Crapping the bed through 4,657 hands at .5/1...

[xGoreDudex]

I'm about 5k into .5/1. Not a huge epic sample size, but I feel that I'm stuggling, I've a screen-shot of my pokertracker. I'm looking for feedback as to how I can approve along these numbers and rasise my bb/100.

[img=http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/9898/hounds9qx.th.jpg]

12% vpip? I think thats wayyy to tight, but maybe its just me. I run like 25% and find the people here telling me to open up my play a little especially on the blinds.
cdl

[CanadianAmy]

Way too tight, fold too much (low went to showdown, especially considering your VPIP).

If you were at the same table as me, and I see you raise I am out of the pot unless I have a very good hand. This may sound good, but I am guessing that you get your AA, KK, QQ winning a lot of $4.00 pots.

On the plus side with the way you play, you will not see too many downswings of epic size (but don't expect your style to break even beyond 0.50/1.00).

Amy

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm about 5k into .5/1. Not a huge epic sample size, but I feel that I'm stuggling, I've a screen-shot of my pokertracker. I'm looking for feedback as to how I can approve along these numbers and rasise my bb/100.

[img=http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/9898/hounds9qx.th.jpg]

[/ QUOTE ]

I tell the 16/8 players they're too tight. 12/6 tight deserves something special... You're parsimonious.

The ideal VPIP for .5/1 is probably between 17 and 19, but any more means you will get reamed by the rake. Given that, you aren't going to enough showdowns. When I played .5/1, my VPIP was 20, but I was going to 34% of showdowns, and winning just as many of them. This may be that you are running bad, but it is probably a result of folding too much.

[aces_dad]

12/6 VPIP / PFR is too tight, check out the FAQ for some numbers to shoot for.

As another poster said, you probably don't get paid off enough on your big hands and are vulnerable to blind steals.

[bottomset]

wow um yeah you are the player I want 1 or 2seats to my left .. have a lot of preflop work to do


[ QUOTE ]
12% vpip? I think thats wayyy to tight, but maybe its just me. I run like 25% and find the people here telling me to open up my play a little especially on the blinds.
cdl

[/ QUOTE ]

you better play a lot of 5-7handed or you are likely too loose

[DeathDonkey]

You can't win if you don't play.

-DeathDonkey

[Harv72b]

Small sample size blah blah blah.

Your stats scream "weak/tight" to me; you're not playing enough hands overall, you're not completing enough from the SB, you're not raising enough preflop, and you're folding too often after the flop. While we're at it, you aren't defending your blinds often enough and you're not trying to steal the blinds enough either.

I think the point made above about not getting paid off on your big hands is somewhat overstated, considering the limit you're playing on; I don't give the average .50/1 player credit for paying enough attention to notice that you're only playing premium hands. This will be a problem if you try to take your current style of play up to higher limits, though.

A very quick & easy fix to your VPIP would be to add the following hands:

-Play any pocket pair from any position if the pot is not yet raised. On .50/1 this should be profitable because your opponents are not going to be raising preflop often enough, and even when someone does raise you'll get enough coldcallers to give you implied odds on your set. And when you do flop your set, you'll get paid off by multiple opponents quite often.
-Add suited connectors 76s & above when 3 or more players have limped in ahead of you and there is not a raise. Again, it's less likely the pot will be raised behind you than on higher limits, and more likely that you'll get paid off by worse hands when you hit a flush or straight (or two pair/trips).
-Complete with any two suited cards from the SB when there are 3 or more limpers ahead of you and the pot is unraised. You're getting excellent pot odds there to try and flop a flush draw (or flush), and one more time, you're likely to be paid off when you do hit one.
-Same as above with any two cards ten or above. You just have to be careful about hands like KTo, KJo & QTo, as these can be tricky to play from out of position. In fact, leaving KTo out of the mix until you get more comfortable with postflop play would be quite alright.
-Play any suited ace behind 3 or more limpers.

Just using these guidelines should get your VPIP up to a healthy high-teens rate. But you'll still need to work on upping your preflop aggression and staying in a few more pots with draws (a quick way to improve this skill is to go through the hand history posts you see here and calculate what the pot odds were that each person was getting on the flop, and determine if it they were getting proper odds to call if they were drawing; as you do more and more of these, it will become second nature to you and you'll be able to quickly tell if it's worth it to continue when you're on the tables).

[Shillx]

These #'s look pretty familiar. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

You can win with stats like this, even in games as high as 5/10 (or maybe even higher). The problem is that you can't win very much. And it isn't very fun.

Opening up your game is very hard since it is odd playing hands like JTs and whatnot. It is easy playing a pair of aces after the flop. It is much tougher playing a gutshot and an overcard for example. Play a session where you limp/raise more hands and post a few hands where you felt uncomfortable. Also read and reply to posts that deal with playing more marginal hands.

Brad