Just got Poker Tracker - HELP

I decided to take a swing at making money playing the 1-2 through 3-6 limit games on Party Poker.

I started playing limit back in 1997 when I was in the Army and dominated at local casinos in limits up to 9-18. Because of the big boom in NL... most of my focus has been on my no limit game (which I'm sick of).

Downloaded PokerTracker and I think is phenominal. I'm just scratching the service of what the program can do.

Any advise on using the program and/or the differences about online - limit poker?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

P.S. I only have 3,000 hands logged on PT so I know the numbers are going to be a little scewed for a while.

[Zygote]

quick piece of advice:

pokertracker is best used to track your opponents play, and along with AceHud, provides you with the oppurtinity to play optimally by exploiting any villains' recorded weaknesses. However, reviewing your own stats is not the best way for you to improve your game. In fact, this can be very dangerous to your game. So, my advice is don't read too much into your own stats and properly use the real-time stats for what they are worth

[ QUOTE ]
However, reviewing your own stats is not the best way for you to improve your game.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a new player myself...I wholeheartedly agree. I only have about 3k hands and quickly learned that the stats at this # are very inconclusive. I use PT mainly for reviewing play after a session to check for leaks. I look at all the hands I was involved with post-flop (more important than pre-flop IMO) to see if I could have minimized losses or maximized wins more effectively. I use the hand playback feature to review them and then if I have questions I post them in 2+2 for further review. See lautzutao's PT Session Review Thread for a lot more on this.

Logically how could one make the statement that reviewing your own stats on Poker Tracker is not useful and at the same time say it is for reviewing your opponent?
Further, if a sample size of 3k is too small for you to make sense out of your own numbers (which i believe it is) how can a sample size much smaller be a more accurate representation of your opponents play?
I'm obviously missing something. Please clarify.
Thanks,
Lou

Ok, good question. when I quoted Zygote, I was emphasizing that until you have the proper sample size, your stats do not tell you overall what kind of player you are.

You are correct that this also applies to your opponents.

But, the realtime stats during your current session tell you a lot about your opponents current play. e.g. If an opp. is voluntarily putting money into the pot preflop 50% of the time, he/she is a "loose" player pre-flop during that session when you are playing him/her. You can use this info to help you develop reads into that players holdings and help you make decisions on how to play when facing that player.

In short (too late! [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]), the realtime stats can be a barometer of how that player is playing in the current session.

Does poker ace HUD give you the realtime stats only for the current session or do they add the sessions results to what results are already in pt for that particular player. When I used PokerAce in conjunction with PT the numbers for the players were the total in my database for that player.
Thanks,
Lou

You can filter the stats. See image below:






I sometimes switch mid-session back and forth to see long term and short term if I have an opp. for multiple sessions.

That's great!
Do you mind explaining to me how you can get a screenshot into a post.
Thanks,
Lou

Sure! You need to upload an image to a http:// address. If you do not have a website or don't want people to access it, try www.imageshack.us. This is a free image hosting service. Upload the image and they will give you a URL for it. Copy the URL and then when you post click on Image in the UBB Code box. Paste the url in there and voila!

[Zygote]

reasnoble question. i actually want to write an article on this topic so will save a long response with better examples for later, but hopefully this will quickly answer your questions.

Firstly, i said that reviewing your stats is not the best way to improve your game and can be dangerous. Reviewing the EVs of different situations, for example, is far more practical and advantageous.

Lets say you know you fold the turn 70% (140/200) of time. How can this help you with your game? Even if you know you're folding too much or too little, you still don't know when and why you should playing or folding.

On the other hand, if you know your opponent folds the turn 70% of the time, you can make far more optimal decisions when deciding what's the best move. This rule applies for any pokertracker stat. You can't learn to play winning poker by trying to adjust your numbers to a winning player's stats, regardless of sample size.