Just like the fisherman tends to tell the tale of the one that got away, poker players have a tendency to distort the truth regarding results - win or lose, of their poker session. If it is your intention to be a star poker player, you have to start keeping records and making postmortems of your play.  

While keeping detailed records of your play and rehashing and unpacking a game for your records may seem boring, it is actually necessary if you want to be a good player. Chris Moneymaker has a MA in accounting and you can guarantee that there is plenty of rehashing of poker games which goes on behind the scenes in this poker player's life. 

All the professionals agree that your real life needs and poker playing money needs; need to be kept separate. If this is not done, it is not possible to have benchmarks for seeing how well you are doing at the tables and whether your game is really improving. 

Out of pocket players are players who don't have a physical separate bankroll for their poker game, and these players need to be concerned with two amounts. One - is the amount of money they had when they entered the poker room, and Two - is the amount of money they had when they left the poker room! Knowing this helps the player know where their strengths and weaknesses lie and yes, even the best poker players have weaknesses! 

There is no right or wrong way of record keeping - the most important fact is that the records relate any information required to get perspective on your game. Poker playing is not like playing random numbers games such as the slots, it is a game of skill and strategy - it is THE thinking man's game!  Poker players are able to access online stats tracking, use a spreadsheet and even a pad of paper and pencil will do. Poker logs track date, start time, end time, buy-ins (total amount) and cash out. A good deal more information than this can be logged including what room you make the most money in, but the more records you log, the better your ability to assess your own game and whether or not it is improving will be.  

Use of an Excel spreadsheet will also allow you generate graphs and use all kinds of statistics tools. Most important to remember is that you can never keep too much information. 

Honest and accurate record keeping allows the poker player to take a step back and look at their game from an objective perspective. It enables you to make more profitable choices, and see if you really suck. If you suck at poker, don't worry, there are plenty of online bingo sites where you can play - ok, only joking.  

You can have a negative ROI and still be a winning player, but you will only be able to see this from keeping accurate records. Don't let your poker game be the one that got away, keep proof!