Keeping Poker Records to Improve Your Play

Treat poker like business – you’re in it to make money, so keep your records tight.

Look at any successful business and you’ll notice that the owner(s) will have a very detailed set of records on the company’s performance.  The amount of money made, the amount spent, upcoming events, etc. are all kept track of in an effort to improve the business.

If you are a serious poker player then you too need to have a business-minded approach to the game.  And as part of this business-minded approach, you’ll need to keep records of your performance.  Unfortunately, the majority of poker players out there don’t keep any sort of records on their play and thus only have a vague idea of how they’re doing.

In order to get a leg up on these players you need to keep a detailed set of records, and this begins with keeping track of every session you play.  This requires writing down how much money you come into a session with as well as how much money you leave the session with.  And this is a great start, but it’s only the beginning of keeping records.

That’s because you also need to know how much money you’re making at each limit, in each game.  For instance, keeping track of your $2/$4 No-Limit sessions can reveal that you make $25 an hour playing this limit.  Likewise logging $3/$6 No-Limit Hold’em games can reveal that you’re only squeaking out $10 an hour here.  Seeing as how this is the case, you’ll now know that your strengths lie at the $2/$4 limit.

Going even further with the details, you should keep track of dates played, starting and ending times, number of tables played at once, tournament types, limits played, and quite possibly the conditions in your house while you are playing.  Now some of this stuff might seem too detailed, but the more factors you keep track of, the more you will know about your play.

Once you’ve kept track of enough statistics you’ll be able to pinpoint what kind of settings and conditions will ensure the most success for you.