Poker Tracking
Okay, I've made the decision to buy PokerTracker. I know that's a no-brainer decision for most of you. Jeremy at Love and Casino War posted a couple months ago that "If you intend to be a profitable online poker player, you would be completely insane not to use PokerTracker" and I've read similar advice on many another blog.

Most recently the Royal Poker Blog posted some advice for would-be poker players that you should always be tracking your wins and losses, even if it's not in a database as sophisticated as PokerTracker. Rest assured I have not been lax on that front for the past year and half. I don't go around using the gambler's cliche--"Oh, I mostly break even, sometimes win a little." I've kept an Excel log from Day 1 of my online poker journey. Sure, I occasionally forget to log a .50/$1 session where the results are uninteresting (or too much alcohol was involved, but that's another post), but I am fastidious about logging how much cashola I put in to the online sites vs. how much I take back out.

I had actually downloaded and used PokerTracker last summer, and even filled the database to 1000 hands (the max in the free version). But when it came time to buy, I thought to myself, "I don't know, going through this database feels a little too much like work." That was a "Why am I playing poker?" moment for me. I knew that the best way to improve my game was to track and analyze every bit of information I could, but I also want to keep the focus on having fun, and I worried that always using PokerTracker might take away from that. (B and I were also saving for our wedding at the time, so I-don't-need-to-buy-this-now frugality was also a big factor in the decision.)

Fast-forward to now. I'm taking my poker more seriously, and, inspired by my fellow bloggers, I'm certain that I can have fun with poker while also making the extra effort to improve my game.

I'm going to keep playing at Pacific Poker for a while tho, even though PokerTracker doesn't support it. Actually, Pacific doesn't even have hand histories--but the passive $1/$2 tables are treating me well.
posted by James at 8:59 PM