What’s your spreadsheet skills like? Have you thought to mix poker and Excel yet? I’m a massive fan of spreadsheets, data, reporting and good record keeping so combining the two is natural for me.
The great thing about using a poker spreadsheet is it provides you with insights you wouldn’t have discovered. You’re the creator and can customize your tables and graphs how you wish.
Spreadsheets reveal facts
The best thing about data is that it’s factual, unbiased and objective. Fact’s don’t lie and it’s there, in your face. It forces you to confront areas you didn’t want to before because it’s easier to ignore them. Let’s say you start record keeping your cash game sessions through poker excel spreadsheets and you find out over a year that you lose money on Monday nights. This may be an uncomfortable truth because you’re off on Tuesdays and therefore you love to play on Monday evenings. You like playing in the one game available that runs at a convenient time for you. What will you do with this information? Will you stop playing that game now or not?
Spreadsheets are great in this way as it’s not anecdotal or hear say information, it will provide useful, relevant facts about your game and poker win rate.
Remember: Garbage in, Garbage out
If you are thinking of starting a spreadsheet, there are some rules you need to adhere to, otherwise it’s a pointless activity. You may have heard the saying that reporting can be only as good as the accuracy of the data input i.e. if you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out. Here are some basic but fundamental rules to stick to if you are considering a poker spreadsheet.
- Enter data accurately
- Don’t get too excited or too downbeat by short-term results
- Don’t keep cancelling and starting again
- Stick with it
Dynamic Dashboard
An interactive dynamic dashboard are really useful way to track your poker results. I appreciate not everyone is an excel wizard though. Perhaps you’re interested in improving your record keeping, monitoring your win rate and finding out your “niche” in poker but don’t have a knack for spreadsheets. Fortunately, I love using Excel and can help you. I use it all the time with the players I mentor. It’s a fantastic way to track performance on a regular basis.
At a glance of a graph, I can tell if John Doe is winning this month, whether he’s up year on year, and which game is his strongest. These insights can help decision making moving forward. If this is something you’re interested in, I’d love to help you. Fill in your email below and you can download a template report for free. The template gives you an idea of the type of monthly report you’d receive.
Template Report
Watch Video on How to Log Sessions
If you’re interested in a stand-alone product of poker excel dashboard and updates or you want the updates and reporting reporting, just register for your free quote later in the article.
See some snapshots below for an idea of what the dashboard and graphs can look like.
We can quickly see John started well in January and has been on a decline since. Do you track your monthly winnings efficiently and compare against previous months?
See how John wins in the morning/daytime but loses at night? If there is a lot of data and volume, he may need to consider only playing during day time. Do you monitor whether you play better during day or night?
John wins at NL $50 and $100 but a loser NL $200. At first glance, he should focus on NL $50. Do you track your performance at different stakes?
Are you interested in having a dynamic dashboard with monthly reports? Get a free quote below:
Free Cash Game Spreadsheet
If you are already a competent user of spreadsheets and happy to fill in all the data yourself, we also offer a basic poker cash game spreadsheet for free. You don’t get all the cool graphs and advanced insights that our dashboard shows but it does the job in recording your session; highlighting the basic figures like profits and hourly rate.
Interested in a free poker cash game spreadsheet? Just fill in your email below and you’ll be sent the spreadsheet instantly by email.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for the best poker software, for stat tracking and bankroll management visit our poker software page.
This page was originally written in 2020 and has been updated.
Narciso Baldo
Narciso Baldo is the Director and Head Coach of Texas Hold'em Questions. He has been playing poker for over 16 years. After spending many years as a professional, he now runs UK poker training site Texas Hold'em Questions. Narciso regularly writes poker articles sharing tips, strategy, news and experience with gambling enthusiasts. Narciso also writes for reputable gambling portal Casino City Times, (bio here). Contact: info@texasholdemquestions.com
