Poker Tracking sites

I use OfficialPokerRankings.com extensively to record my tournament results and to track my progress on this poker journey. There are several similar sites out there but this one is allowed by Pokerstars and FullTilt and is very informative.

I use the site  in several ways:

1. It records all tournaments you enter and tracks your finishing position and money you win along with cost and ROI numbers.

2. It provides a leaderboard of the top players (highest winning players) on Pokerstars and FullTilt sites and allows you to see which tournaments they entered and where all their winnings come from.

3. It allows you to lookup in real time the players on a table that you are on to see their normal average buyin and current form. I think it provides an edge to know if a player on your final table has never won this big before or if they regularly win big. It helps you to decide which players are out of their depth and you can target with raises and re-raises.

4. It shows how you are progressing as a player by showing you ROI for each calander year in the last 3 years, the last 120 days and the current YTD.

For example I can see that:

- in 2007 my ROI was -88% - completely useless

- in 2008 my ROI was -11% - this reflects a poor first 6 months and a stronger last 6 months

- in 2009 my YTD ROI is 189% - this is reflecting a good January (so far)

- my ROI for the last 120 days is 60%

This information suggests I am on the right track. It also shows that for FullTilt at least (all stats above are site specific and are for Full Tilt) I am having a good month. I may even make my $100 per day profit target depending on how I do from now until the end of the month.

So officialpokerrankings.com, or OPR as I like to call it, well done. It is a great site and very useful to a poker player like myself who is trying to measure their progress.

Do good poker players need luck

I had an interesting chat today with a player called snoop86 about luck. Do good poker players need luck to win tournaments, and more to the point, as snoop contends are they good enough that they dont rely on luck.

I think all poker players need luck, Even aces are only 82% likely to win pre-flop so you need to be lucky to dodge that other 18% of cards that will beat you.

When you push in with KK on that final table, you need to be lucky for it to hold up and put you into a chip-leading position.

When you are playing aggressively around the bubble, you need some luck in that other players do not play back at you that one time you are making a move with marginal cards. and hopefully they will play back at you that one time you have a monster hand.

So I think luck is needed, and relied upon. But snoop disagreed with me!

Wrapping up 2008

I wrote my first blog entry in November 2007 and stated I have 3-4 months to train to become a poker player and get to the pinnacle whatever that means.  I really started my journey the month before in September. I finished up my computer job for a year of rest and decided I might as well fill in that time trying to play poker.

In September I carted around the casinos and poker rooms in Southern California and realized how much I hated commuting and sitting in traffic and how much I enjoyed working at home. I found online poker. In October I signed up for Full Tilt and in November I tried Pokerstars. I also found a bunch of poker magazines with articles on strategy, a number of poker learning books at the book store and online websites and forums that train you to become a better poker player. I decided after 3 months I was ready to try some big tournaments in different countries around the world.

So 2008 was about combining my enjoyment of travel with my new found passion of competitive poker. I travelled to Australia and played in a tournament in Adelaide in January coming 3rd, then I played in the Aussie Millions event #1 in Melbourne and came 33rd. It seemed to be a great start.

I went to Las Vegas in February and played in a bunch of regular casino tournaments. I then played in the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino in March and headed to England in April to play in the casinos over there. In May I went to Monte Carlo for the EPT grand final and played in one event and some live SitnGos.  I was back in Las Vegas for June and July and played in one event in the WSOP.   For all the experience I was gaining I did not yet feel good enough at poker to be out of training. 

So I decided August was a study month. I decided as I had started the journey in September it was more reasonable to allow for a 12 month training period. I would start to play for real in September 2008 tracking my results and setting some goals.

So I did. I set a goal of earning an average $100 per day clear profit from online poker. It started well in September but then went downhill. My results:

September - win $2212

October - win $58

November - lose  $477

December - win $114

I guess if I met the goal right away it would be too easy.  I struggled in October, November and December to stop the rot. I reviewed all my training material - what was I doing so right in September that went wrong in these three months. Or was I just lucky in September and playing the same way now without getting lucky. Or was there an online conspiracy that I was victim to .

So here I am in January. Trying to review the past year I have enjoyed the time playing poker and travelling the world. I am in a very lucky situation that I can afford to continue playing poker during 2009. I want to meet my goal and then pass it.  

The big question is am I good enough? Or can I become good enough? I guess the only way to find out is to play on during 2009 and continue to learn and adapt my game. 

December summary

It looked like December was going to be another disaster money-losing month taking my downswing into its third month, but I had a late month comeback of sorts which left me barely in profit:

SUMMARY - December 2008

         FTilt  PStars   Live  Total   Profit

                                          0

12/01   - 24    - 11      0    - 35    - 35

12/02    - did not play

12/03    - did not play

12/04    - did not play

12/05    - did not play

12/06    - did not play

12/07    - did not play

12/08    - did not play

12/09     33       0      0      33    -  2

12/10   - 22       0      0    - 22    - 24   

12/11      0       0      0       0    - 24 

12/12   - 18       0      0    - 18    - 42 

12/13      0      12      0      12    - 30 

12/14      0       0      0       0    - 30 

12/15   - 31       0      0    - 31    - 61 

12/16   -135       0      0    -135    -196 

12/17      9       0      0       9    -187 

12/18   -  7    - 11      0    - 18    -205 

12/19   -  9       0      0    -  9    -214 

12/20      0       0      0       0    -214 

12/21      0       0      0       0    -214

12/22   - 15    - 99      0    -114    -328

12/23      0      23      0      23    -305

12/24      5    - 32      0    - 27    -332

12/25      0    -  3      0       3    -335

12/26    319       1      0     320    - 15

12/27    115    - 28      0      87      72

12/28   - 93    - 18      0    -111    - 39

12/29    296      54      0     350     311

12/30   - 44    - 35      0    - 79     232

12/31   - 77    - 41      0    -118     114

So I ended the year not thinking I was totally useless but still very disappointed in my roller-coaster results. If I win one day I seem to lose the next. I am obviously not playing consistent poker or maybe this is just the variance all the pros talk about so much.