Year End Results
I posted a poll on Twitter mentioning that in 2017 I cashed for $2,792, 104 and asked if people thought that was more or less than the total number of buyins I spent on the year. I mention this because I think my 2017 was a good illustration of the illusion that players cashing for $2 million in a single year is a great accomplishment. In the old days, before super high rollers, you could all but guarantee that cashing for $2 million would mean the player had a winning year. Well, the truth is, if a player plays the full high roller schedule and cashes for $2 million, they are all but certain to have had a losing year, and that’s before expenses.
I felt like I had a decent year in terms of results, but when you break down the numbers into an actual profit vs loss, I essentially broke even!
Buyins: $2,874,164
Payouts:$2,792,104
Profit: -$86,140
Considering my average buy in on the year was $40,481 this is about as close as you can get to breaking even. In fact, after my $936,000 score I was up on the year but played a couple of the one day $25k events at Bellagio, rebought a few times, and ended the year in the red.
With the $1 million buy in One Drop coming back this year, and the Super High Roller Bowl, and countless high rollers held here in Vegas and across the globe, it won’t be much of a stretch to see players spending upwards of $5 million in buy ins. $5 million dollars. Just in buy ins.
Granted, most of the players do not fund 100% of their action, but that’s irrelevant to the jaw dropping numbers we will see in 2018. I do stake myself in these events. I have separate deals with companies like PokerStars and Poker Central, but this income is unrelated to my buy ins. I make the decision to play and risk money that I’ve earned. Having said that, I will likely be selling action into the One Drop as it just seems like a bit of a crazy amount of money to risk in one tournament. I’ll likely sell about 50% of the action and I don’t charge mark up.
Here is a closer look at my last 5 years on the circuit followed by the totals. I would have provided a longer history but I didn’t keep accurate enough records of my tournament play until 2013 so this will have to do:
2013
Events 66
Cashes 13
ITM % 19.7
Buy ins $1,211,883
Payouts $3,203,423
Profit $1,963,500
Avg Buy In $18,363
Hourly Rate $3200
2014
Events 56
Cashes 13
ITM % 23.2
Buy ins $3,183,926
Payouts $10,284,090
Profit $7,100,164
Avg Buy In $56,855
Hourly Rate $14,045
2015
Events 49
Cashes 11
ITM % 22.4
Buy ins $1,513,125
Payouts $2,482,479
Profit $952,920
Avg Buy In $30,880
Hourly Rate $3388
2016
Events 49
Cashes 10
ITM % 20.4
Buy ins $1,546,355
Payouts $300,431
Profit (-$1,246,693)
Avg Buy In $31,558
Hourly Rate (-$3097)
2017
Events 71
Cashes 21
ITM % 29.6
Buy ins $2,874,164
Payouts $2,792,104
Profit (-$86,140)
Avg Buy In $40,481
Hourly Rate (-$144)
FIVE YEAR TOTAL
Events 291
Cashes 68
ITM % 23.4
Buy Ins $10,329,453
Payouts $19,062,527
Profit $8,733,074
Avg Buy In $35,496
Hourly Rate (Hours 2565) $3405
In the next few days I’ll write a follow up blog with what my goals for 2018 as I do each year. We’ll also look back at how I did for my 2017 goals. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Let’s make 2018 a kick ass year!