Poker Tracker questions from the new guy

[Irishboy]

First of all, I recently found this site and I think it's wonderful. A little about me: I'm play primarily in Pokerstars $10 and $20 tournaments, although I dabble in the 2/4, 3/6 and 5/10 ring games several times a week on Paradise.

After reading some of the posts, I saw poker tracker mentioned several times and thought I'd check it out. This application seems like manna sent from heaven. I am amazed a the quantity and quality of info it provides.

My problem is that right now it seems overwhelming in that there is sooo much data, I don't know what is the most valuable, and what is more like secondary - nice to know sort of information. Also, the seem to be so many functions and options, I'm trying to sort them out as well.

Can you guys give me some guidelines as to what is the most important info on poker tracker, how you use it, tips, etc.

Thanks in advance!

[bisonbison]

Most people start by looking at their preflop stats. The big ones are voluntarily put money into pot (VP$IP) and preflop raise (PFR?).

Generally, at loose, 10-player low-limit games, most of the successful players around here have a VP$IP around 20 - higher in the blinds, lower everywhere else. Preflop raise % is generally between 5-8. If your stats are in that range after a couple thousand hands, you're probably not doing too badly.

After that, you can try to look for anomalies in your starting hand selection - sort by BB won per hand, and scroll down. At the top of the list should be your big pairs, then stuff like AKs and the like. At the bottom of the list you may discover some leaks. If you're losing money with a dangerous hand (AQo, AJo, KT), then you may want to reconsider your play, though this is all premised on having a large enough pool of data to accurately represent your play.

[BIGRED]

I also recently started traking my games using poker tracker. Wow...who's the brainiac who developed this? Anyway, what is a good sample size before you can start to see some dependable stats? And what is a good BB (big bet) per 100 hands played stat?

[bisonbison]

The braniac is some guy named pat who posts here on occasion.

After 1000 hands, you can probably get a good read on your preflop tightness/aggression. After 10,000 hands, you can figure out your win rate within a very large ballpark. After 50,000 hands, you can figure out your win rate within a smaller ballpark.

But basically, you're not going to know what your natural win rate is for a very very very long time.

[ChipWrecked]

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Generally, at loose, 10-player low-limit games, most of the successful players around here have a VP$IP around 20 - higher in the blinds, lower everywhere else. Preflop raise % is generally between 5-8

[/ QUOTE ]

Another reason why I love this program: I'll import stats while I'm playing, to get (albeit rough) reads on opponents I've been at a table with for a while.

This is how I noticed that Stoxtrader was a pretty good short-handed player, before I saw that he was a poster here...