BB/100 and BB/hour

I had originally posted this in a thread in B,BB&V, because there were talking about it there. But I got no replys, so I thought I would repost it here in hopes of getting some good answers.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tgarner
Forgive me for being stupid, but what is BB/100 and BB/Hour?


Ok I know when I posted this reply some of you may have looked at it and thought, he's and idiot, go look it up, lol. But I was serious, people seem to pay close attention to this, and I couldn't understand the big benifit of this stat. LOL

Anyway, I did finally go look it up and I may be thick headed, but I need someone to explain it to me like I'm a 3 year old.

I did figure out that is Big Bets per 100 hands and Big Bets per hour. The Big Bet is on the turn and the river and is double the big blind from what I read(if I read it correctly).

If someone could please explain how this stat is helpful to your game, in detail. And what the stat should be for the different levels of play.

I do have the trial version of PT3 and have read a lot of stuff on it, but you have to read so much to find the particular part you are wanting to learn about then. If I feel that it may greatly help my game, I may purchase it. I don't play more than four tables at a time, so I wouldn't be getting it for that, just to grade my own play.

Any and all help and info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

its your winrate, so it tells you how many PTBBs you win per 100 hands

it tells you how much of a winner/loser or w/e you are at the particular stake

ok

BB = Big Bet
bb = big blind

1 BB (Big Bet) = 2 bb (big blinds) .... (its a hangover from limit poker where the bet size changes to BB's on the turn)


BB/100 = 2bb/100 (from above)

BB/100 is the number of BB's you win per 100 hands you play (you need to play about 100K hands before this figure stabalizes)

Why is it important? Well it shows that

a) you make a profit
b) gives you some indication of how well you play.

Anything over 3BB/100 is good.
Anything upto around 10BB/100 is amazing and achievable.

Beond 10BB/100... some people claim they make more than 10. Put it like this. The top pros make around the 10 mark so if a guy with a few posts under his belt here claims he makes more than that.. take it with a pinch of salt.

He may be telling the truth. He may be basing it on a small sample of hands. He may just have been really lucky for a few thousand hands. But realisticaly how many people are going to play significantly better than top pros?

Now I dont mean if someone says he gets 11BB/100 you should instantly question his integrity, but if someone quotes 25BB/100.. well.

BB/hour Its sort o the same thing as BB/100 but based on time rather than number of hands. You would aproximate around 50 hands per table per hour.

BB/100 is more usefull as it's more precise and more commonly quoted.

BB/hour would make more sense when considering live play as people wouldn't religiously count hands, but could easily log winnings and time.

Incidently BB/100 is calculated AFTER rake is deducted.

Rake is proportional to the size of the pot and capped at $3 usually. This means that microstakes players pay more in rake than high stakes players. So for a micro stakes player a figure of 8BB/100 in rake is fairly normal.

Personaly I am winning at 6.5BB/100 at 10NL

I am also paying around 8BB/100 in rake!!!... This is why rakeback is so important to cash game players.

So, In short.

3BB/100 is good.

As long as the figure is positive then you are winning.

10BB/100 is pro stuff.

Thank you Stu, I don't believe you left me any unanswered questions.

It is very appreciated and very helpful.

u cant just say xbb/100 is good, stu
depends on stakes and amount of tables played

True, but I think 3BB is not unreasonable to quote as a general 'good' figure; its the most often quoted figure.

Yes the number of tables will reduce BB/100 whilst increasing overall win rate due to the number of hands played per hour.

Yes stakes factor in. You would expect a good 25NL player to have a higher BB/100 than a good 200NL player because the standard of the opponents is higher in 200NL.

However, I think if you try and explain all the factors involved, you end up with an answer that isn't really an answer.

When people are trying to understand something, its better to give a slightly more bulk standard answer; its less confusing and 90% correct.