Spin off from something TP and Brian talked about in another thread

[Talking Poker]

That's ok though... that's how poker goes - there is a lot of short term variance. But, take the total amount you are up and divide by the total number of hours you have played, and that's your overall hourly rate. You can't expect to earn that much money every hour, of course, but that's how much you've earned in the long run. Given that, yeah, the more hours you play, the more money you will earn.

[2Tone]

Accepting the concept that poker is one never-ending game that you drop in and out of at will throughout your poker playing career, I keep ‘score’ based on how much I am up or down – lifetime – at end of my latest session. The number of winning or losing sessions doesn’t factor into this – just how much money I have made or lost in total.

Since that lifetime total is very much a macro view, I’ll also break that down into how I am doing year to date (or ‘month to date’, or even ‘Vegas trip to date’), as well as live vs. online, ring vs. tourney, etc.

TP’s example of the player who makes $200,500, then loses $200,000 back is interesting. Under my rules, his total score would still be +$500, though depending on how long he took to lose most of it back, the month to date total could reflect -$200k.

Meanwhile, bonuses, high hand jackpots, etc. all are added to the amount ‘won,’ just as if I had won them in a regular pot. But tips and ATM fees and any other directly related poker expenses (backing somebody) are all factored in as well, and count towards the minus column. This means if I am eventually fined $100k by Washington State for playing online, I’ll consider myself a losing player.