Position - should this be happening?

[offTopic]

I don't have a lot of data accumulated yet, but I thought I'd ask the question anyway...over 13,000 online hands at Paradise, Party, and Pokerstars, I'm making more money (a lot more, not just a couple bucks) from the cutoff than I am from the button.

This is all from low-limit play between .5-1 and 5-10, with the majority of the hands 2-4 and 3-6.

Is this typical, or is it the sign of a leak (ie, not stealing/restealing enough) or is it just an indication of the general texture of the games?

Thoughts? Ideas?

[SoBeDude]

Funny, you're now the third person today to make that observation on here. (I'm one of the other two)

I have no explanation either.

-Scott

[pudley4]

Are you able to compare specific hands in specific locations? (e.g. AKo from the CO and the Button). If so, see if there are noticable differences between the 2 positions. Also, break it down by game size - if you happened to have a good run in the 3/6 and 5/10 games when you were in the CO, this might skew your results too.

Other thoughts:

Maybe you are more aggressive from the CO, raising more frequently to buy the button, which helps you take down pots, buy free cards, etc.

Maybe you are able to steal more from the CO since you get to act before the button.

Maybe you play looser on the button because you are on the button.

[ElSapo]

I sometimes feel my raises from the button get no respect and am frequently called or 3-bet from the blinds -- which, yes, is simply good play many times but we're comparing to the CO here. Perhaps people are simply more apt to call down the button than CO?

It's a weak thought, but it has crossed my mind...

[Bob T.]

I think it might be an anomaly, I checked my data, and I won more on the button, than in the cutoff.

[Louie Landale]

If you have no serious strategy alterations between the button and CO then its just a statistically anomoly. More likely, however, is that you play quite a few more hands (losing hands) from the button.

- Louie

[Rob]

hi. for what it's worth, i've won more (~30% more) from the button than the cutoff through almost 60,000 tracked hands. i've also seen a bit more flops on the button than from the CO (only about 2% more). are you playing way more hands on the button than on the CO? how much are you raising from both positions?

just stuff to consider.

[Cyrus]

"I sometimes feel my raises from the button get no respect and am frequently called or 3-bet from the blinds -- which, yes, is simply good play many times but we're comparing to the CO here. Perhaps people are simply more apt to call down the button than CO?"

This could well be a statistical anomaly. This assumes a large enough sample and a relatively consistent quality of opponents and general table quality.

But it could also mean that opponents (those particular oponents -- at PP? online in general?) are suspicious of the button steal and are calling into the button's raises more often they they should while respecting the CO's raises relatively more. Perhaps it's an indication of increased "sophistication" among online players.

[rkiray]

I'm the third and my numbers are staggering. In 32,489 hands I win .058 big bets/button and .103 big bets/cutoff. Almost twice as much in the cutoff than the button. At first I didn't believe the numbers. Then I thought about it. I play both positions basically the same. So why the huge difference in performance? Two ideas :

1) All these games are at Paradise where the games are very aggressive. Perhaps my opponents respect raises from the cut-off more than the button (especially if it appears to be a steal raise?)

2) Since the cut-off acts before the button, an aggressive cut-off gets to steal before the button does, or aggressive players are raising frequently in the cutoff to "buy the button" so I'm being forced to fold more hands on the button than the cut-off? A confirmation of this is my "do not fold pre-flop numbers. 23.96% on button 25.69 in cut-off. So I play bout 10% more in the cut-off. Not a huge difference, but as mentioned before I play the two positions the same (I don't raise to "buy the button").

Does any of this make sense?

[offTopic]

Thanks, everyone for the responses.

I've been taking a short break where I haven't even turned my computer on, so I haven't had a chance to look at the flops seen numbers from each position.

I'm quite sure I don't attempt to re-steal off of a likely cutoff steal raise nearly often enough, but this situation doesn't occur that frequently in low-limit, so I don't think that's a big problem (yet, I'm sure I'll need to work on that, should I ever move up).

Also, in the past, I used to try to steal with a (probably too) wide range of hands, and I don't do that anymore...maybe I need to broaden the range of hands I'll raise first in with when it's folded to me on the button.