PT stats, want to make sure I'm headed in the right direction

[Chiefs Fan]

Stats are for Party 1/2 6 max and some (1500 hands) Paradise 1/2 5 max

6800 hands
77 hours

VP$IP - 22.12
PFR% - 11.84 - I am aware this needs attention - see below
BB/hour - 3.12
BB/100 - 3.54
WtSD - 34.93
W$SD - 51.57
W$SF - 34.89

VP$SB - 36.47
Folded SB to steal - 77.92
Folded BB to steal - 55.36
Folded BB to steal HU - 45.76

Attempt to steal - 24.17

saw flop on all hands - 33.52
saw flop not a blind - 18.44

Aggression
PF - .97
flop - 3.85
turn - 3.52
River - 1.56
Total - 1.97

I know I need to be raising more PF and over my last 1500-2000 hands my PFR% is in the 13-15 range

Just looking for guidance, anything I can work on.

[T0asty]

Your stats pi$$ all over mine at 1/2, not sure what im doing wrong but i just can't get the agg factor up. People jsut wont play with me....

[grinin]

Looks great to me. You can experiment with the following just to try different strategies:

defend more in BB

Since you are pretty tight you may want to consider going to a few more SD. You will give up a little on the W$SD but in 1-2 opponents will be bluffing a lot.

[ctv1116]

I think you just need to find your own style. My PFR is 7.36% through 33K hands but I'm still pulling a 4.13 BB/100 rate. I think the problem is that if you're playing at the largest pot size tables of Party 1/2, you will rarely have the opportunity to steal-raise. I know my weak-tight style will not work at higher levels, so perhaps bringing up your PFR% like that will work well for you in the long run.

[Chiefs Fan]

Yeah, I typically look for a table with greater than $12 average pot. $12-14 is what I like, more than $14 and I feel there is likely to be much more aggression and I'm not ready for that just yet. When I raise, I want to be called, let them play their J7o against my AQ. Raising to try to steal the BB is almost pointless at most of the tables I play at. Against certain opponents I can get away with it 50% of the time but I normally only try to steal with reasonable hands, if I know I'm going to get called, I tighten up.

I hate limping because I want to play KJo shorthanded but I don't want a 75s coming in on the button or SB for 1 bet and beating me. Whereas he would likely fold that hand to a raise (the reasonable partyers anyway)

[naphand]

How many hands do you think you need to be winning to justify a PF steal-raise? Most people's idea of a steal-raise is precisely not that; OTB with QTo is not a steal-raise, you probably have the best hand, pretty much any pair above 44 ditto.

I see your "steal-raise" close to 25% of the time, which is probably fine.

Look at your stats for "steal-raises" and see how many times people folded PF. Then look at how many hands you won without a SD. Then look at how many of those left you won at SD. Steal-raising is not just about PF, it's about following up on the flop and stealing the hand with the blind/s in with their trash.

I hope someone knows the math but my thinking is, if you are stealing 20% PF and winning another 40% without showdown, you should be making plenty from this action (you will also win your share of SD).

My figures typically look like the above (won at SD usually a little below 50%), you only need to be careful when people play back at you, to ensure you don't lose too many chips when you are behind.

[Chiefs Fan]

I do realize that QT may be the best hand at the moment and that is a hand I will try to steal with. QT can get right in the middle of lots of flops. My problem with stealing comes postflop, when I don't make a hand, bet out on the flop and get called. I am often left wondering how to handle the turn.

Until I gain more confidence in my postflop play HU I am entering those situations with solid hands. Stealing with Axo where x is 6-2 really makes me nervous. I prefer to steal with QT,JT,J9,Q9 type of hands, even though I realize the A can win unimproved. I also have trouble when people do play back at me, PF or postflop.

[ctv1116]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate limping because I want to play KJo shorthanded but I don't want a 75s coming in on the button or SB for 1 bet and beating me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you really want 75s to fold preflop? I think the answer to that question is no, but of course, if they'll call two bets cold (which very often does happen), raising might be a more viable option. Of course, now that they have called a raise preflop, they pretty much will (correctly) call to the river with any drawing hand. Of course, the debate of whether to limp more often with marginal hands in the loose-passive games (see HPFAP) is still being discussed in this forum, so I think both of us have viable arguments for our styles of play.

[Chiefs Fan]

I understand what you are saying and I can actually see that as a reasonable point (Not raising KJo so you invite the 75s to play and call bets).

say I have KJo in the CO on a 6 handed table and SB has 75s.

Scenario 1: UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, I raise, button folds, SB folds, BB calls UTG+1 calls.

Scenario 2: UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, I limp, button limps, SB completes and BB checks.

correct me if I'm wrong here, but I want people to make mistakes, the SB completing in an unraised pot is no mistake, the SB calling my raise is probably marginal at best(I'm no expert at odds, etc yet, I would never call this raise in this spot).

I don't mind losing to flush or straight draws, those are reasonable hands and people have odds to draw to them, but I get very annoyed when the flop comes KJ5 after I limped and bet the flop then lose to another 5 on the turn.

I think sometimes I raise for fear of getting drawn out on.

Also, Holdem rewards aggression, shorthanded even more so. I don't want to just be a winning player, I want to move up in limits, I want to get better and I want to make more money.

By the way, to each his own, I have no problem with a different style of play than mine. I'm a total newb and I'm learning, thats why I'm posting and discussing. Thanks.

[naphand]

Hands like 75s and the like (JTo, 44 etc.) thrive on getting good implied odds. They are hands that draw well or need a very well-matched flop to proceed, they are typically well disguised, and make their money playing against other good but lesser hands on the LATER streets. They want a cheap flop. They will miss the very large majority of the time, but well played, will reap some very nice pots.

Limping into hands with KJo is just providing such hands with cheap flops. Flops such as J68 or K75 are going to hurt you. The only reason you are not getting hurt worse is because most of the players at low limit are crap - they do not know how to exploit position and play very predictably post-flop.

You have a choice; try to get clever and extract a few extra BB against bad opposition post-flop or make them pay from the get-go. Most of the players at low limit will call a lot of these type hands regardless of whether it is one or two bets PF. If they call 2 bets, their implied odds are killed, if you let them in cheap they may be getting correct odds to play PF, esp. from SB.

There really is no reason to "encourage" the fish to limp in with trash, most will anyway. You can make money by outplaying these guys post-flop AND pre-flop if you wish. I see no reason to limit it to the latter.

As a rule of thumb: raise your hands PF, no need to get tricky with terrible players; limp with those hands that have good implied odds (CO onwards).

YOU should be taking advantage of the implied odds of these hands, rather than giving others the chance to play them correctly.

[kiddo]

[ QUOTE ]
I think sometimes I raise for fear of getting drawn out on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its not "a fear", its a fact. You are raising because of the fact that you dont want to be drawn out on. If you dont raise high cards like KJo you will probably need to hit to win, if you raise you will win a fair amount of pots unhit because fewer players and you showed aggression preflop so now they let u have it when you bet flop and also if you raised from late position and you bet flop a lot of not so good players will try to checkraise turn if they hit and now you can take a freecard and maybe hit that inside straight (against bad/"tricky" players its very good to be aggressive from late position cause they love slowplaying and you can escape cheap when they check to you those time you dont hit)

Not raising high cards SH is a big misstake. If players are very loose you can start to limp with some drawing hands but the value of taking control of the pot is big also when players are loose so normally if you are first in its a raise/fold situation.