A Plus B Equals C: A Poker Player's Worth is Judged by his Bottom Line
New poker strategies are so simple to implement: find out what works, do it over and over and count your profits.
Being a member of the Church of Texas Holdem is fantastic. Like all churches, you will receive regular donations from players, using our proven poker strategies to maximise the money they’re leaving in your collection plate.
However, there’s one thing you absolutely must do: keep records.
Church of Texas Holdem Psalm #3:
Thou must ...
...record thy wins and thy loses; for it is the sum of all a man’s achievements which create his bottom line.
Allow me to refer to a heathen’s viewpoint to explain why this, of all poker strategies, is so important.
Before I found (and founded!) the Church of Texas Holdem, I was lost in the wilderness. I went years without writing down a single entry in a poker diary or spreadsheet. Poker strategy was a foreign concept. I knew I was winning overall, because I started with $100 in December 2003 and had withdrawn many thousands of dollars.
But I had no idea how much I had won, how much I had withdrawn during a week, month or year, whether my experiments in limit cash games were successful, or anything actually useful. I was blind.
A simple spreadsheet gave me eyes.
Once I began making detailed notes, it clarified my success and failure at poker, as well as keeping me more focused. It really hurt to write down a loss. But the main difference was seeing on the page a record of my wins and withdrawls.
I realised that I could win, consistently, and the best proof of that was there in black and white. It’s very easy to keep ‘score’ of your achievements. You don’t need a degree in accounting, or specialist knowledge of spreadsheets. Even a simple Word file which you update manually with a calculator applet will suffice. It’s a lot better than guesswork.
Your notes should include the type of game you play, if you play more than one type. Examples are detailed notes of the Sit-and-Go buy-ins, INCLUDING the rake (it’s a vital factor), where you finish and your total amount cashed out.
Cash game details should include the type of game you play (fixed-, pot- or no-limit), the buy-in level ($5-10 or whatever) and your daily result.
How detailed you get is up to you. I have read plenty of poker strategies from professional players, who are obsessive about your most profitable level of play, how much you take per hour and whether a certain play has positive expectation in the long run. Dry, boring stuff.
I tried keeping notes of time spent at each of the various cash games, but for me at least, that got too tedious. After all, on some days you might be content with your wins in the first half-hour, and on another day it might be a 15-hour grind. Who cares what my hourly rate is? It’s really irrelevant. I work from home. As long as I’m paying my way, that’s all that matters.
Some poker strategies can draw on successful marketing from other places. Here's one I came up with recently.
Give yourself something tangible to shoot for. If you are familiar with the Air Miles promotional websites, their Dream Meter is a great way to incentivise. As you collect Air Miles, the meter fills up a bar based on the percentage of your dream purchase you have accumulated.
Do the same with your poker. There’s nothing like physical evidence of success to galvinise you to achieve more of it. It may be as simple as paying your mortgage every month. Or settling a long-term debt that’s been around your neck like a millstone. What floats your Ark might be a giant plasma TV, or a holiday in a dream destination.
Write a dollar value for your personal target alongside your withdrawls total. Now you can see how close you are to your target, it will make you even more determined to plug any leaks in your poker.
Strategies are all great in theory. I'd love to hear from anybody who has never kept records before, and found it works for them.
Here endeth the lesson.
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