How to use Poker Tracker to improve SNG Play

[Strollen]

This last weekend I played 11 $10 Party SNG. I did very well 5 1st 2 2nd 2 4ths and 2 out early. Since this is much better than my regular poker (+$600 over 4 months maybe 5-10K hands at $1-2, 2-4 and $50/$100 NL, a few SNGS some MTTs, but much of my winnings are Poker site promos) I thought I'd figure out what was different.

I downloaded PT and loaded in my weekend data (11 SNG 699 hands) Poker Tracker is cool and I'll probably pay the $55 to register it but before I do. I have a very simple question How do I use all of this data to improve my SNG play? I understand what the stats mean but am at a loss to interpret them

I'll post some statistics and I'd appreciate if you all could tell me what the heck it means and what I should be doing differently. (BTW Is there a way to cut and paste these?)

ROI% 156.2 If only my stocks did so well :-)
Vol Put T$ in Pot 43.4% (number ranges from 36% first 3 levels to 50+ at at 200/400)
Vol put T$ in from SB 80.65%
Fold SB to steal 66.67%
Folded BB to steal 39.13%
Won T$ WSF 45.6%
BB won hand .19
Went to SD 44.03
Won TD at SD 52.14
PF raise % 19.03 (was 8% at 15/30, 14% at 30/60)
Att to Steal Blinds 37%

Player Actions Agression Factor
Pre-Flop .64
Flop 2.04
Turn 2.14
River 2.1
Total 1.12

When hands fold
No fold 37.2 Pre Flop 47.6 Flop 8.15 Turn 5.01 River 2.0

Check raise % .94

Any other stats I should be paying attention to?

thanks

Clif

[(my name it is) Sam Hall]

[ QUOTE ]
ROI% 156.2 If only my stocks did so well :-)
Vol Put T$ in Pot 43.4%

Won T$ WSF 45.6%

Went to SD 44.03
Won TD at SD 52.14
PF raise % 19.03 (was 8% at 15/30, 14% at 30/60)

Player Actions Agression Factor
Pre-Flop .64
Flop 2.04
Turn 2.14
River 2.1
Total 1.12

When hands fold
No fold 37.2 Pre Flop 47.6 Flop 8.15 Turn 5.01 River 2.0

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, first thing... totally a run of luck. Your VPIP is WAY, WAY too high (maybe only one WAY for limit, but I'm assuming you played NL). There's absolutely no way you can play that many hands and not get ruined without a huge component of luck. The higher your VPIP, the larger the swings you'll see in your ROI. 50% is an excellent sustainable number so three times that is just a good run. Tighten up a lot before your bankroll disappears, and you'll be just that much farther ahead for these times when you gambled wildly and won.

Limit, PL, or NL?

Sam

[Strollen]

I was playing 10 NL 1 limit. I was admittly having a nice run of cards. My VPIP for the first 3 levels was 35% which I know is too high. However, when you are playing 3 to 5 handed shouldn't your VPIP approach 50%? Put this way I was 3x BB raising a lot if there was nobody in the pot with some marginal hands and rarely getting called much less reraised.

The position stats say my most profitable position was the small blind is that really unusual I would expect the button to be?

[(my name it is) Sam Hall]

[ QUOTE ]
However, when you are playing 3 to 5 handed shouldn't your VPIP approach 50%?

[/ QUOTE ]

Three handed, 50% is acceptable IF you're good enough to play off a lot of hands you can't win at a showdown, and have to outplay your opponent. I've decided a winning strategy applied by an expert player can turn into a bigger loser for a less skilled player than if he'd stuck with a "less winning" one. Some big hits to my bankroll came after reading a lot of books and upgrading my play, as it took a while to learn how to play and win the hands I used to fold.

Four or five handed, 50% is absolutely too high. Since you're on the bubble, every hand you fold is a hand for someone else to do something stupid and you to move up a place. I agree you should raise more hands, but do it as positional/stack size steals where you have an advantage there rather than by the cards you have. You have to basically assume that anyone who is calling or raising you has something better than a marginal hand, so what you have doesn't matter. Example: opponent playing AK. Do you really care if you're playing QT or 53? Either one is a 2:1 dog, do play to make him fold AK or get out.... probably just get out.

Check to make sure you're looking at the column that subtracts the money required to post the SB. Since you'll see more flops for cheap from the blinds, you hit a good hand on a larger number (lower total fraction) of them and thus win more.

[Strollen]

Sam thanks for the advice.

Do you or anybody else have some links or suggestions where I could find more info what is a good (i.e. winning) range for various Poker Tracker stats, example Won T$ at Showdown. Obviously 20% is too low and 95% is too high...

But I don't know if my number 53% is too high or too low.

[(my name it is) Sam Hall]

You'll ahve better luck on the pokertracker forum:
http://www.pokertracker.com/forum/

My personal opinion is that WT$SD is so highly dependent on what format you're playing and how good you are at it that I wouldn't worry about it. I would say as a total random made-up number that WT$SD should be 50-60%, as long as you promise those 40-50% you lose are small, and don't hurt your stack too badly, and the ones you win are big. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

Ken Warren's book (***This is not any way an endorsment of the book, just a reference to one table in it. Chances are you can get it cheap because someone threw it out. I did. That's why I can't give a specific page number. It really does suck that badly...***) has a table of how often a specific hand wins against any number of random hands. If you're dying to get something from WT$SD, compare your number to his.