Keeping Records

Too many players fail to keep accurate records of their poker progress. However I think it's an essential requirement in order to, amongst other things, facilitate good bankroll management and discipline.

Without this data it's also difficult to gauge your ability as a poker player. It's human nature for most people to think they're doing better than they actually are without this information.

To me, it was particularly useful in order to make the decision to start playing poker full-time. I had a large enough sample of hands in order to confidently feel that I could rely on income from poker alone.

Anyone wishing to start keeping a record of their own progress may find this spreadsheet that I put together helpful:

Smart Money's Spreadsheet

Instructions are included, and you should also download the example version to help see how it works.


July Update

Click on the image below to enlarge.













In almost 3 years of playing poker I've never had so many days off as I have this month! I took my daughters to the beach (South Carolina) at the start of the month for 4 days, and then had another day off after playing right through (drunk) the previous night without any sleep!

For some variety I've played 6 MTTs this month too. I came 11th out of 210 in the Full Tilt monthly Ironman 30k Gtd. freeroll (basically for players who play a lot on the site.) $300 for that after losing an AK v QQ race for the lead. That jammy bastard went on to win the $5,300 1st prize. :)

I've also played 5 x 45-man $22 MTTs. The standard is absolutely dire. I've had a 1st and a 2nd in those, so I may continue to play some MTTs alongside the cash tables. (I played the MTT that I won tonight alongside 11 cash tables, and just closed down the cash tables when the final table started. So they needn't take my time away from playing cash.)

Other than that, it's been a pretty standard month. In fact, it's surprising how little variance I've seen since March when I started playing full-time. Average hourly rate by Month:

March: $91
April: $96
May: $91
June: $92
July: $99 (to date)

Month to date: $6,849 but I going back to the tables now for a short while. :)


Here's a nice $600+ pot from $1/$2 tonight:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2970651306: Table Lost Mesa - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:35:03 ET - 2007/07/17
Seat 1: She Can Play ($339.95)
Seat 2: mariojr ($298.50)
Seat 3: skarlghks ($184)
Seat 4: flhtsta1 ($142)
Seat 5: weasel95 ($200)
Seat 6: Narena ($214.30)
Seat 7: Reelyfe ($213.65)
Seat 8: LitezOut ($165.65)
Seat 9: PrairieG8 ($220)
PrairieG8 posts the small blind of $1
She Can Play posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Narena [3h 3d]
mariojr folds
skarlghks folds
flhtsta1 folds
weasel95 calls $2
Narena calls $2
Reelyfe folds
LitezOut folds
PrairieG8 folds
She Can Play raises to $9
weasel95 calls $7
Narena calls $7
*** FLOP *** [6h 3s 7c]
She Can Play bets $20
weasel95 raises to $191, and is all in
Narena calls $191
weasel95: doh!
She Can Play has 15 seconds left to act
She Can Play calls $171
*** TURN *** [6h 3s 7c] [3c]
She Can Play bets $15
Narena calls $14.30, and is all in
She Can Play shows [Kd Ks]
weasel95 shows [7s 6d]
Narena shows [3h 3d]
Uncalled bet of $0.70 returned to She Can Play
*** RIVER *** [6h 3s 7c 3c] [4s]
She Can Play shows two pair, Kings and Threes
Narena shows four of a kind, Threes
Narena wins the side pot ($28.60) with four of a kind, Threes
weasel95 shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes
Narena wins the main pot ($598) with four of a kind, Threes
She Can Play: great calls preflop guys

I did like the original raiser's comment (above) seeing as she called two deep-stacked all-ins on the flop that had limited draws out there.