Am I unlucky or playing poorly? Beginner could use some advise...

[Dieter01]

I guess I started taking my poker game more seriously about 3-4 months ago. I bought Super/System and Winning Low Limit Holdem. Especialy that last one has been a great guide and after reading it a few times now I feel I am starting to get a greater understanding of its concepts. I have a long way to go of course, but at least I thought I was getting better... To further this improvement and get some more gametime in I have recently started playing 0.5/1 limit Hold'Em at Party.

It went pretty good at first. Lots of people who play way to many hands, no consideration for pot ods etc... I thought I had the game beat for sure. Then it hit me in the face...

I have used PokerTracker to map my progress (well, whish it had been tracking progress anyways, seems to go more the other way hehe). So far I have registered 310 hands and have these stats:

Saw flop 31.2%
Raise preflop 6.25%
Pre-flop aggression 0.29
Flop aggression 2.10
Turn aggression 2.92
River aggression 1.93
Won when saw flop 26.8%
Folded to river bet 28.6%

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What annoys me is, from all those hands I have only had AA once, never had KK. The best suited ace was an A9s, the best suited king was a KJs.

Here is the hand that made me realize I don't always employ what I have read...

I am SB with A /images/graemlins/heart.gif5 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
4 limpers, I complete and BB checks

Flop (6SB): K /images/graemlins/heart.gif A /images/graemlins/club.gif Q /images/graemlins/heart.gif
SB checks, BB bets, 3 limpers, SB raises and all call.

Turn (7BB): Q /images/graemlins/spade.gif
SB bets, BB calls, MP1 raises, Hero and BB calls.

River (13BB): 7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 rasises. SB re-raise, BB fold. MP1 re-raise and SB calls.

Results in white:
<font color="white">SB Ah,Kh,Qh,7h,5h - Ace high flush
MP1 - Kc,Kh,Qc,Qh,Qs - Full house </font>


I was ready to beat myself up after this pot and how I played it... At first I was angry that I had my nut flush cracked, but looking back it was just poor play. Especially the re-raise on the river. I was just blind to my nut flush and the whole time just wanted as much money in there as possible..

I think I am still seeing a few to many flops. And I am a bit to aggressive after the flop when I don't necessarily have the best hand. I often raise early when I have a good but not very good hand to see the strength of my opponent, or try to get a free card later. This has cost me a bit and I need to employ it more carefully.

What would you say about my numbers from Tracker? Any other info I can post that would be of value from there?

[JDErickson]

Dieter,
First of all you way too few hands to even start guessing about your long term play. I would suggest getting approx 4000-5000 hands before starting to analyse based on Tracker.

That being said and taking into account your very small sample size it does look like you are playing too loose. Throw a couple marginal hands out of your starting requirements. When just beginning its better to be too tight than too loose. Your PFR% looks ok. You agression factor seems really high. Tighten up and tone down a little and see how that works for you. Post hands you have questions on. Experts here will give you great advice.

Jim

[mikeyKay]

hey there,
i think everyone will say pretty much the same things. there is not enough hands to reach any conclusion at this point, and it looks like you are a little too loose before the flop. if you are seeing the flop 20%-25% of the time, i think you can almost be an automatic winner on party .50/1. really limit your starting hands and as you gain more table experience, add more of the tricker ones. tighten up, bet the hell out of a hand you make, and slow down if you are getting lots of agression back...until you have an understanding for the players at your table. you might also want to read the loose game section in HPFAP, and kinda throw out the super/system stuff for now. play more hands, post more hands, and think about what your are doing in each hand.
-mike

[tech]

With 310 hands, you are only "supposed" to have gotten AA one time. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Good advice from the other posters. Good luck to you!

[Randy Burgess]

Until you understand the game better, PokerTracker won't be much good to you. The statistics it provides are awfully high-level and don't take into account different game textures, etc.

I'd put aside the software and concentrate instead on reading, thinking, and playing. Someone suggested the loose games section of HPFAP, and that's definitely good advice. I'd also advise getting the first Sklanksy hold'em book - the one he wrote by himself - and reading it cover to cover. The Lee Jones book is good, but there's a lot of stuff he doesn't cover, e.g. the kind of game you're going to find at $.50/$1 online. For that game type I'd recommend searching the Web to look up articles on Morton's Theorem, which talks about schooling - and schooling is huge in microlimit ring hold'em.

Don't bother with Super/System for limit hold'em - it's way out of date. It's a fun read, but won't help you here.

Lastly, if you haven't started reading Roy Cooke, you should definitely do so. He'll introduce you to the thought process of a good player, which is what you want to be aiming at.

Good luck!