Good Read

Am I a good player ? It’s a question I often ask myself.

Occasionally the question is put to me although, thinking about the conversations that poker players have, they rarely ask about the other person as such. Mostly each player talks about themselves, whether consciously or otherwise !

Back to the question.

It’s not easy to answer. One way to tackle the question, of course, is to look at whether I am winning. Even this is not trivial as, sadly, my records are pretty poor.

I do have excellent records for my Las Vegas trips and in fact my 2009 visit was so profitable that it puts me clearly in the black for the aggregate of those visits over the years. Previously I have had mixed results in Vegas due to my failure to cash in large tournaments.

In 2009, I successfully addressed the tournament problem and I was also profitable in cash (and sponsorship !)

Equally clear is that I am a loser at online poker. I know this because I am much more familiar with deposit methods than withdrawal procedures.

This is the overall result, but it’s actually a game of two halves. I have definitely been a loser in cash, but I have almost certainly been a solid winner at online MTTs.

In live (non-Vegas) games, the lack of good data prevents me from making a definitive statement. Of course, if a poker player is “not sure” whether s/he is up or down then it is in fact a safe bet that s/he is losing.

I have the same problem in live UK play as I previously had in Vegas: lots of high-priced tournaments with no significant cashes. In smaller buy-in tournaments I am slightly ahead. In cash, somewhat down.

In terms of objective evidence the available data is, in fact, fairly encouraging. The latest data for me at OPR (officialpokerrankings.com) say that I above the 99th percentile for tournament players on pokerstars and also confirms I am profitable with a strong ROI%.

Sharkscope covers tournaments on Gutshot.com (Cake network), and I am classified as a “shark” with strong statistics again.

There are other sites that track tournament data and I am in good shape on all of them.
I don’t look at the products that offer cash-tracking but I know they would confirm I am a fish. The problem is patience. In many non-poker situations I am actually a very patient person, but I simply have not found a way to convert this attitude into cash play.

This goes for both online and live play, but the problem is severe in internet play. Live, there are other factors that can mitigate my natural tendencies, but online a lack of patience is rarely less than fatal to the bankroll.

Outside of the objective data, I do feel subjectively that I am a better player than ever. There is no doubt in my mind that I have learned a lot about the game since I started about 4 years ago. To be sure, I could have (and probably should have) learned even more by being more disciplined in the actual study of the game.

My approach has been mainly of the “Learn by Doing” school which I favour in most endeavours.

It is of course difficult to quantify any improvements in my game (although, on the publicly tracked stats the improvement is visible: OPR 48% in 2007, 56% in 2008, 99%+ in 2009). It has not been translated into clear gains in my bankroll but this is at least partly explained by the fact that I migrate upwards in stakes at least as fast as any improvement in my game.

I like to think that if I had to make a living from poker, I would have enough skill to do that. Of course the problem is that to do this would involve playing a rather dull game.

I would need to play much lower stakes, and really focus on issues like good game selection and correct bankroll management. All of these necessary steps would, with certainty, lead to a more boring game. This would be a problem.

A number of people over the years have suggested that the best approach for me would actually be to go UP in stakes to a level where the money involved would be more meaningful for me. I think there actually is some merit in this advice although I have generally been reluctant to do so since it’s far from obvious that being a small loser at low stakes means I will win at high stakes !

If it’s difficult to be sure how good I am, and difficult to prove or measure, I have nonetheless had glimpses of what it must be like. For the most part when I am playing, I think I am slightly above average (say a 70% percentile player) but I have sometimes been in situations where I am clearly the best player.

I am thinking of an invitational £50 rebuy I played last year, of the cruise poker I played this summer and of certain MTT tables on gutshot.com. For short periods, I have understood what it feels like to KNOW that you are better than most (or even all) of the other players and to experience the wonder of reading the opponents as if, in fact, their cards were face up and they had informed you of their exact intentions in the hand.

I suppose it must be like this for the top pros all the time !