Life without poker tracker

For various reasons I’ve been without poker tracker for the past 10days and I’ve come to realise even more what a great bit of software it is. Playing 30k hands a month it’s impossible to remember and classify every person you come across. I’ve been using PT for so long now it’s quite scary when it’s not there, I’ll often make a call based on just the basic info PT provides. I've only ever used it for cash games but recently they have added support for Crypto STTs and MTTs.

Also, a must have is GameTime+, it’s a free add-on for PT that overlays the key PT stats directly onto the poker table. You can configure it so that hands are uploaded every few mins and updated on the screen in real time…. Very useful when some bloke you have not played against for 4months sits next to you. I’ll get round to covering some more detailed aspect of PT in later blogs. I’ve added a link into PT here on my page, and yes it is my affiliate link, I shall spend the $10 for each purchase wisely! :o)






On the game front, I didn’t play much over the weekend as we were away visiting friends. After a bit of a turbulent week everything came up roses on Friday as good cards were paid off hand after hand for a nice £2.5K in double quick time, that was on £2/5 as well. It put a ray of light into what was otherwise a poor January, but more of this later.

The hand of the day was a joy to behold and more or less played itself, however it does validated the point I made a few blog entries ago about not laying down bottom/middle set.

I picked up 4h4d on the button and called £10 to see a 3 way flop.

4s 2c 6h

All the money from all three players went in on the flop for a £1302 pot…. First guy flips 77 and the second flips 99!! There were no miracle cards for anyone and I was left there and updating my player notes for these two jokers with a smile on my face.

If only it was always this easy, it just demonstrates the crap people will not only stick their chips in with… but call with as well!!

GL

Jim

PS Congrats to Hawko who finally won a seat to a EPT event :)

Looking after you margins Pt2 .. Rakeback

I’m always amazed how many people playing regular poker at a fairly decent level still don’t have a clue about rakeback. Rakeback can make a bad month look Ok, when it comes to getting an edge it is one of the biggest ways to boost that bank roll month after month.

To be fair most of the mid level semi-pro grinders have decent deals set up, but it’s always worth keeping an eye out and making sure the figures add up, as an example below will demonstrate.

First of all, what is rake back?
sorry to those of you sucking eggs here)

Rakeback usually applies to cash games (but some rooms do offer to return a % of tournament entry fees as well). In each hand the house takes a % of the pot, this is usually 3% capped at £3 (as Rob mentioned in the comments from the previous post there is a $3 cap on the $ tables so why does anyone play the £ table!?!?!?). Rakeback is where the house will credit you back with a % of the rake that you have contributed over the previous month.


How do you get it?

Several methods of receiving rakeback….

1: Contact the poker room direct and ask for a deal, you are more likely to get a deal if you play a lot of poker.
2: Sign up with an affiliate who will pay you the rakeback themselves (some risk here!)
3: Sign up with an affiliate who has a deal with the poker room so that the room will credit your account direct. (as search on the web will reveal numerous examples)
4: Sign up direct with one of the growing number of rooms who are offering rakeback to each and every person on the site, irrespective of the amount they play.


Is it worth while!?…

Rakeback can turn a non-profit making player into a profitable one, it’s as simple as that… it’s not unusual for people to receive £1K + per month in rakeback. As a rule the more you play the better the deal, 20%-35% is the norm. Some of the guys who multi table 24x7 receive several thousand pounds per month in rakeback alone. As a rough guide you will get about £70 per 1000 hands playing £2/5 NL on a 30% RB deal. If you are playing 30000 hands a month, you are earning significantly more than the annual UK wage just in rakeback.


Things to keep an eye out for…

If you are going to do the deal through an affiliate then do some research and get one that is reliable. Try and get one that has the poker room pay direct into your account. There have been some horror stories of affiliates doing a runner with the monthly payments. If in doubt it is possible to negotiate direct with the poker room in some cases.

The headline % is not always what it seems to be. I was caught out with this for a month when a rival poker room offered me a better deal. You need to ask if the % rakeback is based on your gross rake generated or the net rake (after the room has deducted costs).

Several months ago I was on a 25% deal … this was based on the gross rake I generated. So if I generated 4K rake in a month I’d get 1k back.

I was then offered a 30% deal. However, it was not obvious this was based on net rake after poker room costs. The costs were 30%. So the net rake was only paid on 70% of my gross rake generated!

70% of 4K is 2.8K…
30% of 2.8K is 840…. I’m loosing out to the tune of £160 a month!!! WTF!

A lot of players are still on this deal with a well known card room and accept their monthly payments without question…like I said it pays to check the numbers and look after your margins.

For those of you with poker tracker I’ve got a useful bit of code that you can drop into the Access database. This will work out how much rakeback you should be receiving on a monthly basis. Drop me a mail if you want a copy.


Cheers,

Jim

Looking after your margins...pt 1

Now those of you who know me will recognise that I tend to like to do things well, I'm a great believer in you pay for what you get. I drive nice car, I like good wine, good food, good hotels and I'm lucky enough to live in a nice house in a nice area....I like to think that if something's worth doing, and you can afford it, then it's worth doing properly.

Now just because I'll pay an extra tenner for a bottle of vino from Oddbins does not mean I'm going to give free money to others (last night on 5/10 was an exception by the way!) ... and especially not to the poker companies who are already raking it in (literally!)

Poker = business, and in business you look after your margins, so if you can find an edge or a saving you need to exploit it, no matter how small a dividend it pays.

So here's my 1st pearl of wisdom... and I'm slightly hesitant to write this because it does not seem to bother many people...... maybe i'm missing something really obvious.

Most people who read this will be UK based. The on-line poker skins that offer £ accounts are in the minority but there are still plenty of them around.... Hills, Betfair , StanJames etc etc. Most of the US rooms Stars, Party etc etc will only offer $ accounts.

I can not understand why any UK based player would want to play on a $ account.

I'm not talking about $ tables (where you cash in and out at the same rate) I'm talking about the currency of the account where the poker room holds your money.

I had a conversation with the (self proclaimed) best player on Crypto 2/5 recently. He'd just joined Sun poker room on the Crypto network as they give a better rakeback deal and via an affiliate you can get a trip to the LV and a few $K to buy in to some of the minor WSOP events. Now the trouble is Sun only do $ accounts. I asked him to check his last withdrawal statement , it worked out at about £1.1k in his bank account, I ran the same transaction through Thomas Cooks web site and they would have given him £1.2k for the same amount in $ he cashed out!!!

This was a month or so ago and I didn't make a note of the exact figures .... but a self imposed gift to the card room of this size is not the smart move for a serious player.... no wonder they can afford to give a few % extra rake. Also, this does not include the exchange hit for moving the £s in either!

Since then I've spoken to a few people (non-casual players) that I know play on skins with $ accounts, I've asked them all about the exchange rates in and out and without fail the answer has been "Umm .... dunno!" ....madness!

As I said, I've not looked into this in detail and measured it as I dont have a $ account anywhere, feel free to comment and tell me I'm talking crap. It would be interesting to run some a tests to see exactly how much the hit is and extrapolate it across a 12month period to see how much it really does cost per annum. I can't find any info published by any of the main rooms or neteller on their daily exchange rates either..... I can't think why!

I have seen somewhere that there are complex ways to reduce the hit by paying in via Switch to Party Poker and then using a $ Neteller a/c, it goes something like this.....

£ Bank Account... switch payment to PartyPoker account in $.... Party withdraw to Neteller $ account.... Neteller to Sun poker room $... win a fortune.... Sun poker room to netteller... neteller to Party.... party $ to switch £ bank A/C


I'm not sure how much this would save (or if they let you do it) , again it needs some measurement........ IMO its easier to play on £ account.

Cheers,

Jim

Two little ducks get fu......

I said that I wouldn’t bore you too much with the days to day hum-drum hands and figures. Well that rule didn’t last long!

I had the misfortune to lose the single biggest cash pot I’ve ever lost today, so that’s got to be worth a post hasn’t it?

I’d had a fairly dull morning session on £2/5 running 3 tables with no action. I decide I needed to do something else and took the opportunity get a few jobs out of the way over my lunch break. A few hours later I returned and spotted some value on a £5/10 table that looked a little lively, so I jumped in and kicked another £2/5 session off. I then proceeded to hit the deck in the face on both tables and within an hour I’d doubled to £2000 on 5/10 and trebled to £1600 on 2/5… lovely!

On reflection I should have jumped ship with the £1000 profit on 5/10, as I told Rob in the comments on my last post, I rarely venture into £5/10. Anyway, to cut a long story short I ran slap bang into the other guy on the table who was anywhere near covering my stack with 22 on a 2s 4d Qs flop... all the money went in on the flop for a £3615 pot! He flips 44.

Maybe I could have got away from his re-raise all-in, but I’m with Harrington when it comes to laying down sets on those kind of flops... I don’t!

You see people get the money in with far less time after time, imo it’s a loosing play laying down this hand in the long run. I probably walk into set over set about once or twice a month. I view it as an expense and I usually pay them off.

It didn’t upset me that much to be honest. It’s not like I got sucked out and I’d basically lost most of what I’d won in the previous hour… easy come, easy go!

The only frustrating thing is that it happened in the biggest game I’d played for some time, while I’m sat with over £2k and against the other big stack at the table.

Them’s the breaks.

Good luck

Jim

First 6 months and measuring success

I’ve be playing to pay the bills now for about 6 months. There’s no doubt it does have an impact on your game, especially when you first start.

I record a daily profit and loss account and operate on a 'month end' basis. At the end of each month the online account is cleared down to a set level (or increased!), the living expenses are deducted from the bankroll, any excess is creamed off and the bankroll and reserve figure for the month ahead are calculated.

So far it’s been pretty good. Of course success is relative, some people win or blow my annual income in a single session! Having said that the sums we are talking about are significant.... but not obscene.

A basic measure of success is paying the bills, as I've already stated, the agreement with the Mrs was to stump up a poker subsidy of £1k per month to the house current account. If this dries up then I have to go back full time. If I can pay this out without touching the bankroll then its a neutral month. In reality my rakeback (more on rakeback in a later post) should more than cover this, so all I'd have to do is keep out of the red at the tables to meet the basic objective. Easy huh?....

So hows it gone so far....?

I'm not sure its a great idea to plaster the £ figures all over the blog, I certainly won't be doing it on a daily basis as a lot of people do. However, if people are going to read this and continue to read it then its only right that you have an idea of what a good/bad month could entail. Poker, afterall, is all about the "money" and as such I'm happy to list a quick summary of what it's been like for the first few months with some figures to back it up....

August: This was a good month, we were thumping the Aussies at the cricket and confidence was high for the new venture, with a full bankroll to start off. A hospitality invite to day 2 at Trent bridge from Betfair did nothing to dampen the mood! I'd also just received an annual bonus from work that took the pressure off the finances for the 1st month. Things went well at the tables and month end saw me looking at a positive of around £8k. This was a great start, the bank roll was maxed out and this enabled me to boost the reserve fund, pay the bills and squirrel away a nice lump sum away from the poker funds.

Sept: Things went a little quiet in Sept. I had a bad start and then spent the rest of the month struggling to get it back in the black. I've found that i'll often have a dip after a good month and it's something I need to work at sorting out. The 2nd half of the month was better and once the rakeback was paid in I was able to pay the bills and cream a little off as well.

Oct: Hmmmm here where it all went wrong! The first 20 days were very good. Heading for a month somewhere similar to August, then for some reason a few bad days put me on tilt and before you know it I'm a few £K in the red for the month... this is not good and a big swing considering my bank roll. I've had a few swings like this in the past and fortunately they are becoming less frequent. I think the key is spotting it early and walking away for a few days.... this time I didn't!! After I'd 'paid the bills' the bank roll was about £3k down and would need to be topped up from profit over the next few months. It's worth noting that if I'd not had such a good start to the month then the roll would be in dire straights! Maybe the roll level I maintain needs to be upped? Having said that I feel that if I've not had such a good start to the month then I would not have tilted so badly and reality would have kicked in a little sooner than it did.

Nov and Dec: These were carbon copy months, the bank roll was down and needed a top up, so solid, low risk poker was the order of the day. I started off playing more $2/5 as opposed to £s to make it easier, a good start saw confidence return and I was soon on the £ tables with the odd dabble in $5/10. I managed to deliver and both months showed a healthy £5-6K positive. This was helped in December by a 17th place in the Crypto Christmas Cracker Tournie (I tend only to play in the odd big prize tournie) for about £1.7K. The roll was topped up, the bills paid and nice sum creamed off the top again.

So all in all, not a bad 2005. Room for improvement? For sure... but I'd consider it a success. I've definitely been playing a little better since I went part time. I'm slightly more thoughtful in the games now and have cut down on the 'bad months' that can damage your average performance so much.

Targets are being set for 2006 and a modest £40k pa should be very achievable playing £2/5NL with a level head. We shall see!

PS... I've enabled anonymous comments on the blog so feel free to say hi, it's good to know people are reading. Also if anyone wants to swap links to their blog, then drop me a mail.

Cheers,

Jim

ActionJack slips Wonky a big purple one!

Last night was the Blonde bash at the Broadway casino in Birmingham, 100 odd members from the Blonde forum made it to Birmingham to play a £30 double chance frezeout. MrsSplash tagged along for her 2nd live game ever and lots of fun was had by all. Great mix of people from beginners to seasoned pros from the circuit.

I had Paul ‘ActionJack’ Jackson to my left in the tournie, nice chap. Things were going pretty well at the 1st break, I’d turned my initial 5k into 9.5k and was well above ave…..

AJ was friendly enough and with regards to the big purple one….. it was a 5k chip!

I’d like to talk you through the pot where I got my hands on it but he actually just needed change. I told him I’d title todays blog “Action Jack slips Wonky a big purple one!” , he said “No… people will think I’m gay!!”

All I can say is……….. I’m comfortable with my sexuality! ;)

After the break played one pot badly and lost about 4k. As a rule it’s not the greatest idea to try and bluff at someone who’s just picked up 400k in Monte Carlo… especially in a £30 comp!

Went card dead for a little while and then go moved to the same table as the Mrs… she’d was sat there nursing a mico-stack and seemed happy to see me! Three hands later and I’m on the BB for 800 with pocket Jacks…. I’ve got about 4k left, someone in mid position pushes in for about 3k … everyone else is folding and I’m about to get them in when Jen from blonde pushes in from the SB….. now Jen can play a bit and I’ve got a decision to make…. after a brief dwell I stick em in and I’m happy to see mateyboy on JTos and Jen on AQos….. not quite so happy to see the Ace on the flop and the case Jack is not forthcoming….

The scant consolation was that the Mrs took great satisfaction form outlasting me…oh good!


A few beers at the bar with Rob (highstack) , Lisa (Zelda) and her fella Sven and Ian(Diva) and it was onto a cash game.

To say the cash game was crazy would be an understatement. It was low stakes 1 / 2 PLHE .. most were sitting with £200-£300. 1st hand was re-raise, re-raise, re-raise between Tony Kendall and M3boy from Blonde…. Tikay picked it up with 55 with plenty of nice overcards out! It set the tone for the game to follow....

I didn’t pick up a decent hand all evening, won a couple of minor hands to keep ahead of the blinds and took 2 mid sized pots down betting out the scare card with not a lot (honest ;) ) ….. Apparently in the 2nd of these I pushed Highstack off top pair … sorry Rob!

Shell was a bit knackered by this point so I decided to take the small profit and call it a night. The evening was great fun and very friendly! I would encourage all to take 5mins to check out the Blonde forum on www.blondepoker.com.

Cheers,

Jim

Bank Roll

When it come to playing serious poker…. and by that I mean poker that makes a difference to the bread and butter on your table… not the stakes! … The most important thing has got to be bank roll.

I’ve posted variations on this post on the Blonde forum, the Hendon Mob forum and the Betfair forum in that past and it’s always been well received, while I’m maybe not the the greatest player ever , I’ve got mi head screwed on when it comes to control and discipline. :)

When u have to rely on poker for income it’s simply essential that you avoid going broke.

On one of the shows on the poker channel the other week someone said (cant remember who, may have been Mike C)

A fantastic player with poor bank roll management will make less money in the long run than an average player with fantastic bank roll management.

Ive been playing for about 30months now and gradually worked my way up the ladder playing mainly cash games with the odd tournie dabble. When I was thinking of going part time in Jan 2005 I posted on the HM forum and got a fantastic response from the community (thanks by the way to , Junior and JT etc)

http://www.thehendonmob.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5874&highlight=


Once I’d bit the bullet in Aug 2005 having to rely on poker to pay the rent / keep the mrs happy was a little scary, but it did help focus the mind.

Out of my bank roll every month now I must pay the short fall in wages and top up my pension with the difference, that was the deal with the mrs (plus some DIY round the house )

The only thing that could ruin this new found life style that I love so much is going broke, as such I worked out a fairly robust bank roll system to insure against that eventuality, so far it’s worked just fine………...

The only thing it needs to work is discipline. Harder than it sounds!!

Rule 1: Keep living money and poker money totally separate.

Rule 2: No leakage!! Roulette , BJ, the nags!

Rule 3: Keep detailed daily records.

Work on the principle of having two pots Main Bank roll and a Reserve.

I started out with a nominal figure as a main bank roll. For the sake of argument say £10k.

Out of this I need to pay myself a wage of say 1k a month come hell or high water. If I make more than the required 1k in a month.

50% of the excess is paid into the poker reserve (instant access high rate savings account) and 50% goes to the household slush fund for holidays and fun stuff for me and the Mrs….. as it worked out after a few months this turned out to be the Mrs maternity fund!!!

Continue like this each month until the reserve gets to a comfortable level.... say 5k or maybe 10k?

You can only dip into the reserve when the main bank roll drops to 10% of its starting level (not happened yet, but got close once!!!)

Associated with the BR are strict rules on the level of game I can play. When it drops below 30% of its starting level I have to drop limits to protect the bank roll etc. Having the safety net of a reserve just takes the pressure off on a bad run and building it up in the manner outlined means you tuck away a little for a rainy day every time you have a good month.

To most of you I guess this sounds fairly draconian! It does need strict discipline to enforce, however it was set up to maintain my new lifestyle for as long as possible.

I cant imagine going back to full time work now and if I went bust that’s what id have to do!!

Cheers Jim.

Introduction.....

Well everyone else has a blog, so if you can’t beat them!

The blog is mainly for me to reflect on, however I think I can give a slant that most poker blogs don’t cover, sure there will be some hands and a few rants about two outer rivers , but I’m also keen to look at how quitting the rat race for poker works from a practical perspective.... finance, bank roll, health, working every edge etc etc

I’d been thinking about it for several months but the timing never seemed quite right. For many months the poker winnings had been rivaling the pay packet, but it’s a serious leap of faith walking into see the boss and explain why you only want to work half a week from now on. Finally in August 2005 I took the decision and with the blessing of the Mrs I went part time at work. From then I had to rely on poker for a serious slice of my monthly income.

Now for some people this maybe isn’t a big deal… but with a big mortgage and a baby on the way (I didn’t know it was on the way at the time!!) the pressure was on to perform and pay the bills.... this was no longer a hobby... it was serious!!

As far as I am concerned poker is a business now. Over the coming weeks and months, in addition to detailing the daily ups and downs, I’m going to lay out the sensible business case for what it takes to play poker for a living.... hope it can help some of you!!

Cheers,

Wonky