Calculate poker hourly rate and BB/hr from net result, hours played and big-blind size. Free calculator with formulas and a worked example.
£12,000
600
£5
15
£20.0/hr
Hourly rate
+4.0 BB/hr
Win rate
£1,300
Per month
£15,600
Per year
Worked example 05
Count each cost once. Define the hours.
In the starting example, a £180 table profit over six hours is £30/hour. Subtract £30 of additional costs and the same session becomes £25/hour.
Keep the session. Change the hidden costs.Interactive example
£0£120
Table profit, already net of stack-paid costs£180
Additional costs−£30
After those additional costs£150
After additional costs / 6 playing hours£25.00/hour
(£180 − £30) ÷ 6 = £25.00/hour
The £180 table result stays fixed. Change extra costs or the time basis to see the arithmetic. Both time definitions are valid if clearly labelled and used consistently. Figures are before any applicable tax.
Here, table profit means cash-out minus all buy-ins. Rake taken from pots and tips paid from the playing stack have already reduced cash-out. Deduct only extra costs not already captured, such as separately paid travel. These figures are before any applicable tax.
Keep your definition consistent across sessions. If you record food, travel or study time, state what you include. Do not subtract the same fee twice or compare playing-hours-only figures with all-time figures as if they were equivalent.
Fixed example: £180 loss, £30 extra costs, six playing hours?
Original Overshove writing, arithmetic and diagram. Illustrative figures are not player records.
Poker hourly rate and BB/hr formulas
Hourly rate = net result / hours played. BB per hour = hourly rate / big-blind size.
For example, an illustrative £600 net result over 30 hours is £20 per hour. At a £5 big blind, that is 4 BB/hr. A negative net result produces a negative hourly.
Use completed sessions on the same cost basis. Do not deduct rake or tips again if they already reduced cash-out. Record the inputs in the free poker bankroll spreadsheet, or use the tournament ROI calculator to express tournament results as a percentage of buy-ins.
What does this result mean?
A poker hourly rate calculator divides net profit by hours played, then expresses the same result in big blinds per hour so different stakes can be compared on one scale. The cash figure tells you what the game paid; BB/hr tells you how efficiently you beat the stake. Both are only as honest as the inputs.
Start from cash-outs minus all buy-ins, which already reflects pot rake and stack-paid tips or time charges. Deduct only additional costs not already included. Use table hours for table hourly or table plus travel time for a separately labelled overall hourly; extra time changes the denominator, not cash profit. Monthly and yearly projections simply extend the measured hourly across your planned volume, so they are scenarios rather than forecasts. Use the result to compare rooms, stakes and schedules, but keep the sample size beside it. A strong hourly from a short or unusually soft run is useful evidence, not a settled long-term win rate.
Next step
Find your hourly beyond one calculation
That hourly figure and weekly projection come from the numbers you entered. Log real sessions in Overshove to work out your true hourly after rake, dealer tips and travel.
The app opens in a new tab. On the sign-in screen, choose "New here? Create an account". Calculator numbers are not transferred to the app. Enter your real session records there to start your log.
Tracking and calculations do not guarantee a profit or prevent losses.
Your hourly rate is profit divided by hours, the number poker actually pays you in the seat. Convert it to BB/hr to compare across stakes, and project it at your weekly volume.
Example
Synthetic example: £12,000 profit after the costs included on your chosen basis, over 600 table hours at £2/£5, is £20/hr and 4 BB/hr. At an unchanged 15 table hours a week, the arithmetic scenario is about £1,300 a month; it is not an income forecast.
Estimates for study and planning only, not a profit promise. Overshove tracks your real sample so these inputs come from your own data.
What does this calculator compute?
The calculator divides net result by hours, then converts the same sample into BB/hr using the big blind. The projection lines multiply that hourly by your weekly volume, so the sample and the schedule both matter.
When should the result change your decision?
Use it to compare stakes, rooms and schedules. If a game looks good in cash but weak in BB/hr, or the travel-adjusted number drops, the headline result is probably flattering you.
How to use the answer responsibly
Treat the calculator as a planning tool, not a verdict on one session. A live poker input is usually an estimate: your win rate is noisy, your standard deviation changes by game type, and your future volume rarely matches the clean number you type into a form. The useful habit is to save the assumptions beside the result so you know what would need to change before the decision changes.
If the result pushes against what you wanted to do, do not smooth the inputs until the answer feels nicer. Make the conservative version first, using a lower win rate, a higher swing rate or fewer weekly hours. Then run the optimistic version. The space between those answers is the real decision area: where a shot needs a stop rule, where a move up needs more buy-ins, or where a good-looking hourly still needs a bigger sample.
Overshove calculators become more useful when the inputs come from your own logged sessions. Rake, tips, travel, hours, stake mix and session length all change the number. A generic benchmark can teach the shape of the problem, but a clean personal log gives the number you should actually act on.
Questions
What is a good hourly rate in live poker?
There is no universal figure; it scales with stake, edge and sample size. Cash-outs minus all buy-ins already reflect pot rake and stack-paid tips or fees. Deduct only additional costs not already included, and label whether hours mean table time or total trip time.
How do I calculate BB per hour?
Divide net profit by hours played, then divide that cash hourly by the big-blind size. Winning £20 per hour in a 2/5 game is 4 BB per hour.
