ptbb vs bb - tracking your play at different levels
 

This came up in a different , but to save TP from having to move it I'll just start a new one.

BB can either mean "big blind" or "big bet" - some differentiate between the two as BB=Big Bet and bb=big blind.

PokerTracker uses the big bet calculation as big blind x2. This is commonly referred to as ptbb, or PokerTracker Big Bet. People commonly refer to BB/100 hands as a measure of performance - the higher the number the better the performance over the number of hands measured.

Because of the way the BB/100 hands is calculated, if you play at different levels, it's possible to have a total +BB/100 with a loss in actual money or vice versa.

The idea behind this stat is to allow a common rating system between levels. Players at $10NL can compare their play to players at $50NL and so on because it breaks down the amount you win to the level you play at. If I win 1BB it's the same as you winning 1BB even if I'm playing with dimes and you are playing with dollars.

For example - if 2 players both play 250 hands and win $100, but player1 is at $50NL and player2 is at $100NL then clearly player1 out performed player2 over the 250 hands. Player 1 wins 40BB/100 and player2 only wins 20BB/100.

The equation used to do the calculation looks like this:
$won/(hands/100)/(bb*2)=BB/100 hands

To make things more interesting (and I think more difficult) PokerTracker released a patch in February, Version 2.16.01h, which includes the option to change the BB/100 hand behaviour. From the PT website:



So now there is an option to use the bb/100 hands as opposed to the standard BB/100 hands. This means you need to be careful to specify PTBB when quoting the stat if you use the original BB=bb*2 behaviour. You also need to be careful if someone doesn't specify PTBB that they mean bb and not PTBB - basically make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

I hope this clears things up, at least a little bit... :cheers: