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One player's log: Florida $100 games not suiting him well
I keep a log of my winnings and losings, but I'm a small-time player, less than $100. But an acquaintance of mine sent me his recent log, under the promise of anonymity. Plus an interesting analysis:
If you're hard-core, read this:You might be interested in the results of my recent 4 month plotting of my wins and losses. Basically, I learned that I could have earned at least $8,000 more in the last 4 months by not playing those stupid $100 entry 5/10 cash games and by not playing low entry tournaments unless it’s to employ or test new strategies.
Here’s the results of the last 4 months or 122 days. There are 3 categories. These are significant wins, significant losses, and a combined category of nominal wins and losses. I consider wins and losses of under $400 a session to be nominal.
My overall record is 20 wins, 11 losses, and 33 other.
# DESCRIPTION COST/ENTRY $ / WON NET EARNINGS
20 WINS - $7,625.00 $59,165.00 $ 51,540.00
11 LOSSES - $6,925.00 - $10,150.00 - $ 17,075.00
33 NOMINALS * - $ 8,975.00
TOTALS + $ 25,490.00
· Over the 33 nominal losses the average loss was $271.97 per session. 3 wins of over $2,000 were excluded from the nominal data by definition and applied to wins.
Under the aegis of either self-delusion or rationalization, I had actually believed that I was doing OK at the cash games until I data mined over the last many hours and proved myself wrong. I was a big winner at the sit and goes especially the $250 ones. All you had to do was finish in the top 3 out of 10 players. I am easily in the top 10% of all Broward County players and it is a no brainer to maintain in the top 30%.
My data also reveals that my most productive tournament level is the $550. It sounds counter-intuitive to pay more up front with only the top 10% cashing but for me it is the right thing to do. It is far better to make one $550 investment than to have your wallet drip $271.97 thirty-three times. Kind of like those dripping faucets that go 24/7 can usually fill 3 bath tubs multiple times a week one drip at a time.
I’ve also proved to myself that I perform better against better players. The bad players are just far too unpredictable and the $100 low cash entry allows for permanent short stacks. You always have callers. Even the odds of winning with pocket aces drop from over 80% with one caller to around 60% with just 2 callers. If you get 8 callers you might as well muck the aces and play suited connectors.
The data is kind of eye-opening, huh? The cash game data would not be relevant anywhere but Broward County (actually, Florida) with the $100 limit to no limit. I really can do well at $500 minimum buy ins with no maximum.
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, early training for his...
Comments
Not Surprising.
The $100 maximum buy-in here in Florida for a no limit $5-$10 hold'em game is simply a very bad investment.
Most pro's will tell you that they will not buy into a no-limit game unless they can buy in for at least 50 big blinds.
The only game in Fla that offers that is $1-$2
Otherwise the need to, and tendency towards gambling rather than playing poker is to great.
Poker is not sopposed to be a game of luck. It is a game of skill but when you force gambling into your game you are also forcing luck (good or bad)
Stick with the $1-$2 games until nexy July when the limits should go up to $300
Posted by: Mojo | September 9, 2008 10:40 AM