Planet Mark's Blog. Thoughts, News And Strategy For Poker Tournaments Of All Size

Poker Profits And The Pareto Principle

Just a quick post, on the subject of the 80 / 20 rule – also known as the ‘Pareto Principle’.

This simply states that 80% of results comes from 20% of the effort expended, this is well established and almost disturbingly accurate in business and general life situations… have a think about it, you’ll be surprised!

Now, it is also established that around 80% of poker players either lose money outright or break even on their games. Leaving 20% to make the money (heavily biased towards SNG Planet readers is my guess!).

Now, it is also established that around 80% of poker players either lose money outright or break even on their games. Leaving 20% to make the money (heavily biased towards SNG Planet readers is my guess!).

I was thinking about the distribution of profits within those 20% and would like to publicly put forward my hypothesis that 20% of those players (so 4% of the original sample) make 80% of the profits, that 20% of those players who are in the top 20% of profitable players make 80% of the total profits (so that is 0.4% of the original sample) and (you guessed it) of the total profits won by those 0.4% of players, 80% of this is won by the top 20%... that’s 0.08% of our original sample.

Can I prove it? Nope – but an interesting thought none the less.

Hopefully one that motivates one or two readers to get to the top 0.08% soon!

GL at the Tables, Mark

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