When we play on GGPoker, win rates from tables are not as high as they are on the other sites, but if you can put in enough volume, you can still achieve very high overall results.
This is the main reason why we see many rakeback/leaderboard grinders spending hours trying to reach the top spot. For example, if a player manages to finish the NL50 leaderboard in first place, he will win $450; if he comes second, he will be awarded $300; and if he comes third, he will pocket $200.
By reaching the top spots of the leaderboard, you will automatically play a lot of hands and, by default, get a lot of rakeback on top of leaderboard prizes. If you are doing that, having high rakeback status and affiliate rakeback through your agent is very important.
There are also promotions like GGCare and GGCheers, which give players entries to an all-in shootout tournament when they suffer a bad beat or cooler an opponent. This will also yield us some money over the long run.
Bad Beat Jackpot is also some kind of rakeback that we receive if we put in enough volume. How often it hits depends on many variables, such as our range, our tendency to call, etc.
How Much Money Each of These Bring
Players who consistently win the NL50 leaderboard use the strategy of playing every other day, as it takes from 20 to 24 hours to win the leaderboard. It depends if the competitors are pushing you to play full hours or if they realize the gap in points is too big, and they can’t close it.
If we assume that the player plays 80 percent of the days in the year, plays every other day, and wins first place every time he plays, the player will win $65,700 just through the leaderboards over the year.
Then, if he plays 22,000 hands per day (players play from 800 to 1000 hands per hour on four rush and cash tables, depending on the range and speed of their decisions), it will bring another $50 to $100 of rakeback per day depending on rakeback status and affiliate deal player has. Using the $75 over 146 playing days will bring another $11,000 over the year.
This volume will amount to around 3.2 million hands per year, which will give the player around 5.2 Bad Beat Jackpots, as they should hit every 600,000 hands (this number may vary) and bring another $8,300 per year. This is in case we win two times and lose two times, and the third time is the average of two in BBJ.
All this together will bring an NL50 high-volume leaderboard grinder $85,000 over the year without winning a single big blind from the tables. There will also be some smaller winnings like GGCare and GGCheers, and also when the player is part of the Bad Beat Jackpot by just sitting at the table and not being part of the hand. This is quite an extreme way of playing poker, and it is not for everyone or even for most people.
What is The More Optimal Way to Get Some Value From Leaderboards?
The more healthy and reasonable way to approach leaderboards is to play a lot of volumes while focusing on winning money on the tables by having a skill advantage over other players and playing our A-level game.
For a serious poker player, it should be normal to play for eight hours per day, and if he plays for six hours during regular hours, he will win around 18,000 leaderboard points. He plays for two more hours during happy hour, where players get double points, which will give him an additional 12,000 points. The player will collect a total of around 30,000 points, which will be enough to place in the top 15 and secure at least $80. However, one more hour could bring the player’s reward up to $140 on some days.
Using this strategy, we are able to play 80 percent of all days in the year without getting burned out while still yielding a minimum of $23,360 from the leaderboards per year. We will also add some rakeback and other promotions, but more importantly, we will have higher win rates at the tables as this is our main focus.
If we manage to win at 4bb/100 and play around 8,000 hands per day, we could win $160 per day, which would translate into $46,720 per year. With leaderboards and rakeback, we would get a number similar to that of the player who plays every other day and wins the leaderboard every single time he plays.
This way is far more consistent as getting to the top 15 is achievable at almost a 100 percent rate, but getting the first spot depends on other competitors. We also used the highest possible amount for the top place grinder and the lowest possible for the optimal leaderboard grinder. The key is, of course, if the player can achieve a win rate of 4bb/100, but even if it’s 2bb/100, we might earn more as a high-volume grinder may also have a negative win rate and may miss some first places.
The realistic scenario for both players is to win over $50,000/year if they are consistent enough and use the right strategy.
