playing stats - what is good?

i play at pokerstars, and they have stats they keep track of for each session while i play.


Consider a full table of hold'em.....


what is a good percentage of hands to play....i aim for around 38%...i am generally a breakeven player in long run.


Is that too tight or too loose? Also, i seem to win about 60-65% of showdowns, which i think (need opinions here) is pretty good. Of course showdowns don't include the hands i play to river and fold, so that doesnt mean i win over 60% of the hands i go for

I have my best results when I am seeing approximately 25% of the flops. I prefer to let some of the lesser EV hands go into the muck. As far as showdowns won, I am still grappling with what is a good number, but I would think at least 60%+.


I hope this helps,


Fitz

25% flop

80% showdowns

80% showdown is probably too high. It would indicate playing too tight, possibly folding hands when someone bets into you too often!


Another thing, something the showdown stat doesn't take into account, are hands you win without a showdown.


- Tony

At 9 handed pokerstars you should probably see ~20% of flops. 60% winning showdowns is probably the best you can go for - that includes when the river is checked down, though. Higher than that you're probably being pushed off of too many pots, lower you're being an ATM.

The stats you figure are not so easy to quantify; it all depends on the game. If it's a passive game, you'll get to play a lot from the BB (11% right there), you'll complete many hands from the SB (5%), and you should be limping in with many drawing hands from late position, so your flop % may be 40%, since it includes these free plays. The same may be for a weak-tight games, where you'll be raising many hands from late positions (and sometimes from very early positions) to steal blinds. For typical 9-handed games, maybe 30% is close, IMO, though I haven't tracked it exactly for long enough, since most of my time playing poker has been live.


The showdowns won stat is even more game-dependent. If you are playing against total rocks you should win 100% of your showdowns (in theory). If you're playing against complete idiots who will bluff at every pot, then I think you need to pay off just about every time. And against very tough players who will play perfectly, you need to call enough to way the pot odds vs the odds that they are bluffing, which can be surprisingly often, since aggressives make for largish pots. Usually, if you're in a hand with a tough player and it's the river, you have to call anyway, unless you totally miss (like a flush draw or a failed turn bluff). With any other hand, you basically have to call the river bet - you've liked your hand well enough to call to this point, so you can't drop now for 1 BB where you're often getting about 10:1 on your call, unless the hand has very unusual action and/or a VERY scary board. Thus, you'll find yourself calling with many weaker hands on the river; I think that a 45% showdown win rate is good in most games, and sometimes you need to be even looser with the calls.


I think that the funny thing about hold 'em is that many players get so hung up on being tight that they forget why they're doing it. It's right to be tight preflop so that you don't get committed to "pay off" hands - that's why you fold KJ in early position. You pair that K, and you basically have to call it down, only to see a better kicker. Very costly. If you play tight with hands that are dominated, you won't have as many crying calls, and you'll save a bunch of money. If you play drawing hands for cheap preflop, you'll either love the river or will fold, so crying calls are not usually necessary there either. Folding big pots, which most of today's hold em games have, is VERY wrong when you have anything of consequence. There are very few players that you can be 90% sure of a hand, and since pots are generally 10:1, you need to call with weak hands quite often. This obviously applies to headsup situations on the end; in a multiway pot, it can be quite different, though it may be best to try to buy the pot with a weak hand, but if called you will lose just about every time (which will lower your showdown win %). That's why these stats are not so telling; they aren't the truly relavant questions to answer. The concepts that I mention here are, IMO. But what do I know, I'm Just Another Sucker...

Hold'em :


saw flop:

- in small blind (30%)

- in big blind (60%)

- in other positions (16%)

- total (23%)


Pots won at showdown - (57%)


... I do significantly better than break even.

passive game, you're seeing waaaaayyyy too many flops.