how often can a good player expect to win?

my question is how many winning sessions can a winning player expect to have. obv there are a number of variables that can effect the answer, but im looking for a general response. when i say a session i mean 3 hours or so of playing. say i play 4 hours a day for a month, how many of those sessions can i expect to win? i know none of you know my skill level but i'd like to think im a well over avg player. just a general range would be very helpfull.

Well presumably you would need to win more often than you lose...

Even great players win probably between 54-60% of their sessions. Meaning if you're playing 10 tables each time you sit down, each table is considered a session. The reason players can beat the games for a good amount when only winning 54% of their sessions is because they play longer when they are playing well and winning and cut sessions short if they are losing or not playing their A game. Dont be too results oriented. After a day of play don't worry about your results. Focus on your results some after say a 20k hand stretch. Hope this helps and answers your question

The general rule for live professional players is that they earn 1 BB per hour.

does that mean if i play .50 nl ill only make .50 an hour? im thinkin maybe it's a little different at higher stakes because there is a better quality of players.

i avg 6.12 bb an hour through 10 000 hands

This is not necessarily the case. You might lose most/more sessions, but if you make more money on your winning days you will still be a winning player. It's just like the hands themselves: winning players "lose" more hands than they win. In fact, there is an old poker saying "Whoever wins the most pots loses the most money."

This is where the advantage of multi tabling comes up, if you play 2 or more tables at once it is much easier to balance beats by winning in other sessions. I think a winning player should be able to win money just about every session (Bostonguy, the 80% sounds good).

Generally, you should have a goal of profiting from every session, but you should be happy if you lost very little and be expecting to loose a bit now and then.

In terms of BB/100 hands it really does depend on the level and the player. As I went broke earlier, I have dropped down to 2c/4c tables on Party and I am making good money off them, all you have to remember that in no limit you can be loosing for hours and then with a couple of hands make back the losses plus a nice profit. The game at the level I am playing is poor and I have been able to adjust my reads, so I am making close to 50BB/h by 3 tabling it.

when someone says they win 6.12/100bb, does that mean big blind? not sure what big bets mean and is that exclusively for one table or for every table you're playing. sorry im new to pokertracker...

Yes, I find it confusing that sometimes people on this site say BB meaning big blind, and sometimes they say it meaning big bets...

I guess in no limit it is big blinds per 100 hands and in limit it would be big bets (the bigger bets available usually at the turn and the river and often twice bigger than the earlier bets).

Meaning better than average players. It depends on how many players are in the tourney, if there are 180, or 90 or in that range, i will say 180 player tourneys. Expect to win them, meaning 1st place, one in 8 times. You can probably place in top 18 about every time. i will say 5-7 times out of 8 you will place if you are good. For over 1000 player tournaments, dont get your hopes up, chances are you will lose from a bad beat or just a stupid play. Expect to win a 1000 player tournament, once every 15-25 times.

ahh well i expect to win every time, but sometimes it deosnt work out that way, ur gonna have downswings, but you just have to play through it

I would say over 60% is good

no player in the world would be able to do this, not even close. winning 1 out of 8, are you crazy? maybe 1 in 30 for the best player in the world, and even then.

When you use pokertracker, if you are winning 6.12bb/100 in NL it means you are winning 12.24 big blinds per 100 hands. In limit 6.12bb refers to the big bet. And whoever said a good player should win 80% of their sessions doesn't have any idea what they're talking about. Talk to some of the good online players and ask them. I've talked with Sbrugby, who was easily one of the biggest winners in 07 this same question and his answer was anything between 53-60%. Greener_lax, if you have other questions just pm me.

yes, i completely agree with you. when people were saying 80% i was like wtf lol. the one guy was talking about how a good player should win 1in 8 180 person mtt lol.

I concur ^^^^

Some of the said expectations were in fact too high, however it all comes down to stakes. At the .2/.4 level I have been winning every session since I have been rebuilding my BR (sessions are always about an hour with 3-4 tables). Of course the higher the action gets, the smaller the % win rate will be, at 200/400 55-60% will be very good if you approximately win and loose the same amount.

I agree with this. But at the same time, it doesn't matter what stakes, you're going to have losing sessions.

As a ballpark number I'd say anything up to %60 would be excellent. To put it in perspective, I'm a winning full ring (25nl through 100nl, mostly 50nl and 100nl) player and have won %53 of my sessions.

This is a stat you really shouldn't be concerned with anyways - if you want to see how 'good' of a player you are, look at your winrate.

I dont win freerolls that often but @ bodog i had some really good competition. Just started there yesterday March 9th and I placed 7th in the freeroll. You gotta know when to holdem i guess!!! I win/cash just about 60% "GET YOUR CHIPS"

so your saying you finisih in the money 60% of the time. that's funny, the best players in the world finish in the money 20% of the time. so your cashing 3 times as many as phil ivey. you should be playing in the wsop....

It seems to be a general rule of thumb that the professional has to win at least 1 BB/hour. But in your case on these sites there will be times in your 4 hour period where nothing will go right for you so your win percentage really depends on your patience during these bad times "Laying down the tough hands" if you will

24nd.

I believe that there are many factors that go into how often or whether or not a player wins a session. I believe that between 60-70% of the time is great for almost any player. However, suck outs do happen, and cold decks...among other things. I don't think any players have all winning sessions, but I believe that as long as you are profiting in your sessions you are doing something right.

If you are running like 389.1 BBs/hour, you aren't necessarily a good player, just a lucky player.

I don't remember Phil Ivey playing the Bodog freerolls...Or - as some people prefer to say - 24th.

oviously for a average player the odds the person gets is how many people they r playing. if you r in a torunement with 300 people you have a 1 in 300 chance if you are average.... in a 1 in 9 usually 3 people get payed so you got a 1 in 3 chance of making money and 1 in 9 of winning. oviously it depends on how good you play your cards poker is a game where it is 55% luck and 45% skill

Dont quote me NoWuckingFurries i do cash a lot and about 60% of the time. I play about 3 1 tables a day 5days a week. usually get cash 2 out of 3 some times 3of3 im new to online poker but one thing i do know is that if your patient and wait for good hands most of the other players get eliminated and then the cash just rolls right in... Don't mean to tell it like that but there are a lot of impatient all inners online and i capitolize on that with small ball play and major patience. and oh yeah NoWuckingFurries "GET OUR CHIPS"

Why shouldn't I quote you
Why would I quote you
What are you going on about
What are you going on about

lol my bad I must be GREAT!!!! Just won another 1table gonna call it a day after this freeroll tourney 27 bucks 27 bucks 54$ for about 1/2 hours nice enough for a beer and a puff and a laugh or two 100% so far and oh the bodog Freeroll is up in a min ill let u know the place i get after that ok wiseO and uhhh yeah.... "GET YOUR CHIPS"... i gots mine

You need to play a lot more tournaments to get a real of how often you cash. Play a couple hundred and see how cocky you are then, trust me you aren't that good.

$54, high roller hahahah

Do yourself a favor and put a leash on your ego. We don't tolerate behaviour like that here.

Maybe he didn't understand that I was sticking up for him when I said about Phil Ivey not playing Bodog freerolls Sometimes wish I could get into other people's heads, when I don't have a clue what they're rabbiting on about...

250th in the bodog went out with Aces though. Hey sry NoWuckingFurries wasnt rippin on u and i wasnt paying attention to that Ivey comment. My bad aaight! Hey ChuckT I'm a valuable asset to this site. Trust i will step my game to the heavens (WAY UP THERE) and ya'll will c me on the leaderboards or just skyballin with a fat chipstak somewhere out there. Until then Peace out, My badNoWuckingFurries and... "GET YOUR CHIPS!!!"

On the other hand he could be stalking me, and know that I like making Matrix quotes... in which case it's a very funny comment... but I tend to believe it's more about spam... who can tell... the answer is out there, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.

lets be friends! U puff?