Chris Halverson’s Blog

Update: There was a problem with the Noble site calculations. I don’t play there yet so I hadn’t noticed it. Version 1.01 has been released. Also, another note, to specify transactions to or from your “bank”, which represents some mythical funding source (bank, credit card, etc.), specify the “site” called “Bank” in the “Money” tab. Sorry for the confusion.

I have made many mentions about the spreadsheet I use to track my balances at various sites. It also has some basic performance tracking, but it’s mostly meant to keep track of what I have at various sites. I promised to release it a while ago and here it is. Please read the rest of this so that you can understand what exactly it will track and what it’s good for. Just go into it with the knowledge that it’s not going to work for everybody.

The need stemmed from the fact that I tend to play on quite a few sites and will have money in all of them. Then I read on 2+2 about people getting spyware installed and then having the intruders logging into poker sites and dumping chips. Now, I don’t know how serious it is, but it made me think. I use Firefox and Thunderbird, so I wasn’t too worried, but you never know. Anyway, I realized that I had no idea how much money I had stashed at any given site. This was troubling.

Due to my lack of “real” spreadsheet experience I went searching for a pre-existing one and found one that was almost good enough. I used it as a starting point and then went into mega research mode and learned quite a bit about VBA and such, although it’s fairly focused knowledge based on what I was looking for. I added a user form, threw in a bunch of scripting stuff and added some SNG stats (charts, summary tables, etc.). Everything is dynamic, including the charts. You should just be able to enter data by hand in the “Money” tab and automatically for ring games/SNGs via the “Add New Game” button on the “Overall” tab.

For the stats part, it is really only made for Hold ‘Em, or at least one type of game. If you don’t care about the amount won per game type, then you can easily just add Omaha, Razz, Stud, etc. to the results, just be aware that it wasn’t really meant to do that (it will become apparent what I mean when you see it).

Also keep in mind that this is NOT a replacement for PokerTracker. It gives some basic stats, but it’s really meant as balance tracker and a quick stats lookup.

Once you download it, please read the “Info” tab for directions. You’ll have to go through and setup initial balances (via the “Money” tab) for each site that you have money. Just record it as a “Deposit” on the “Money” tab, also make sure to use the correct abbreviations for the sites.

I can add more sites if needed, and I’m sure it will be. I don’t even have accounts at some of the sites listed, but put them in because they are popular. It’s a bit of work to add a new site, so I tended to stay with the ones where I had accounts.

Note that this makes extensive use of scripts. You MUST allow macros in order to really use this. Virus scan it and everything, there’s nothing malicious there.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. I may be able to be bothered to add other games, but I don’t play them so my interest is kind of limited.

Lastly, if anybody has some good Excel knowledge, I would appreciate any feedback on this. Ways to make it better, etc. are always welcome. If you’re going to tell me it sucks, keep it to yourself, just don’t use it. It fits my needs quite well. If it doesn’t fit yours, use something else, complaining to me will get you nowhere. I’m up for constructive criticism, but offer help and we can make it work.

You can download either as an Excel file or a Zip file:

Excel File

Zip File

I have created a permananet page for it and will always be available here.

Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005 at 8:27 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.