm not rich, but I do have enough to handle the variance.

What advice or questions do you all have for me?

Wrong Forum OP, you won't get many serious answers here, if any.

Maybe try https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...r-blogs-goals/

I have a beautiful penis

Thanks - cross posted in the other forum and will delete this thread (assuming that's possible?) if replies continue like the last one...

My advice, other than aforementioned penis beauty, is that you are playing too much online and it is not worth the time you should be spending doing almost anything else. It could be with family, but if you need this much alone time per week, that is up to you. Just don't waste it on ONLINE poker. Your enjoyment of live poker on occasion is entirely different. I would just plan some poker excursions live a few times a year and let that be a net positive in your life experience.

Your results are a strong indication that you are statistically break-even (at best) at online PLO. PLO already has huge variance built in. Being anywhere between slightly winning to slightly losing means that eventually variance is going to win (meaning you will go busto). Plug in your winrate over 30,000 hands (I think it is 0.0266 BB/100) into an online variance calculator and you will see a spiraling graph of disaster, in my opinion.

Your downtime 6 nights a week is invaluable. Don't waste it.

You can't, but no need. Robert gave a decent reply imo, and FranFran is a Pizza chef who is under a lot of stress and just vented a little!

I appreciate this comment a lot. Thank you. To be honest, I use poker as "downtime". Not to get too personal, but I only play after my kids are asleep while my wife and I are watching TV and she is knitting (that's her hobby). It's not like i'm multi-tabling in a basement by myself to avoid spending time with my family, haha!

If I wasn't playing poker from 8-11pm, I'd just be watching TV while scrolling FB/Twitte/ESPN, or working, which aren't great alternatives, or reading, which I also regularly do. Once COVID is over (if ever), I'll definitely play less as social life will hopefully return!

your wife is better

sammies wife is pizza chef you silly punk

I don't have a beautiful penis

To be fair this is BBV and Fran^2 was just bragging.

And this is a Beat.

Hai sammy

Your results answer the question for you; no, you're not a "good" player.

You're not a "bad" player either. You're break-even, which is better than most but not enough to risk a mortgage payment over. And that's the key...as long as you're not risking a ton (including time with your family), then enjoy the game. Play. Improve. Take the win you might be lucky or skillful enough to achieve at some point, but don't chase the loss you're more likely to endure with money you don't have to play with.

You said you're competitive. So compete. This is a game that can be "conquered" by people who take it seriously enough to do so. You have the makings for that (including the competitive bit), so keep playing, keep learning. But do so safely (as in, no serious financial or family-time risk).

The last thing I'd say is that you'd be wise to consider the proper message of the movie "Rounders"; most serious poker players, "good" players (which is what you've asked about) grind. Day in, day out, up and down, but mostly fractionally up. Enough to make a living, not enough to win bracelets and endorsement contracts. Is that the kind of "good" you want to be? Because if it is, chances are that family time will go up in smoke. Will you ever be "good" enough to be more than a grinder? Probably not, and the risks are far too great IMO. So ultimately, if your question is "am I good enough to be a pro" the answer would be "do you even want to be"? But if it's "am I good enough to be better than most", then your answer is "yes, you already are". So enjoy the game, safely, and never stop learning and getting better. Compete. But don't expect to win a bracelet anytime soon (if ever), and don't make that your focus. The fact is that a ****-ton of luck plays into that anyway, as often as not, unless you do this with every waking hour. As a family man, is it that important to you?