Your sharkscope looks much worse than it is because of shots that didn't go well. Your graph filtered for £11 and under is actually really solid. 20% total ROI lifetime and up £1400 over £1100 games. For 2021 your total ROI is 30% at these stake levels. If you are unhappy with these results you do not have realistic expectations as to what is attainable from poker.
Your 'dismal' run is a breakeven stretch of fewer than 180 games. That is a nothing sample, it just feels worse than it is because you play so few games a night. Some pros will blast through that many games in one week.
What you're saying is actually very comforting, so thanks for that. I had not realised my ROI for £11 and under was that good, and I have no idea how you're seeing that. I can't find a way to filter sharkscope results. Maybe this is only a feature on the paid for version? I can roughly see what you mean on the "results by stake" page though.
180 games is a nothing sample, and that's the biggest frustration about poker by some distance in my eyes. It's so challenging to assess if you're actually improving or not without multi-tabling for several years. That's exactly why I'm having trouble justifying the "time-to-profit" ratio right now. If I am improving and there's a chance that one day I could start playing WSOP events competitively, then fine, I can justify the time input against future expected earnings. However, I don't have that data to say whether I'm actually improving or not. I think I'm improving, but it's largely impossible to say
Yes I have the paid version. You will never make significant amounts of money online if you don't multi-table and will be waiting a while between wins. If one or few tables is all that interests you, live poker would be where the highest ceiling of profit is as the buy ins are higher and the standard is lower. As a recreational it should not be about time to profit ratio, but about enjoying your hobby and maybe trying to win a little profit.
Yes I have the paid version. You will never make significant amounts of money online if you don't multi-table and will be waiting a while between wins. If one or few tables is all that interests you, live poker would be where the highest ceiling of profit is as the buy ins are higher and the standard is lower. As a recreational it should not be about time to profit ratio, but about enjoying your hobby and maybe trying to win a little profit.
I agree about multi-tabling, and I'm not looking to make significant amounts of money right now. However, I would have expected to have more £100+ scores than I have for example. My last major win was the mini back in July 2019. That doesn't seem good enough to me given that I have played ~95% of them since then.
I would play more tables if I were capable, but I am not there yet and I have always gone with the idea that I should get great at just one table before expanding that. However, I do get your point that I'm limiting my sample size hugely following this strategy.
Live poker and supplementary income is certainly what I am targetting long-term. The time-to-profit ratio is not necessarily just about my income from poker, but also my loss of earnings not spending this time elsewhere e.g. financial market research.
I guess my point is that I know I could be much better off than I am right now if I had not dedicated so much time to poker. The question is, will that time investment right now pay off in the long-term. I always thought the answer to this question was yes, but I am doubting that right now.
This is a really good discussion that I think might resonante with a few other people too, so thanks for the input.
"However, I would have expected to have more £100+ scores than I have for example"
Well this must have helped, in last night's Mini;
peter27 0 3 £79.21 + £39.30 Head Prizes 9
Well done mate.
Thank you. I actually learned something potentially significant during this tournament yesterday.
As everyone has probably realised from my recent posts, I am totally disenfranchised with poker at the moment. Resultantly, during the tournament yesterday, I really didn't care what happened to my stack, or my finishing position. I think I only looked at the lobby twice during the whole tournament. Due to being so uninterested, I realised I was actually playing a lot more "by the book" than normal. I think that maybe in all my other tournaments I have been subciously scared of busting out in the later stages - impacting my decisions in the process.
Something I need to think about and analyse some more, but maybe I have an adjustment to make here, and maybe this goes some way to explaining why I can typically reach the mid-to-late stages with ease, but struggle thereafter.
I have not played poker for over a month, and much to my surprise, I have not really missed it. A lack of tournament wins got me totally disenfranchised with the game, as you probably read above, to the point where playing was becoming a chore rather than fun. This in turn was impacting my concentration levels too.
My plan at the moment is that I will eventually come back to the game because I still see poker as something I can be successful in, and make significant profits from. However, it may be some time before I start playing again.
Football Manager is my favourite computer game of all time, and I have always had the idea of getting my local team growing up (Morecambe) promoted from League Two into the Champions League. In real life, Morecambe just got promoted into League One, which means it will not be possible for me to attempt my target next year. With that in mind, I am going to spend some time in the evenings each day playing the game and trying to get them promoted. Maybe when I complete this goal, I will come back to poker.
and I have always had the idea of getting my local team growing up (Morecambe) promoted from League Two into the Champions League. In real life, Morecambe just got promoted into League One,
-----
If your not feeling it best not to play imo . Think it will be quiet anyway for a while over summer.
Didn,t know you grew up in Morecambe - We must have been arch rivals - I was born and brought up in Lancaster until the age of 12. Lovely place
and I have always had the idea of getting my local team growing up (Morecambe) promoted from League Two into the Champions League. In real life, Morecambe just got promoted into League One,
-----
If your not feeling it best not to play imo . Think it will be quiet anyway for a while over summer.
Didn,t know you grew up in Morecambe - We must have been arch rivals - I was born and brought up in Lancaster until the age of 12. Lovely place
Well technically I grew up in Heysham, but that does make us arch-rivals. Being honest though, I always liked Lancaster too. I was briefly part of Morecambe's academy (when they were a conference side) and ended up playing at The Giant Axe a few times for friendly matches.
I actually played some poker yesterday!! One of my friends roped me into playing a £60 buy-in live tournament at Grosvenor in Leicester.
My expectation was to be very rusty, but in reality I immediately felt comfortable at the table and felt like I was playing decently - albeit without ever being fantastic.
I doubled my stack in the first hour, then had three consecutive losses which saw me bust out. Strangely, for all three hands I was holding AQo. Yep, got dealt AQo three times in a row, and lost with all three Enjoyed the game though.
I reckon I'm still another month or so off coming back to online poker "full time". Oh, for those wondering about my FM21 save, Morecambe are currently in the Championship but I might be getting relegated at the end of this season. Big issue is the reputation being low, just can not seem to attract players of sufficient quality.
Morecambe finally got promoted to the Premier League in 2033, and that pretty much concludes my journey on Football Manager. I may still play the occasional network game with friends, but in terms of hardcore dedicated play, I am done. It's time for me to start focussing on other things in life, one which being poker.
My game time on this FM21 save is almost 12 days! My lifetime FM game time must be in the 100-150 days range I started playing back in 2005.
Some people like looking back at long-term saves to see what happened, so if you have any requests just let me know. The one interesting thing I would point out is that the World Cup has been extremely kind to the "home nations".
Anyhow, over the coming week I will ramp down my time on FM and ramp up my time playing poker. That starts tonight as I will be playing a tournament or two on another site.
There are a few things I need to consider as I come back to the game.
How do I avoid becoming totally burned out, and needing another three month break? I think my solution to this is to allocate my "poker time" differently. Perhaps spending 95% of my time playing the game, rather than learning the game, was too one sided. I need to see poker as a learning process in the short-term, rather than a way to make money. I had put too much pressure on myself to achieve good results. Do I stick exclusively with 6-max? 6-max is my preferred game due to playing exclusively on Sky Poker for several years. Part of me thinks that 6-max is harder to master compared to a full ring game; more aggression needed, and higher variance too. My thought process here is that if I can master 6-max over the next x years, then the transition into full ring games in the future will be much easier. Also, maybe mixing and matching my game type would become overwhelming as I try to master different formats simultaneously. I certainly want to play more live poker though, but doing that only for 6-max seriously limits the available games. This is something I need to think about further. Input welcome.
Learning, learning & more learning. I tend to be quite an ambitious person, and while I am not aiming to become a pro necessarily, I do want poker to supplement my annual income over time. I also have the goal of cashing in a WSOP event. To achieve this, I really need to dedicate regular time to learning and researching. First step is trying to get my head around how PIO solver works. I have the software, but have never got my head around how it works.
Can't wait to get back on the tables. Really excited. Let's do this!
Comments
180 games is a nothing sample, and that's the biggest frustration about poker by some distance in my eyes. It's so challenging to assess if you're actually improving or not without multi-tabling for several years. That's exactly why I'm having trouble justifying the "time-to-profit" ratio right now. If I am improving and there's a chance that one day I could start playing WSOP events competitively, then fine, I can justify the time input against future expected earnings. However, I don't have that data to say whether I'm actually improving or not. I think I'm improving, but it's largely impossible to say
I would play more tables if I were capable, but I am not there yet and I have always gone with the idea that I should get great at just one table before expanding that. However, I do get your point that I'm limiting my sample size hugely following this strategy.
Live poker and supplementary income is certainly what I am targetting long-term. The time-to-profit ratio is not necessarily just about my income from poker, but also my loss of earnings not spending this time elsewhere e.g. financial market research.
I guess my point is that I know I could be much better off than I am right now if I had not dedicated so much time to poker. The question is, will that time investment right now pay off in the long-term. I always thought the answer to this question was yes, but I am doubting that right now.
This is a really good discussion that I think might resonante with a few other people too, so thanks for the input.
@peter27
"However, I would have expected to have more £100+ scores than I have for example"
Well this must have helped, in last night's Mini;
peter27 0 3 £79.21 + £39.30 Head Prizes 9
Well done mate.
As everyone has probably realised from my recent posts, I am totally disenfranchised with poker at the moment. Resultantly, during the tournament yesterday, I really didn't care what happened to my stack, or my finishing position. I think I only looked at the lobby twice during the whole tournament. Due to being so uninterested, I realised I was actually playing a lot more "by the book" than normal. I think that maybe in all my other tournaments I have been subciously scared of busting out in the later stages - impacting my decisions in the process.
Something I need to think about and analyse some more, but maybe I have an adjustment to make here, and maybe this goes some way to explaining why I can typically reach the mid-to-late stages with ease, but struggle thereafter.
Tournaments: 110
Buy-Ins: £825.18
Cashes: £809.79
FT's: 8
Wins: 1
I have not played poker for over a month, and much to my surprise, I have not really missed it. A lack of tournament wins got me totally disenfranchised with the game, as you probably read above, to the point where playing was becoming a chore rather than fun. This in turn was impacting my concentration levels too.
My plan at the moment is that I will eventually come back to the game because I still see poker as something I can be successful in, and make significant profits from. However, it may be some time before I start playing again.
Football Manager is my favourite computer game of all time, and I have always had the idea of getting my local team growing up (Morecambe) promoted from League Two into the Champions League. In real life, Morecambe just got promoted into League One, which means it will not be possible for me to attempt my target next year. With that in mind, I am going to spend some time in the evenings each day playing the game and trying to get them promoted. Maybe when I complete this goal, I will come back to poker.
and I have always had the idea of getting my local team growing up (Morecambe) promoted from League Two into the Champions League. In real life, Morecambe just got promoted into League One,
-----
If your not feeling it best not to play imo . Think it will be quiet anyway for a while over summer.
Didn,t know you grew up in Morecambe - We must have been arch rivals - I was born and brought up in Lancaster until the age of 12. Lovely place
My expectation was to be very rusty, but in reality I immediately felt comfortable at the table and felt like I was playing decently - albeit without ever being fantastic.
I doubled my stack in the first hour, then had three consecutive losses which saw me bust out. Strangely, for all three hands I was holding AQo. Yep, got dealt AQo three times in a row, and lost with all three
I reckon I'm still another month or so off coming back to online poker "full time". Oh, for those wondering about my FM21 save, Morecambe are currently in the Championship but I might be getting relegated at the end of this season. Big issue is the reputation being low, just can not seem to attract players of sufficient quality.
My game time on this FM21 save is almost 12 days! My lifetime FM game time must be in the 100-150 days range
Some people like looking back at long-term saves to see what happened, so if you have any requests just let me know. The one interesting thing I would point out is that the World Cup has been extremely kind to the "home nations".
Anyhow, over the coming week I will ramp down my time on FM and ramp up my time playing poker. That starts tonight as I will be playing a tournament or two on another site.
There are a few things I need to consider as I come back to the game.
How do I avoid becoming totally burned out, and needing another three month break?
I think my solution to this is to allocate my "poker time" differently. Perhaps spending 95% of my time playing the game, rather than learning the game, was too one sided. I need to see poker as a learning process in the short-term, rather than a way to make money. I had put too much pressure on myself to achieve good results.
Do I stick exclusively with 6-max?
6-max is my preferred game due to playing exclusively on Sky Poker for several years. Part of me thinks that 6-max is harder to master compared to a full ring game; more aggression needed, and higher variance too. My thought process here is that if I can master 6-max over the next x years, then the transition into full ring games in the future will be much easier. Also, maybe mixing and matching my game type would become overwhelming as I try to master different formats simultaneously. I certainly want to play more live poker though, but doing that only for 6-max seriously limits the available games. This is something I need to think about further. Input welcome.
Learning, learning & more learning.
I tend to be quite an ambitious person, and while I am not aiming to become a pro necessarily, I do want poker to supplement my annual income over time. I also have the goal of cashing in a WSOP event. To achieve this, I really need to dedicate regular time to learning and researching. First step is trying to get my head around how PIO solver works. I have the software, but have never got my head around how it works.
Can't wait to get back on the tables. Really excited. Let's do this!