The Most Effective Way to Improve Your Results, Record Keeping: Part II

In my first column on record keeping, I suggested looking at the lengths of time of your biggest winning and losing sessions, and emphasized how important it is to have longer winning sessions than losing ones. Also, the amounts you win in your best sessions should be significantly more than the amounts you lose in your worst ones. If your winning sessions aren't longer and more profitable, you have a discipline problem. You must learn to spend the most time in favorable situations, while quitting the unfavorable ones as quickly as possible. In this way, you will maximize your earnings per hour spent at the poker table.



In this column, I will look at some of the other factors that influence your results. Remember that your basic minimum records should include day, date, game, stakes, starting time, ending time, total hours, and result. Try sorting your results by day. You will probably find that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the most profitable days. These are the days when more amateurs play. If you have a regular job, you may find that you do much better on days when you haven't worked all day. If your results are different, it may indicate that there is a particular live one who plays only on that day, or perhaps you play in a private game on one particular evening. Try to find exactly which days are your best, and play more on those days.



Next, try looking at your results by starting time. Is there a particular time that appears to be good for you? It will usually be a time when you are rested and the other players are tired. If you are a full-time poker player, consider starting your sessions late at night. Winners are often gone by then, and weaker players who are losing are left in the games. If you work during the day, however, you may find that late at night is the worst time for you, since you are exhausted by then.



Assuming that you play a variety of games, sort your results by game. What you see may surprise you. Perhaps you do better at a game that you don't believe is one of your strongest, while doing poorly at one of your favorites. This may be due to the fact that the players who play this game are much worse than you are. If 100 was perfect play, it is much better to be an 85 against a group that averages 65 than it is to be a 95 against a group that averages 92. This exercise will not only tell you which game is most profitable for you, but also will suggest at which games you are weak or even outclassed. These are the games you should avoid and/or try to improve at.



Sorting by limit may lead you to the same type of conclusions. Perhaps you can beat $1-$2 blinds and $2-$5 blinds no-limit hold'em games very steadily, but find yourself barely winning at $5-$10 and actually losing at $10-$20 or higher. Again, play more where you win, and play in the other games only when the situation is especially good. If you normally play at relatively high limits, you may find that you do poorly at lower limits. Perhaps this is because you don't really care and aren't motivated to play your best game.



Everything I've written here is relatively obvious, but if you're not keeping records, you can't analyze them. You will miss finding out exactly what will maximize your earnings. It often amazes me, the amount of time players will devote to analyzing some obscure strategic situation, while they completely overlook factors that continually affect their hourly earnings. Don't fall into that trap. Keep records, and analyze them regularly.



In the final installment of this series on record keeping, I will look at another important set of records you should keep, or at least notes you should take: those relating to your opponents.



Steve "Zee" Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on FullTilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bar, Nice Guy Eddie on Houston and Avenue A in New York City.