goin semi pro

I started playing poker about 4 - 5 months ago and I started playing poker for money for the first time a little less than 3 months ago, I feel that these months I have not really been making what I should for the time invested, what I have done is built a nice starting bankroll and learned alot about the game of poker, so as of June 1st I set a goal for myself and that is to average 10$ US per hour, playing 20$ SnG tourneys, I have been recording all the information so far and will continue to do so for the rest of the month, trying to make it a part time job. So far I am up about 160$ and am averaging 101$ US per hour, I know i can't keep that up, but it's definatly a good start. just wondering if anyone else out there keeps track of all the information like there hours played, amount won per hour etc, and if theres a program that does it?, i just built an excel spreadsheet with formulas that seems to do the job but i was wondering if theres anything better? Oh and also wish me luck in my experiment for the next month :)

Poker Tracker will record all of this for you, tells you where you have placed in all your SnGs, you're avg finish, total buy-in, amount won, and of course profit and it has an hourerly rate.

check it out www.pokertracker.com

Its $55 i think, but its money well spent.

O yeah, break a leg :)

hey maxx!

first off - good luck! coincidentally (and inspired by toasty's plans), june is going to be $20 SNG month for me as well. i don't really have a goal other than wanting to focus on what i've been most successful at, employing what i think is a pretty solid strategy, and seeing how i do.

briefly, i started playing end of march, was up by ~$230 by mid may (had a really good run of SNG's), and lost all my winnings by end of may.

so, i did some analysis of what's happening (i use excel to track winnings, session info, etc) and determined that i'm:

- getting killed in 6 person NL
- losing a little in .5/1 and 1/2 limit
- losing in $5 SNG
- making a little in $10 SNG
- doing alright in NL ring games
- doing pretty well in $20 SNG

i think i'll be getting poker tracker very soon. i've filled up the demo copy, and like what i see so far.

let us know how you do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fishstick

i think i'll be getting poker tracker very soon. i've filled up the demo copy, and like what i see so far.

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I get a kick out of reviewing my biggest losing hands every now and then.

It usually looks something like this:
Rivered
Rivered
Rivered
Trapped
Bad Call
Rivered
Rivered
Bad Fold
...

Anyway, I've already plugged up one major leak because of it (playing way too loose from my small blind.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fnord

I get a kick out of reviewing my biggest losing hands every now and then.

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i'm almost afraid of what i'll find out: (computer automated voice) "you only play well from the BB with Q3 offsuit."

I've found the poker tracker info very useful.

A few highlights:

I am making lots of money from the big blind, but losing almost as much from the SB.

UTG, UTG + 1 and Button and Button -1 are all money makers. I lose from mid-position. I'm sure thats because I play very tight early, and have postion late. I need to tighten up or play more aggressively from mid-position.

Money making hands - believe it or not, TT and JJ are two of the top five. AA, KK are both up there. AK, AKs are now making money for me. QQ is a good hand but I had two huge losses that skew the results. I get mixed results with Axs and I'm re-thinking how I play those hands. Small suited connectors have been better for me than Axs.

I'm putting together a post summarizing how I've been playing TT and JJ based on the data in PT. The real nice thing is that you have the hand histories so handy and always easy to find.

I also go through my last couple of sessions before I play and look at any big losers as a reminder of what some of my problems have been. Helps me get in the right frame of mind.

I've also just started using the "tourney time" and "game-time" windows as a replacement for the site notes feature. Its pretty helpful and lets you see stats and notes from anybody you've played against.

Heatman, is this just No Limit? How many hands do you have?

I'm at work, so going from memory I have about 3500 hands mixed between NL, Limit and now a few tournaments.

The results above are pretty representative of the mix, although I've played a lot more limit since getting poker tracker.

One thing that's tough is that the tournament stuff throws you off because at the end you end up with such big pots with relatively weak hands. Since those are two different views, its easy to split the NL, LHE from the tournaments, but the tournament data is always suspect.