[Buzz]

Bob - It's not so much the percentage of the pots that you're winning as it is the percentage of the pots you're playing that you're winning.

Low is enabled by the board about three boards out of every five. However, sometimes when low is enabled, nobody can make a low. In addition, sometimes the same person wins for low as high. Putting that together, at some tables someone scoops half the time and the other half of the pots are split. That's admittedly a very crude estimation. (At other, tighter, tables someone might be scooping 60% or more of the time).

In other words, at some tables out of every hundred pots roughly 50 of them are scoopers and the other fifty are split. That makes about 150 winners for every 100 pots. (Of course winning half or a pot is not even half as good as winning the whole pot, after you subtract your own contribution, but that does not seem to be aconsideration here).

If you played in all the pots at such a table, saw the flop every time and hung in there to the showdown, in a ten player game you would figure to win about 15% of the possible hands (assuming 150 winners for 100 pots).

In other words, if you were winning 15% of the hands that are played, you would seem to be playing all the hands that are dealt.

Therefore, if you exercise any hand selection, you should be averaging much, much less than a 15% win rate in a ten player game. The lower your win rate, the tighter your game.

There are actually two percentages to be considered. The first is the percentage of the hands you are dealt that you win. The second is the percentage of the hands you decide to see the flop with that you win. It is the second of these percentages that is some measure of your skill as a player. (To increase the percentage of the hands you are dealt that you win, you would only have to play every hand all the way to the showdown, obviously poor poker, but perhaps more fun if money doesn't matter to you).

If you're only playing 10% of the hands dealt, and if you're winning 5% of the hands dealt, then you're winning half the hands you play. And since you usually have more than one opponent, that would be a sensational (hands won)/(hands played) percentage, even though it might seem a low (hands won)/(hands dealt) percentage. Your (hands won)/(hands played) percentage is a measure of your skill as a player. Your (hands won)/(hands dealt) percentage is mainly a function of how many hands you play and then depends mainly on luck, rather than skill. The biggest fish at the table may be winning a higher percentage of hands dealt than anyone else. However, he is also losing a higher percentage of hands than anyone else.

You indicated you were winning around 9%. What percent of the hands are you playing (seeing the flop)? In a ten player game, if you are playing 60% of the hands dealt at random, then you should be averaging a 9% win rate, assuming that there are 150 winners for every 100 hands. Thus if you're playing less than 60% of the hands dealt and are averaging around 9%, then you are showing some skill in hand selection.

Just my opinion.

Buzz