» What does BB/100 vs. bb/100 mean?

Every poker player appreciates having some parameter to judge how successful or unsuccessful they are.  Simply listing money won or money lost is too simplistic and unhelpful of a comparison.  So what measuring stick is used for poker players?

If you are a tournament player, your measuring stick is ROI (return on investment) or possible %ITM (in the money).  For a cash game player, the two main measuring sticks are BB/100 and bb/100.  They look very similar, don't they?  The two benchmarks are a result of the two main poker tracking software sites having used different measuring sticks as their default.  Hold'em Manager uses bb/100, while PokerTracker uses BB/100.  BB stands for big bets, while bb stands for big blinds.   The hundred hands is used as a consistent comparison standard, rather than BB or bb per hour, although some players like determining their win rate per hour (e.g. an hourly wage earned).  The number of hands you might play in an hour obviously varies due to numerous factors.

Big bets originate from LHE where a Big Bet is twice the big blind.  So the conversion from bb/100 to BB/100 is a factor of two.  The 100 refers to the number of hands played.  If you have a bb/100 of 4.25 at $.50-$1, you are winning $4.25 every 100 hands played.  If you have a BB/100 of 2.5 at $.50-$1, you are winning $5 every 100 hands you play. 

Using either BB/100, which is now the more popular a measuring stick, or bb/100 allows you to compare your win rate versus other players at your level and with players at other levels of play.  You will typically notice a winning player at lower stakes can have a higher consistent BB/100 than a winning player at high stakes.  This is due to the much tougher competition that the high stakes player faces versus the low stakes player.  The BB/100 measuring stick is also helping to compare results when moving up levels.  You can possible have a lower BB/100, but a higher overall win rate as you move up.  So if you have a 3 BB/100 at $1-$2, but a 2 BB/100 at $2-$4, you winning $12 per average 100 hands at $1-$2, but $16 per average 100 hands at $2-$4.