Error Management

A 3.69% error rate over the last three months is unacceptable. I mean what is your negative expected value with a rate like this? With labor costs at $60-$100/hr I would think –ev of around $40 per incident would be accurate. That means that our 3.69% error rate is costing us around $6,400 a month. That’s $76,800 per year. Most of this is lost productivity that was being wasted at smoke-breaks anyway but it does show that what seems like a small % can make a big difference over the course of time.

The same thing can be said about our poker games. Little mistakes can build up over time and have a significant impact on your bankroll. For example, Lets say your playing 1-2 LHE and you are trying to advance to 2-4. If you make 1 mistake on each the flop, river and turn, at some point during each session, you have thrown away $5. That’s three mistakes per 100 hands. Now your sessions may be long then this but your still out $5. Lets add that you play 200 times a year. Now you’ve given away $1000 over the course of a year. What’s that, 5 buy-in’s give or take. It all adds up.

I did get some playing time in over the last two days and have raised my bankroll to $20.77. Another 5 dollars and I’ll move up in levels. I’m not sure but I think if I stay at the micro limits I might go nuts. I mean, I saw a guy drop $10 on a .05-.10 table in 30 minutes. I could wait to get in a pot with him. His fold and call buttons must have been broken because he raised every pot and would cap if we let him. People were lining up to get his money. He even re-bought for $18 after he busted. Life is good sometimes.