August by the numbers

i see on-line players measure their win rates in poker tracker big blinds / 100 hands ("ptbb/100"). poker tracker (a software package that helps track everything about playing poker on line) apparently calculates a win (or loss) rate using limit holdem "big bets" per 100 hands. in limit holdem, the big bet (on the turn and river) are twice the big blind. so the units equte to 2 big blinds / 100 hands.

i am tracking dollars won and hours played, but was able to do a couple of quick calculations to gauge my results.

i played 106.5 hours of live games. if we guestimate about 35 hands / hour dealt in a typical live game (that would be 17-18 hands per dealer "down"), that makes a total of about 3727 hands played. assuming a big blind of $3 (i played 1 session in a 3/5 NL game and 1 session of 2/2), my win rate works out to +63.5 big blinds / 100 hands = +32 poker tracker big bets / 100.

or in non on-line terms 21 big blinds / hour.

i know 3700 hands is not a big enough sample size to really conclude anything, but i'm happy where i'm headed.

[any of you live cash game players: how many hands do you think are dealt in an hour on average?]