Ask A Pro – Adam Levy
Thursday, January 29, 2009 - smokin_aces
Last week we announced that Adam “Roothlus” Levy was going to answer the Pro Question this week. We received one question so potentially enlightening, Adam just HAD to choose it.
The question was posed by paulodiablo and is as follows.
“Hey Roothlus, I’ve got a couple of questions for you. You’re pretty well known in the online community for your success at tournament play. What’s a good ROI and in-the-money statistic for a decent winning tournament player online… or what should a player be aspiring for statistically? Also when you were crafting your game, how did you go about assessing your own gaps and weaknesses, and put together a plan to remedy them?”
And here is Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy’s response.
“Hey paulodiablo,
Thanks for the question. I’ll do my best to answer it. While I can give you a ballpark figure, there really is no correct answer as to when an ROI(return on investment) starts becoming a ‘good’ ROI. I’d say that if you have more than a 40% ROI over a decent sample size that’s a good ROI. In the past games were a little bit softer so I would’ve said 50% 2 years ago but nowadays with more people having an understanding of the game, things have gotten a little tougher. A good ITM (in-the-money) would be 15% although theoretically you could have a 40% ITM rate and still have a negative ROI. So what I’m getting at is, your ROI is your bottom line and is all that should matter. Yes, looking at your ITM and other stats are fun to look at but nothing is more truthful on how much you make than your ROI.
When I was coming up through the ranks circa 2005 I would constantly watch the top players at the time and see what they did that I didn’t. I’d also talk to many players about the game. One thing you can do to point out some of your leaks is review hand histories and see if there was anything you could’ve done differently. Sometimes I would ask players their opinions of me just to get some outside perspective. In order to improve as a poker player you must be humble enough to admit that you need to improve. Sounds kind of obvious but ego can get in the way of things sometimes. Hope this answered your questions and good luck at the tables.
–Adam Levy a.k.a Roothlus”
A big thanks goes out to both paulodiablo and Adam Levy for being a part of this week’s Ask A Pro.
Be sure to check back tomorrow, and every Friday afternoon to find out who next weeks ‘Ask A Pro’ guest will be.
GL
Aces
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Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, Ask A Pro, paulodiablo, Poker Strategy
January 29th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
That’s great Roothlus… thanks a lot for answering. The ROI numbers were larger than what I thought they should be. I’ve been positive overall while playing, but not that high that’s for sure. Thanks also for the advice on sharpening your game… if you catch this comment, would you mind suggesting your favorite forum for posting hand histories? (It would be nice for UB to start one up…)
February 5th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
[...] names in Poker. We’ve had Annie Duke, HollywoodDave, Scott Ian, Shawn Rice, Phil Hellmuth, Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy, and later today, Tracy ‘FATCATS’ Scala. So during your tournament preparation, check out [...]