How to track poker win/loss

[Lanrete Li]

I play poker with my friends, sometime I win, sometime I loss, there are couple ways to track the win/loss but I feel all have there limitations. Hence I'm looking for suggestion here.

Let's say I played poker on May-1st and May-2nd, both with $200 buy-in. On May-1st I won $50, On May-2nd I lost $30

1. Everything poker related count as Income
   Above events will be tracked as:
   2023-05-01 * Poker
   Assets:Cash      $50
   Income:Poker
   
   2023-05-02 * Poker
   Assets:Cash      -$30
   Income:Poker
   
   Pro: I can easily know how much in total I win/loss in poker by running `ledger bal Poker`
   Con: Lossing in poker technically is not an `income` (or is it? I don't know for sure)
   
   
2. If I win, then it's income, if I loss, it's expense
   Above events will be tracked as:
   2023-05-01 * Poker
   Assets:Cash      $50
   Income:Poker
   
   2023-05-02 * Poker
   Assets:Cash      -$30
   Expense:Poker
   Pro: I guess it's clearer?
   Con: No single account tracks the win/loss of Poker
   
   
3. Buy-in as expense, result as income
   Above events will be tracked as:
   2023-05-01 * Poker Buyin
   Assets:Cash      $-200
   Expense:Poker:Buy-in
   
   2023-05-01 * Poker result
   Assets:Cash      $250
   Income:Poker
   
   2023-05-02 * Poker Buyin
   Assets:Cash      $-200
   Expense:Poker:Buy-in
   
   2023-05-02 * Poker result
   Assets:Cash      $170
   Income:Poker
   Pro: I guess it's clearer?
   Con: No single account tracks the win/loss of Poker, more tedious
   
   

I feel like there must be a more accurate way of tracking these...looking for suggestions here

many thanks!

[Yuri Khan]

On Wed, 3 May 2023 at 09:09, Lanrete Li <jeo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I play poker with my friends, sometime I win, sometime I loss, there are couple ways to track the win/loss but I feel all have there limitations. Hence I'm looking for suggestion here.
>
> Let's say I played poker on May-1st and May-2nd, both with $200 buy-in. On May-1st I won $50, On May-2nd I lost $30
>
> Everything poker related count as Income

> If I win, then it's income, if I loss, it's expense

> Buy-in as expense, result as income

> I feel like there must be a more accurate way of tracking these...looking for suggestions here

Some will argue you should only file as Income things that are taxable
as income.

I’ll rather say this depends on whether you use Ledger to calculate
your taxes; if not, use whatever works for you.

[o1bigtenor]

Dunno - - - - (grin) for me - - - that would be all expense - - - - lol.

Maybe - - - - you're tracking it like you do at the poker table.

Maybe - - - - track it like it money.

(I might be misunderstanding the financial aspects here!!!!!)

One time I deposit $200 and extract $170 (down $30).
Another time I deposit $200 and extract $220 (up $20).

Then it would be just one account (well - - - - actually 2 - - - include cash)
'poker' - - - - unless you start playing more often.

Dunno if that's at all accurate - - - wry grin.

HTH