I reached Bison's "Money Bag" designation tonight...

[jwombles]

Well, I thought I would post my PokerTracker stats for the first time on here for your honest critique. I am an eager student of the game and working very hard to improve, and know that I have a lot to learn.

I used to play a lot of S&G's on Party Poker (10, 20, and 30's), and not doing terribly bad, but I was playing mostly off of my knowledge from reading Super System. Little did I know 2 months ago that my Poker knowledge was about to change!

I picked up the Cigar Afficionado mag with Raymer on the front and after reading the artice I looked up this website in addition to buying Theory of Poker--upon his mentioning what it did for him. It really opened my eyes.

Then I picked up SSHE and enjoyed it more than any other book. Suddenly, I find myself with most of the recomended books by Sklansky, Malmuth, Miller and the gang. I can't thank YOU GUYS enough!!! I haven't started on Advanced hold em (I feel that I need to reread TOP again) but am looking forward to it. Eagerly waiting for the new Harrington book b/c I feel that my NL instincts are getting very rusty and have a hard time switching now from limit to NL S&G's and MT Tourney's. Can any of you guys relate to this feeling?

Anyway, I bought PokerTracker a month ago after seeing mention of it on here and then found Bison’s auto rating system and put it in. Tonight I finally hit the Money Bag status which he says he is, and that it’s the ideal TAG group you want to be in. So I guess I’m CELEBRATING a little tonight!

Anyway, I really feel that I’ve found a new home on here and look forward to your thoughts. I have stuck mostly to 2/4 Limit on Party and have tried out the 3/6 rooms. I've even had some fun in a 5/10 room <GASP!> but broke even and didn't like the swings. My bankroll isn't really large enough to be in a 3/6 room so I'm trying to wait to move up but I've found some great success with the 2/4 rooms and feel like I'd like to move up. I have a day job in sales and make enough money that I could cover the bank roll needed to be in 3/6 but I'd like my bankroll to be strictly from my poker earnings and am going to try to wait and move up.

Currently I have only 6300 hands in PT and was wondering at what point do the statistics become very relevant? I know 6300 is a small number, but is 10k good? 20k? 100k? I don’t know. Beleive it or not, it was my aggression factor that kept me out of the moneybag ranks. Here are my stats:

Total Hands 6300
VPIP 19.05%
VPIP from small blind 29.64%

Saw Flop all hands 24.7%
Saw Flop not a blind 17.3%

Folded SB to Steal 87.5%
Folded BB to Steal 43.9%
Folded BB to steal Headsup 41.3%

Attempted to Steal Blinds 25%

Won $ when saw flop 33.25%
BB won per 100 hands 1.94

Went to Showdown 28.68%
Won $ at Showdown 53.64%

Raised Preflop 7.2%
Limp/Call Reraise PF .13%

Aggression Factor
Flop 1.81
Turn 1.94
River 2.44
Total 2.05

Folded to River bet 57.85%

Thanks for your input. See you at the felt!

Wombles

[college_boy]

I bet if you typed "sample size" into the keyword search you could find a lot of great insight about when your poker tracker stats start to become relevant. This seems to be a pretty popular question.

[MarkL444]

if your br isnt big enough for 3/6, why are you playing 5/10? do not take shots at a tough game 2 levels above your br.

[itsmarty]

I believe the shots at 5/10 were part of his education as a poker player, and are in the past. Here's the part I liked:

[ QUOTE ]
I have a day job in sales and make enough money that I could cover the bank roll needed to be in 3/6 but I'd like my bankroll to be strictly from my poker earnings and am going to try to wait and move up.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a very good attitude.

RE: the OP's questions: Discussion of the quality/availablity/etc of Books and Software takes place here, but you'll generally find questions about what Poker Tracker stats mean in the appropriate limit's forums (I think 2/4 is Small Stakes, possibly Micro).

The only comment I have on your stats is that you shouldn't aim for a particular number...you should aim for the conceptual understanding that will cause that number to occur without aiming for it.

Martin

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
The only comment I have on your stats is that you shouldn't aim for a particular number...you should aim for the conceptual understanding that will cause that number to occur without aiming for it.

Martin

[/ QUOTE ]

One of the more useful pieces of advice I've seen lately.

Freakin

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Your sample size is still too small, but I might keep an eye on the "went to SD" and "won $ at SD" figures. I think you may be folding too often on the river. Remember from SSH, calling a bet with a losing hand may be a mistake, but folding the winner to a single bet (assuming a good-sized pot) is a tragedy.

[DeepCroak]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The only comment I have on your stats is that you shouldn't aim for a particular number...you should aim for the conceptual understanding that will cause that number to occur without aiming for it.



[/ QUOTE ]

One of the more useful pieces of advice I've seen lately.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't disagree, but would point out that the numbers are useful in determining how well your conceptual understanding has progressed. If your numbers are way off, that's an indication that your understanding may not be as great as you think it is...

[jwombles]

Yeah, I actually took Bison's numbers, understood where he was coming from with the Money bag figures-that is, representing a player who is tight but aggressive-and used the SSH knowledge I gained in trying to become that type of player as oppossed to just raising preflop wrecklessly or betting or raising postflop for raising's sake to get my Total Aggression figure where it should be.

Another interesting note. When I prioritize the percentage win rate with starting hands I noticed a startling leak in my game! My percentage win rate with starting hands in order looks like this:

Hand Times Win %
AA 22 90%
KK 28 82%
QQ 28 78%
AQs 13 61%
JJ 31 61%
KTs 13 54%
ATs 15 53%
KQs 16 50%
88 25 48%
AKo 49 46% for a net loss!!!???
...
AKs 22 45% for a net loss!!!???

Obviously, AK is a strong hand and it will eventually move up the list somewhere I guess about right after JJ (once AQs moves down to it's rightful place thru the normal growth of my sample size) but it says to me that maybe I am taking them too far to the end with a hope and a prayer!

I'm ashamed to have noticed such a BIG leak in my game w/ AK when I know I should most of the time lay it down if I don't flop to it well (IE: overcard pair possibility w/o heavy betting).

Anyway, I thought this was interesting and there again I know that my sample is too small to read into and that my starting hand order over time will begin to shape up in about the order in which Sklansky rates them...but it's great to notice a leak like that thanks to Poker tracker!

I appreciate all of your comments, and am going to look into my river play and really try to dissect what I'm doing. I love the line in SSH where it might be a mistake to call a bet on the rive but it's a tragedy to lose a big pot that you would have won and I try to take into account the size of the pot on whether or not I call on the river with what I think may be the second best hand, but I am going to take a deeper look per your suggestion. Thanks!

See ya at the felt,
Wombles on PP / Chiproller on PS

[uuDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm ashamed to have noticed such a BIG leak in my game w/ AK....

[/ QUOTE ]
This may or may not be a leak, but you cannot judge this by your results after ~6000 hands. You will only have been dealt this hand about 72 times-- not nearly enough to establish an accurate winrate.