Poker Math That Matters

20
1. 400 * 30 = 12,000
2. 12,000 / 100 = 120
3. $0.10 * 7 = $0.70
4. 120 * $0.70 = $84
As you can see, his expectation of $100 a week from NL10 is a
bit ambitious. Not only that, he's averaging $2.80 an hour. He
may be much better off flipping burgers in terms of dollars per
hour.
Eventually it’s good to think in terms of an hourly earn. If the
previous equation we had gives you $10 an hour, then this is
how you should think about an hour spent at the table. A good
example of how this helps is playing micro-stakes. As I said
before, most beginning players want to play a lot. However,
they may be spending all that time with an expectation of $1 an
hour. Is that how you really want to spend your time? So, for
those coming to this game for money, which is probably most
people reading this book, you need to view the micro-stakes
game as a stepping-stone. Micro-stakes should be used as a way
for you to learn the game. Focus on learning the game there and
not playing 15 tables for 10 hours a day. Another important
reason to think about the game in terms of an hourly earn is
when you’re down a lot in a session. Let’s say you’ve just
started playing, and you’re down five buy-ins in one hour. Many
times a player will say “I’m going to keep playing for another
hour to try to get my money back.” This is bad thinking. If you
decided to play for another hour, you should value that next hour
in terms of your hourly earn. However, it will probably be worse
than that because we just tend to play worse when things aren’t
going well. So, my biggest recommendation is simply not to
worry about the money when you get started. Focus on learning
the game and properly applying the concepts you learn. It’s
really best just to concede that you’re probably going to lose