PT Stats/Playerview...

[SparkyDog]

I used PT stats heavily for about 20k hands. Lately though playing 3/6 full and the 5/10 full and short I've been playing without even running PT in the background for about 5k hands. Results have improved (yeah yeah, small sample size) and I'm having more fun playing, and feel more confident about my playing.

I know a few respected posters have said they don't use playerview and don't like it, and still manage to multitable short games.

Thoughts?

[bdk3clash]

Playerview is what it is. What you do with it is up to you.

Personally I find having even a cursory snapshot read on a player is helpful, but I don't go nuts "playing the player" or anything like that.

I would regret making a relatively routine laydown against a player I later found out was a raving maniac or 3-betting against an insanely tight preflop raiser with TT. However, it's important to keep in mind that seemingly solid players get out of line and play bad occasionally (raises hand), and occassionally donkeys have the goods and/or play well.

[SparkyDog]

True.

I don't think playerview is necessary to tell if someone's a donkey if you see a showdown with him limping with trash up front. Though I will say PV is most useful pre-flop, and not so much post-flop except maybe the WtSD, which can take a while to converge.

While Playerview is like any other tool (usefulness depends on the user) does anyone else have a tendency to watch the action less closely with it on? I've certainly caught myself going on autopilot and surfing 2+2 with PV on.

I will say I've found PV less useful in short games than full ones, simply because pre-flop matters less and the abundance of HU pots.

On a side note, how many showdowns does it usually take for good players to get a pretty good line on someone's play?

[bdk3clash]

For me, reads were always something I struggled (and continue to struggle) with, even when I'm playing live. Online I play 4 to 8 tables, so keeping track of my opponents' (up to 72 of them) playing styles is next-to impossible without a combination of player notes, PokerTracker-based notes, and more recently HUD statistics from PlayerView.

I really don't think of PlayerView as anything other than a tool that allows me to play better. If it made me play worse, I'd assume I was misusing the information it was providing me and would either try to utilize said information better or stop using it at all.

So far the only stats I use on PlayerView are the default ones: VPIP, PFR, PFAF, and # of hands. I might begin to experiment with different stats soon.