Benchmarking - Are YOU ready to crack cash tables?

[GaF]

LINKS Cash Benchmarking FAQ - hand histories http://www.punterslounge.com/forum/f62/cash-benchmarking-faq-hand-histories-79161/#post1291215 Is 2009 to be the year that some of us crack cash poker for the first time? I hope so, hence my change in sig :) And I'm optimistic - all thanks to my latest harebrained scheme :loon Anonymous benchmarking! When we play poker, some things we do generate a profit over time, and other things generate a loss. It's difficult to see which are which because of the problem of variance. Benchmarking will allow us to quickly establish those traits of our game that generate a loss, or, just as importantly, those areas where we dont profit as much as we should, or where we lose more than we should. How will it work? Players will play an unspecified number of hands through the month. Weekly, players will send me their hand history files for import into my poker tracker database. I will anonymise the players alias (players will be called Player01, Player02, etc...) and then I will publish various macro stats (and drill down to other areas of interest). We can then see how we're performing against other players - where they are outperforming us, and where we are outperforming them. Where will it work? The benchmarking is currently running at the Boss (e.g. Pokerkings, Virgin, Paradise etc) tables. Only 5 handed tables and only Euro tables will count. The levels are €0.05/€0.10 and €0.12/€0.25. Anonymity A key focus of this is that players will remain anonymous at all times - you will get feedback without people knowing who you are (you can give yourself feedback without people knowing you talk to yourself :tongue2) and because of this anonymity, your stats will not be assosiated with what is in the public domain. Only you, and I, will know the true identity of "Player007" or Player13 ..... Obviously I'm asking for a huge amount of trust here because you are giving me your entire database on how you play which I could take advantage of. I assure you that I will never do that, however can offer no more than my word - I hope that is enough. I will NEVER share your data (with your alias, or anything I consider can be used to track back to you) with anyone else. Please dont reveal your identity to anyone else, even if it doesnt bother you, and dont ask anyone else their identity, even if you have suspicions - we dont want people to narrow down who certtain players may be - I think the anonymity is critical with so much information out there and I will do everything I can to protect it. Diary To be included in the analysis, please ensure that you have sent hand history files to me (to my email at: pl dot benchmarking at googlemail dot com) by 09:00 GMT each Saturday (I suggest you send your files as soon as you finish your final session of the week, rather than doing it first thing Saturday morning). A month will consist of exactly 4 or exactly 5 weeks with each week running from Saturday to Friday. A month will not be calendar months. At the end of each month I will put up more in depth stats for one of the levels. The Future Obviously this is intended to just be the start. I/We want to develop and evolve - exact plan moving forward will evolve and develop, but some of the ideas I have at the moment are: - "New" players at any stage can join at a level they feel comfortable at (I appreciate not everyone wants to play 5c/10c) - Players should ensure that they are playing at a site where they are receiving rakeback. One possible site is Pokerkings if you downloaded through the PL Link - If PL can obtain sponsorship/deals for players for this project in the future, we may move away from boss altogether, or obligate that hands are played on a specific Boss site (this will be in the players best interests) Why am I so optimistic about this? A group of us have been doing this for Double or Nothing on Pokerstars and the power of it is evident, even though we've barely brushed the surface of what we could do....there are clear weaknesses in looking at tournament chip equity for tournaments (especially tournaments so situationally critical as DoNs) and cash games seem the obvious place to move this to in order to deal solely in $ equities.... Trust me, this should be a huge benefit to everyone who participates :ok Who's it for? Anyone who wants to participate. Dont worry if you dont play Cash currently (you'll benefit more than those who do!). Don't worry if PokerTracker petrifies you. Dont worry if stats startle you. How do you sign up Best way to sign up is to send me a PM expressing your interest - I'll reply with your anonymous alias :ok Ok - that's a long post - I'm sure I've forgotten stuff - so will come back and edit it as I think of things :ok If anything isn't clear or you have questions - fire away :ok

[GaF]

Re: Are YOU ready to crack cash tables? One piece of clarification - by PMing me expressing a wish to participate, it doesnt obligate you to play the hands or do X hours cash play - if you dont manage enough hands, it simply means that your results wont be reported (though maybe they'll be reported - we dont want to exclude losing results but include winning results :unsure - That will skew our data) - so no worries from that perspective if you're unsure if you can manage enough hands during the month :ok Also if you're losing/doing worse than you hoped - you can stop playing at any time - you're not obligated to complete the month. Only thing I would ask - for your sake and for all our sakes - please be honest and complete - no "cherry picking" your hands - please send me all hands that you participate in at that level over the month - we need a complete sample if we are to learn! You should send me all the hands you play at the limit over the month.