I’m all for going with instinct in poker, but only when the moment dictates it. Our instincts were built for making knee-jerk decisions about fleeing from predators or bagging a wild boar for dinner, not whether the button is making a move again. If the difference for us between life and death hinges on such decisions, then so much the better for those with keen instincts. Poker, however, is a much deeper subject.
There will be hands where split-second, hair-trigger psychology is all you can rely on to come up with the right answer. But don’t believe the hype – these times are hugely outnumbered by the cases where calm, collected, analytical thinking is what will make you a better player.
Get your notebook ready
Tracking your results is the cornerstone of this. Instinct is remarkably poor at telling you whether you’re better at cash games or tournaments, low stakes or mid, and so on. Your emotions will tend to put too much weight on a tournament that you won only after a massive outdraw, too little weight on those unglamorous low-stakes cash games which you crush, and so on.
When you put the facts down on paper, it’s much more difficult to disagree with them. Remember: you track your results precisely to remove the emotional element from the game. A serious poker player wants to know a number of things about their game, and these involve keeping in-depth records.
Note that we are not talking about individual hands here – although recording them is also important. To do this just make a quick note of the facts and fill in the blanks after the session. In the cold light of day you can work out equities properly and compare strategies. This is a great way to improve at poker, and the more you do it, the more your ‘instincts’ will reward you in the heat of the moment.
Recording overall results, however, is even more important and many players don’t do it enough. If you genuinely want to improve, it’s important to target the right areas you need to work on – and this involves getting the right information. Doing this will help you to:
1. Choose what level to play at and determine whether you’re ready to go up a level;
2. Find out whether or not you’re a money-making player at each variant (e.g. cash or tournament; Omaha or hold’em);
3. Cross-compare your results with other players (e.g. well-known pros).
Some of these things can have a significant effect on your psychology. For example, when you’re on a big downswing knowing that you are a long-term winning player helps you cope. Even the best have to suffer long dry periods!
How to track your results
Once you’ve decided to start tracking and analysing your results, you need to set up a system with which to do so. A spreadsheet is probably the best way to keep track of your poker results, as it means all sorts of fancy calculations are possible, including finding out how you fare at different levels, disciplines, and so on.
The following is a summary of the data you should consider recording when playing poker.
Buy-in for tournaments and big blind for cash games. In general, the higher the stakes, the better the opposition. While this may seem obvious, it’s amazing how many players record how they run without breaking it down into different levels. Doing so will give you a much better handle on your comfort zone both in bankroll terms and skill level.
Omaha or hold’em? Turbo tournaments or regular? Are you a heads-up specialist, or are you only crushing the full-ring games? The more data you can furnish yourself with here, the better.
Date is important, because, obviously, you want to know whether you’re getting better over time! The time of day is also important – most writers claim they have a time of day when they’re really firing and this is probably true for poker players too. You never know, you might pick up on how those drunken SNGs after the pub are actually doing your bankroll serious damage...
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Position/players (tournaments only)
It’s important to note not only where you came in a tournament, but how many runners there were. Tournament size might be affecting your results. For example, aggressive players tend to have more polarised results for big tournaments – either they bust out early or build up a big stack and go on to place high.
The bottom line – and the measure of success in poker (agreed, players who get lucky and win big in tournaments have a skewed sample). Record every session, big or small, and every bonus, rakeback dollar, and so on – this is how you know whether you’re any good or not!
Some players can maintain focus for 12 hours straight, others need a break every two hours or so. When you ‘feel’ like a break and when you are at your most money-making might not be the same – help determine what works for you with cold, hard, stats, rather than relying on instinct.
Again, some prefer to concentrate on one table at once, others are multi-tabling maniacs. Keep detailed results of what works best. For example, I’ve noticed that I struggle to play Omaha and hold’em simultaneously. David Benyamine has no problem with it. Guess that’s why he’s the one playing in Bobby's Room.
Analysing your results
It’s one thing to create a mountain of data about your play, it’s another to know what to do with it. So, what are the main points to follow when analysing your results?
First of all, it’s important to be consistent. There is no use recording your results only when you feel like it. It’s too easy to claim after the fact that ‘That session didn’t count’ or ‘I was only practising at the higher level to see what it was like.’
The other major lesson to remember is just how long ‘the long run’ is. Plenty of people complain when recording their results that they are actually getting worse, but this is usually only a random blip in the data, and they can last a long time in poker! It’ll take a while before you post enough results to have a decent sample size, so keep going.
There are certain key figures which will be easy to calculate if you record the data as we suggested above. For example, your tournament ROI statistic is determined by dividing your total winnings in tournaments by your gross investment in them (the resulting figure should be expressed as a positive or negative percentage). Read up on how other players interpret their notes and do the same so you can you cross-compare.
Keep your perspective
Others lie about their results but you shouldn’t. Be consistent with yourself and don’t let your prejudices sway your perception of the figures. You may believe you’re better than break-even at low stakes SNGs, but if your records say otherwise (certainly over the long run), let them do the talking.
Last of all, don’t get obsessed! It’s easy to let recording the data become the end in itself; it isn’t. Never forget the reason you play poker is either to have fun or make money (hopefully both!). Upswings and downswings have a profound effect on your psychology (it’s those pesky instincts again), so don’t let them have a distracting effect on your game.
Statistics are a snapshot of the world and that’s how they should be treated – not as gospel, but as an aid to your increased understanding of the game.