I love math - now that I'm an adult and don't have to do homework based on it.
I love it because it is cold and indifferent, devoid of emotion or sentiment. I love it because it simply tells the truth, regardless of outside influences.
I love using it my poker game when I can, it helps me make decisions. When someone is going to give me 3 to 1 odds to chase a 4 to 1 flush, it's a fairly easy fold as long as I don't think too hard about implied odds. Math is my friend.
I recently learned to love math even more; I purchased a poker tracking app on my phone called "Run Good" for 17.99 and I have to say it was worth every penny. The numbers that have spewed out of this thing have made me very happy. Much happier than I thought I would be.
As you may know, I've been meticulously tracking my results since January of 2012; both tournaments and cash games. In 2012 I was down a bit, 2013, up a bit, 2014 up quite a bit and now 2/3 of the way through 2015, again up quite a bit.
I had a vague idea of the grand totals, but now that I've loaded all of my results into this app, the big picture has become crystal clear.
Since Jan. 2, 2012 I have played in 212 tournaments.
I have spent $18,498 on entry fees.
I have won $25, 211.
I have made $6,713 in profit. This is a 36% return on my investment.
Honestly, because I kept the spread sheet for each year separate, I had no idea that I was up this much. Granted, 212 is not a huge sample size for four years, but I'm a strictly recreational player who leads a pretty balanced life, meaning I typically only play a two or three of times a month. Plus of course an occasional Vegas bender thrown in, where I can easily play 20 tournaments in four days. But overall, I'm not anywhere near close to playing a lot.
I average just under 4 hours per tournament, which is 848 hours total - meaning my hourly profit rate for poker tournaments is a whopping $7.90 an hour.
So yes, I don't plan to quit my day job.
But still - I am so happy that I am a solidly profitable tournament poker player.
Here's a bunch of other cold math that I like, even when it's not good news. All of these stats I gleaned from "Run Good Poker Tracker."
I have won 25 tournaments - which is 12%.
(I only include 1st place finishes on chops if I have the chip lead. There are quite a few other '1st place' finishes where we just divided up the money evenly even though I was a slight dog in chips.)
I have made 55 final tables, which is 26%.
Obviously I don't include single table tournaments. Yes, I do include my monthly multi table tournaments which often have only 2 tables BUT ONLY WHEN I MAKE THE TOP THREE. I figure this is balanced a bit by the deep runs I have made in larger events, such as when I final tabled the 40 table Bally's Classic twice in two days in 2013 or when I final tabled the Hollywood Park Sport of Kings 20K guaranteed event in 2012 which had 60 tables.
I have cashed 85 times, which is 40%.
This is a pretty darn big number which is both great and not so great. A high percentage here with a mediocre hourly means I'm min-cashing way too much.
I average $87 per buy in.
My longest tournament winning streak is four cashes.
This is a bit surprising, for some reason I thought it would be more.
My best accumulative streak is $1660.
Don't know if that was from the 4 tournament winning streak.
My worst tournament losing streak is 11 non-cashes.
Again, I thought this number would be larger, glad it isn't.
My worst accumulative loss is $1165.
Glad it's not bigger than my best accumulative winning streak.
The most number of tournaments I have played at one location are in my garage - 51.
Followed by...
Hollywood Park - 32
Commerce - 31
The Bike - 22
and then believe it or not...
The Rio - 8 (which has always been for the WSOP, including the Daily Deep Stacks)
Mirage - 8
Harrah's - 8
Aria - 7
Treasure Island - 6 (weird, I thought I played here WAY more, read on to see why)
GK Binion's - 5 (Garner's home game)
Bally's - 5
My most profitable day of the week by far is Monday - $3,051 of my total profit.
That day is indeed memorable, 3 of my big 4 figure scores came on that day, two of them were on day two in larger events.
The location with the best return on my investment is Treasure Island with an ROI of %368
Makes sense, it's a $50 tournament and I've cashed there 4 out of 6 times for $300-$900 each time.
Most of my tournament 1st place finishes, happened in my garage on Saturday - 8 of them.
Followed by 7 first place finishes in other home games.
Followed by 4 fist place finishes back in my garage during the week (single table SNGs)
Followed by 6 genuine first place finishes in card rooms - 2 of them at HPC, 1 at the Bike and 1 at Commerce, plus 2 more at HPC in their long gone single table SNGs. Alas, no first place finishes in major events.
My two highest locations for winning percentage were both home games, both now defunct - Eric's game and the Monkeyland Audio game. I won in both of these 66.67% of the time. I was always an alternate at Eric's game and I was likely taken off the list at Monkeyland when I crushed souls so frequently.
As I said, good news mostly.
I am now very much inspired to know, via cold hard math, that I am indeed beating this game. Not crushing it by any means, despite my 40% cash rate - but I am truly in the black and not by a tiny margin.
My cash game stats are largely meaningless, as I have only played 18 sessions in 4 years. I didn't enter precise times, but I put 4 hours for each session as that's what it is at my home game.
$927 in profit total.
$12.52 per hour.
22.5 bb per hour.
16 profitable sessions - 88% (including 4 card room sessions, the rest are in my garage.)
Like I said, way too small to mean much; but it's nice to know I'm ahead and that I may have a cash game career ahead of me if tournaments take me out to the woodshed one too many times.
I should note that I have not included the two major WSOP events that I entered with my own money - both this year, the Colossus and the Monster Stack, $565 and $1500 respectively. I am not bankrolled in any way shape or form for these events, and thus decided to do it to 'take a shot' and have some fun. If I had cashed I would have not included those results into the app.
Well, there it is. I really overall feel very positive about this, and have a much clearer picture of where I am at in the 'long game' that is poker.
I would encourage anyone who is at the level of enthusiast or higher, to get a poker results tracking app and keep it updated. You might be pleasantly surprised, or you might find you have things to work on. In my case it was both - I'm over the moon that I've shelled out 18K and managed to come back with 25K, but I also know I have to get that cashing percentage down a bit. Less cashes over all, but more big cashes to get more profits!
Can't wait to get back on the felt with this new sense of self awareness - it's going to be a grand old time!
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Thursday, October 1, 2015
It's not you, it's me...
So next year will mark the 10 year anniversary of my home game, Pepper Street Poker.
As you likely know, if you peruse the blog over there, I host a monthly multi-table tournament. The buy in is $40 and it's a very social, very friendly gathering of chums & chums of chums that typically sees about 20 people playing for about 6 hours for a $300 top prize and a trophy and a picture on the wall and a seat in the Tournament of Champions.
All in all a fun time, and a grand time. Grander I'd say than probably 90% of all home poker games.
I've had a blast hosting it, and goodness knows I've also had great results, especially lately. This year alone I've won 3 tournaments out of 10, and also finished second twice, and both of those times the hour was late and I managed to negotiate an even money chop in exchange for a seat that I already had locked up. I also made these deals truthfully, for the health of the game, as I don't think winning nearly half of my own tournaments looks that great.
Anyways, I've always enjoyed hosting, it has it's own rewards beyond just playing cards. But it is a lot of work. A lot of work.
Set up begins around 1 or 2pm on Saturday, at the latest. Because it's multiple tables, with typically around 20 players coming, it means I have to set up 3 tables just in case I get last minute extra players. Then there's the chips, cards, buttons, snack tables etc. Plus I usually use a leaf blower to clean out the garage first. And then I also go to the store for snacks. All told, with this trip included, set up at a pace that isn't frantic is at least 3 hours.
And then sometimes it's too hot to play in the garage, so I have to set up on the patio, which adds another hour.
Anyways, I'm not complaining really - I've always enjoyed these duties, and the reward of hosting a game that everyone loves has been more than worth it.
But lately, when it comes to poker, my mind has been on a bit of a wanderlust; that is, as the game in my garage goes on, so too does the game at large; and increasingly that's where my thoughts and body go.
I've recognized over the past few years, that poker is much larger than my little monthly Saturday night party. I've been hosting these big tournaments because I enjoy it, but also because I felt in the past that if I didn't, I wouldn't be playing too much poker.
These days, I average one Sunday a month at the Bike or Commerce, in their daily tournament; I also take time every other week during the week to go to a home game in North Hollywood or Garner's game out near Culver City. So were my game to disappear entirely, I would still be playing a substantial amount.
With this in mind, I lately have been asking myself - is the work and time I put in to hosting a big monthly multi-table tournament worth it? Looking at this with total honesty and transparency I can say there are for sure pros and cons.
PROS:
- I have a roster of over 70 players, 2/3 of which make it out at least once a year and 1/3 of which make it almost every month. They love the game, and by and large they are all nice people.
- I take a lot of pride in running the best home poker game that I've ever played in; I've played in some lovely home games, but none even come close to the level of organization and finesse that mine has.
- There is at this point, a rather long history of this game. A perpetual plaque on the wall has six names for player of the year over the better part of the past decade; even before things got all official, we've been playing in this garage for almost 10 years. I would hate to see that simply up and vanish.
But then there are a few cons -
CONS:
- I increasingly look at my game as more of an obligation than something I enjoy. I'd say the ratio is now 60/40 obligation to enjoyment. It used to be about 80/20 in the reverse. This is because of two things...
- Longtime players that I'd grown quite fond of, are no longer playing. Some have moved away, some have moved on to other things, and even a couple have left this earth. Most notably one of the rocks (not rock as in tight player, but rock as in reliably always at the game and a great guy) recently had a blow up with another player and now refuses to show up when he does. Another huge rock just moved to Florida. So now I don't have them, and they've been replaced with younger and perfectly nice people, but not people that I have a decade long friendship with. Honestly, it's been tough because I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the social aspect of the game until some of my best buds were gone.
- I have a never ending hunger to improve my game and get good results out in the wild (in card rooms and casinos) and I don't know if the game in my garage with randoms who often are terrible players (though lovely people) is doing my game more harm than good. It does boost my confidence somewhat to beat up on other players who think they're hot shit but really are just toddlers in the game, but that's about the only positive thing. And really, it's not that positive. These are nice folks that I barely know, and it doesn't help my heart very much to run them over - I'd much rather pummel fish in a casino, not nice kids who just want to enjoy their evening.
Ultimately though, I can come up with a list of good and bad things about the monthly tournaments in my garage, but it really boils down to one question - "Is hosting this game going to get me closer to my goal?"
What is my goal? Well it hit me last night light a bolt of lighting - so hard that I shot up off of the couch.
I was watching the Main Event of the WSOP, thinking about how much I admired the guys around the featured table and thinking to myself - they're very good, because they play every day, I may never be that good; but I'm certainly capable of it. I really know I can do it - within the framework of my life that I love. I can be there some day.
And so that's it - I have to make this decision about my Saturday game, keep it the same or take a break - based on my one goal; the goal of succeeding in large poker tournaments. There's good things about it, maybe more good things than bad things, but that's not material. What matters ultimately is this one question and my one desire.
Here's exactly what I want - I've cashed for 1, 2 even 3 thousand dollars before. I'm really aiming to the upper four figures or even five figures. I've got the $2700 thing, now I'm ready for the $8000 thing or even the $17,000 thing or yes, maybe even the $43,000 thing.
I know I can do it, with more serious play under my belt - and the Saturday tournament in my garage, lovely as it it, is not serious play.
So, Saturday tournament, this is the truth - it's not you, it's me.
We only get one life, so I have to use it with me in mind, and in this case, I'm going to give up my Saturday tournament hosting duties for awhile - to concentrate on me and what I want. To drastically improve my game and to see big results in a large (for me) buy-in tournament.
To this end, I still very much plan to keep playing poker in my garage.
Rather than a big elaborate multi-table event once a month on a Saturday that takes up 4 hours of set-up and 7 hours of playing, I think I will be much better served by hosting a very simple one table poker night that takes 10 minutes to set up and that happens during the week.
The plan is to come home from work, pull up in my driveway around 6:30, open the garage door, plop open a table, drag some chairs over, then pull out the cards and chips (which will already be set up to hand out in stacks) and then go inside and have a nice dinner. I'll return at 7:25 to sit down and welcome players at the table, take their monies, punch up the tournament software on my i-pad and start.
Water will already be in the cooler, nuts and bowls on the shelf. Music will be via my i-phone and jbl charge. No preparation for anything else.
I'd love for this to happen every other Wednesday night. Every 3 or 4 tournaments or so, we'll break it up with a low stakes cash game or maybe even a tournament different from NLHE such as Omaha/8 or HORSE.
I realize that I very well may be killing the golden goose here, no doubt I will lose quite a few players, hopefully not too many regulars. It would be a shame to not be able to have a full table every week, but I'm prepared to live with it, or even potentially the loss of my game entire.
My poker education has to come first, and I have no doubt that I will get LOADS more benefit in hosting a bi-weekly single table full of folks that I know well and whose games I respect and who I can talk poker with during and after.
I wrote up a whole post, similar to this one but maybe not quite so revealing, and was going to post it on the Pepper Street blog as an announcement that the Saturday tournaments were coming to an end, but now I think I'll just shorten the post tremendously, leaving out explanations and simply stating that we're on a break from the Saturday MTT's. People in general, unless they are my close friends, don't really give a shit why things are changing and really, I don't blame them.
So, that's why I have this post here. It feels good to really articulate why this change has come about.
In the end, if my game does implode, it won't be the end of the world. I have a couple of nice home games that I can always attend - and there's always the Bike and Commerce with their low cost dailies that are great venues for working hard and seriously on my game. Best of all, no bruised egos and no hurt feelings - at least on my end or with people that I am familiar with and also trying to entertain and host. I think my game will get better when I can leave the hosting duties to the professionals - and those hosting duties that I do take on are much less taxing.
I'm excited about this big change in my poker life, I like that I am choosing to focus more on the game and learning from my good friends; I am relieved that I don't have such a large obligation to entertain entirely on my shoulders anymore. Can't wait for next year to start!
EDIT / ADDENDUM
I never rush into big decisions like this and change things immediately, I like to 'sleep on it' so to speak - give myself time to think about and mentally digest. Writing about a big decision is one form of this digestion, and after writing the above, I'm having a bit of a change of heart.
I still want to cut way down on the Saturday tournament, but doing away with it entirely seems a bit too much. As I said above, there is a history here - a perpetual plaque on the wall and a legacy of sorts that I would hate to see vanish.
So my tentative plan right now, at least until I change my mind again, is to still throw Saturday night tournaments, probably once every two or three months or so - doubling the buy-in at least so people will feel it's worth coming out and playing for; and making it a biggish deal. Stay tuned, I may change my mind yet again before the year is up.
As you likely know, if you peruse the blog over there, I host a monthly multi-table tournament. The buy in is $40 and it's a very social, very friendly gathering of chums & chums of chums that typically sees about 20 people playing for about 6 hours for a $300 top prize and a trophy and a picture on the wall and a seat in the Tournament of Champions.
All in all a fun time, and a grand time. Grander I'd say than probably 90% of all home poker games.
I've had a blast hosting it, and goodness knows I've also had great results, especially lately. This year alone I've won 3 tournaments out of 10, and also finished second twice, and both of those times the hour was late and I managed to negotiate an even money chop in exchange for a seat that I already had locked up. I also made these deals truthfully, for the health of the game, as I don't think winning nearly half of my own tournaments looks that great.
Anyways, I've always enjoyed hosting, it has it's own rewards beyond just playing cards. But it is a lot of work. A lot of work.
Set up begins around 1 or 2pm on Saturday, at the latest. Because it's multiple tables, with typically around 20 players coming, it means I have to set up 3 tables just in case I get last minute extra players. Then there's the chips, cards, buttons, snack tables etc. Plus I usually use a leaf blower to clean out the garage first. And then I also go to the store for snacks. All told, with this trip included, set up at a pace that isn't frantic is at least 3 hours.
And then sometimes it's too hot to play in the garage, so I have to set up on the patio, which adds another hour.
Anyways, I'm not complaining really - I've always enjoyed these duties, and the reward of hosting a game that everyone loves has been more than worth it.
But lately, when it comes to poker, my mind has been on a bit of a wanderlust; that is, as the game in my garage goes on, so too does the game at large; and increasingly that's where my thoughts and body go.
I've recognized over the past few years, that poker is much larger than my little monthly Saturday night party. I've been hosting these big tournaments because I enjoy it, but also because I felt in the past that if I didn't, I wouldn't be playing too much poker.
These days, I average one Sunday a month at the Bike or Commerce, in their daily tournament; I also take time every other week during the week to go to a home game in North Hollywood or Garner's game out near Culver City. So were my game to disappear entirely, I would still be playing a substantial amount.
With this in mind, I lately have been asking myself - is the work and time I put in to hosting a big monthly multi-table tournament worth it? Looking at this with total honesty and transparency I can say there are for sure pros and cons.
PROS:
- I have a roster of over 70 players, 2/3 of which make it out at least once a year and 1/3 of which make it almost every month. They love the game, and by and large they are all nice people.
- I take a lot of pride in running the best home poker game that I've ever played in; I've played in some lovely home games, but none even come close to the level of organization and finesse that mine has.
- There is at this point, a rather long history of this game. A perpetual plaque on the wall has six names for player of the year over the better part of the past decade; even before things got all official, we've been playing in this garage for almost 10 years. I would hate to see that simply up and vanish.
But then there are a few cons -
CONS:
- I increasingly look at my game as more of an obligation than something I enjoy. I'd say the ratio is now 60/40 obligation to enjoyment. It used to be about 80/20 in the reverse. This is because of two things...
- Longtime players that I'd grown quite fond of, are no longer playing. Some have moved away, some have moved on to other things, and even a couple have left this earth. Most notably one of the rocks (not rock as in tight player, but rock as in reliably always at the game and a great guy) recently had a blow up with another player and now refuses to show up when he does. Another huge rock just moved to Florida. So now I don't have them, and they've been replaced with younger and perfectly nice people, but not people that I have a decade long friendship with. Honestly, it's been tough because I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the social aspect of the game until some of my best buds were gone.
- I have a never ending hunger to improve my game and get good results out in the wild (in card rooms and casinos) and I don't know if the game in my garage with randoms who often are terrible players (though lovely people) is doing my game more harm than good. It does boost my confidence somewhat to beat up on other players who think they're hot shit but really are just toddlers in the game, but that's about the only positive thing. And really, it's not that positive. These are nice folks that I barely know, and it doesn't help my heart very much to run them over - I'd much rather pummel fish in a casino, not nice kids who just want to enjoy their evening.
Ultimately though, I can come up with a list of good and bad things about the monthly tournaments in my garage, but it really boils down to one question - "Is hosting this game going to get me closer to my goal?"
What is my goal? Well it hit me last night light a bolt of lighting - so hard that I shot up off of the couch.
I was watching the Main Event of the WSOP, thinking about how much I admired the guys around the featured table and thinking to myself - they're very good, because they play every day, I may never be that good; but I'm certainly capable of it. I really know I can do it - within the framework of my life that I love. I can be there some day.
And so that's it - I have to make this decision about my Saturday game, keep it the same or take a break - based on my one goal; the goal of succeeding in large poker tournaments. There's good things about it, maybe more good things than bad things, but that's not material. What matters ultimately is this one question and my one desire.
Here's exactly what I want - I've cashed for 1, 2 even 3 thousand dollars before. I'm really aiming to the upper four figures or even five figures. I've got the $2700 thing, now I'm ready for the $8000 thing or even the $17,000 thing or yes, maybe even the $43,000 thing.
I know I can do it, with more serious play under my belt - and the Saturday tournament in my garage, lovely as it it, is not serious play.
So, Saturday tournament, this is the truth - it's not you, it's me.
We only get one life, so I have to use it with me in mind, and in this case, I'm going to give up my Saturday tournament hosting duties for awhile - to concentrate on me and what I want. To drastically improve my game and to see big results in a large (for me) buy-in tournament.
To this end, I still very much plan to keep playing poker in my garage.
Rather than a big elaborate multi-table event once a month on a Saturday that takes up 4 hours of set-up and 7 hours of playing, I think I will be much better served by hosting a very simple one table poker night that takes 10 minutes to set up and that happens during the week.
The plan is to come home from work, pull up in my driveway around 6:30, open the garage door, plop open a table, drag some chairs over, then pull out the cards and chips (which will already be set up to hand out in stacks) and then go inside and have a nice dinner. I'll return at 7:25 to sit down and welcome players at the table, take their monies, punch up the tournament software on my i-pad and start.
Water will already be in the cooler, nuts and bowls on the shelf. Music will be via my i-phone and jbl charge. No preparation for anything else.
I'd love for this to happen every other Wednesday night. Every 3 or 4 tournaments or so, we'll break it up with a low stakes cash game or maybe even a tournament different from NLHE such as Omaha/8 or HORSE.
I realize that I very well may be killing the golden goose here, no doubt I will lose quite a few players, hopefully not too many regulars. It would be a shame to not be able to have a full table every week, but I'm prepared to live with it, or even potentially the loss of my game entire.
My poker education has to come first, and I have no doubt that I will get LOADS more benefit in hosting a bi-weekly single table full of folks that I know well and whose games I respect and who I can talk poker with during and after.
I wrote up a whole post, similar to this one but maybe not quite so revealing, and was going to post it on the Pepper Street blog as an announcement that the Saturday tournaments were coming to an end, but now I think I'll just shorten the post tremendously, leaving out explanations and simply stating that we're on a break from the Saturday MTT's. People in general, unless they are my close friends, don't really give a shit why things are changing and really, I don't blame them.
So, that's why I have this post here. It feels good to really articulate why this change has come about.
In the end, if my game does implode, it won't be the end of the world. I have a couple of nice home games that I can always attend - and there's always the Bike and Commerce with their low cost dailies that are great venues for working hard and seriously on my game. Best of all, no bruised egos and no hurt feelings - at least on my end or with people that I am familiar with and also trying to entertain and host. I think my game will get better when I can leave the hosting duties to the professionals - and those hosting duties that I do take on are much less taxing.
I'm excited about this big change in my poker life, I like that I am choosing to focus more on the game and learning from my good friends; I am relieved that I don't have such a large obligation to entertain entirely on my shoulders anymore. Can't wait for next year to start!
EDIT / ADDENDUM
I never rush into big decisions like this and change things immediately, I like to 'sleep on it' so to speak - give myself time to think about and mentally digest. Writing about a big decision is one form of this digestion, and after writing the above, I'm having a bit of a change of heart.
I still want to cut way down on the Saturday tournament, but doing away with it entirely seems a bit too much. As I said above, there is a history here - a perpetual plaque on the wall and a legacy of sorts that I would hate to see vanish.
So my tentative plan right now, at least until I change my mind again, is to still throw Saturday night tournaments, probably once every two or three months or so - doubling the buy-in at least so people will feel it's worth coming out and playing for; and making it a biggish deal. Stay tuned, I may change my mind yet again before the year is up.
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