How good is this? Can I get better?

Hi Guys

Ive been playing online NL Hold em STTs for about 2 years now.
Ive worked my way up to playing in the $50 tourneys with 90% or so being in the 6 seater category.

Recently I feel I have really refined my game, and have had some nice money coming in.

In the last couple of months playing in about 200 tourneys I get a return of 50% on the entry fees i.e. for every $ I put in I get $1.50 back. And am in the money for about 53% the touneys I enter.

Personally Im pretty happy about this

The question I have is that how does this stack up, is this sort of retrun good? Its taken me a long time to refine my play to get this result. I feel that i have reached a kind of plateau on how much better i can do at this.

I know I can get better (cant we all), but i would be grateful to get some comparison with other players esp other who play alot of STTs, so I can get some idea of the benchmark. Maybe get some inspiration to develop my game further.

Ive played in a few $100 tourneys but havent had the heart to go into them too much, I get loads of action in the $50s so am pretty content with that at the moment. Are the players in the higher level tourneys substantially better than the medium level I play at?

Ive never read or posted in a poker forum until today so only roast me lightly pls.

Cheers

Well we may as well start at the bottom with comparisons first. I have been playing the same length of time and you have done much better than I have.
So to answer your first question - I think you have done very well to have reached the $50 level and be able to make money consistently.

There are some players in here who play at higher levels and hopefully they will answer your last question.

50% roi is unsustainable. 20-25% is probably the plateau at the $50 games, so though you are probably a winning player you're definitely running good too (a sample size of 200 is small for statistical purposes). Don't get too disheartened when the downswing comes.

One thing about poker is there are always new things to learn. Though occasionally you might get the 'I know all I need to know' feeling, if you really study you will realise there's still a lot to learn, especially in SNGs where some of the push/fold decisions you are making in the later stages are very, very close.

Thx DM, the 20-25% is a fair comment, my ROI is currently 20% overall from something like 1350 tourneys, however that included my learning period when I often played like a schmuck.

I hope you are wrong about the downturn, if it comes it will be gut wrenching. Is 200 really too small? I keep an excel spreadsheet and I can see consistent improvement in my return over time, so i have some confidence that my current good run will not go down too much.

There was a time when I did think 20+% ROI was the maximum, but something has clicked and I have steadily improved beyond that to this stage.

Its interesting that my current run sounds very high, I hope more people will add their comments.

BTW you are defitely right about the scope for constant improvement, being in the money or not is usually decided on one or two crucial hands which are often tricky to judge. You can however tip the odds in your favour by stealing blinds or getting a call by cultivating a certain table image which I try to create depending on the other players betting patterns.

Inspired by some of the replies on Dorkus Malorkous's SnG stat thread, I am attaching some graphs that I hope are pretty self explantory, showing, to my mind anyway, a constant improvement over time.

Like many I dream of being a pro and am pretty serious in wanting feedback. To go pro I think I need to play alot in the $100 games, and need a some indication of a thumbs up or down on the stats, and if I should start risking it in the higher stake games.

Pls note that all amounts are in Pounds (or %) not $ as shown in the graphs, dont ask me why coz I dont know either.

Graph 1 is total earnings over time

Graph 2 is earnings over the previous 7 days

Graph 3 shows ROI total and weekly.

Attached Images

	graph 1.jpg (48.2 KB, 34 views)
	graph 2.jpg (61.8 KB, 31 views)
	graph 3.jpg (62.8 KB, 32 views)

I just looked over my spreadsheet and have discovered something really embarassing, one of my formulas is wrong and is seriously overestimating the ROI.

The ROI over the last 150 games anyway is 35% (calculating manually) not 50%. Sorry DM you were right afterall 50% is not correct at all. Ill have to look and see where I have made a mistake.

Oh boy

Anyway this posting has at least made look again at my sums. I guess the original questions still stand though. My percentage for paid places still looks correct tho. Thank the buddha for that.

Just skimmed thread (sorry) but 50-35 = 15. 150 / 15 = 10. 10% is usual fee for sit and go. So 35% figure includes fees and 50% doesn't? (in which case the 50% figure is a more accurate reflection of your ability.

You didn't say what site you are playing on, but if it's Titan / Noble / CDPoker then I wouldn't dispute you one bit. The standard of play at this level is hopeless (as is the $100 game), oddly worse than the $10 and $20 levels. Shame i'm too poor to play at these levels consistently, but i've taken down most of the $50+ games i've played there.

Thx rob. The mistake is because my sreadsheet is in pounds and I play in $ (and pounds), due to a mistake in copy pasting not all the cells had the currency conversion.

The 35% includes fees.

I play at Paddy power poker and Ultimatebet. Anybody with a half decent game should go to PPP, the standard is quite low. At UB persoanlly I feel there is usually 1 or 2 good players at the table, and I have to think my decsions through carefully, in a way more challenging and fun.

I used to play Noble and did ok once I adjusted to the 1000 chip stack, but you have to wait ages for a game as everyone there seems to be going for the jackpot tourneys.

Thx for the info on the $100 games I will try a few games and see how it feels. I will look into Titan and CD. I think at the $100 level you will have the problem gamblers chasing which perhaps why the play maybe poorer from certain players. ($50 level also has those guys too)

great thread fellows...

eye-opening one in fact....