Lately I had the idea to check all my cash-game results since I joined Team PokerStars Online. As I was chosen in the original 'draft', my Team Online adventure started on Dec 15th, 2009. In 2009 and 2010 I was still using PokerTracker (before switching to HM and HM2) and in 2010 I changed my stationary computer and laptop, so my data is incomplete. However, why not ask PokerStars support to help me? It turns out that they can send you the history of all the hands you have ever played! In a couple days, I had my data completed.
Currently, I have played almost 6,000,000 hands since January 1st, 2010. I decided to split the data into two periods. The first one is 2010 alone and the second one 2011 to present. The reason for that is that in 2010 I played almost exclusively 20-50bb tables and at as many as five different stakes (nl100-nl1000). It was also the year I made my first and so far only Supernova Elite. Those games were completely different from regular 100bb tables. You should also divide the stakes by two, as I was playing with the allowed maximum buyin, which was 50bb.
So, here is the graph for 2010:
It was about 1,850,000 hands. If someone was unfamiliar with my work ethic and organization, he could say that the SNE chase reflected in my results in the bad way, that the quantity killed the quality. It was not exactly my story though.
First, from the moment I decided to go for SNE (which was around August), I was playing the same amount of tables, the same number of sessions and almost the same number of hours every month. Second, if that would be the case, December should be the worst month and it was actually a net plus with the best day in the whole year coming on my last day of grind (December 29th)! Third, during those months I was grinding five different stakes, and my highest winning rate was at nl400 and nl600 with net loss on nl200.
From my perspective, the graph looks like it does because within this very short period I had the biggest upswing and the biggest downswing of my whole career! First, in August and September everything was working my way and then, from late September till late November, I just could not run any worse. It is worth noting that both the upswing and downswing were accurate with the EV line. And then December was just a regular month. Overall, I ended my SNE year with profit.
That was a very interesting experience, I think it is good for any grinder to live through it so you know what you can expect in the borderline situations. Maybe I would not be the grinder I am today without those 3-4 months and if my graph simply looked like this:
Anyway, at the beginning of the 2011, I started working on strategy for regular 100bb tables. First two months of that year 20-50bb games were still available but I decided to play in 100bb games, even though they were filled with almost only regulars. I am really happy that I did that, as the first months after the change were really profitable for me (some people were playing 20-50bb to the end and then adjusting to 100bb when I already had developed the strategy).
Below is the graph form the start of 2011 until present. It is almost exactly 4,000,000 hands. I think this is a nice sample for everyone interested in longterm results and trends. If it is not enough for you just wait a few months when I post the graph for 5,000,000 hands
During the last 1,000,000 hands EV cost me over 70BI, but I guess this is a standard deviation. My winrate over those 4,000,000 hands is 1,2bb/100 (EV 1,4bb/100).
I find all those graphs very interesting. If you have any questions about those and other stats, let me know!
Good luck at the tables!