My first 12K hands at 1/2 I Need serious help!

[Thalum]

I've been playing for about 8 months. I started mainly with SNG's, but switched recently to limit ring games. Have played .5/1 and now 1/2. This is my first serious attempt at 1/2 and I played 12K hands. Obviously I am having some problems, and I would like some help to identify my weaknesses and rectify them.

I know I seriosuly need to up my preflop raises, and my aggression factor is brutal.

One explanation I can think of is after taking some serious bad beats (and who hasn't) I think I started tightening up and being less aggresive so I didn't lose so much when I was beat on the end. When I have a great hand, but am being raised and reraised, I tend to just call it down on the later streets for fear of being beat, which lowers my profit when I end up winning. I actually do this alot, which is probably shown in the aggresion factor stats.

Anything else anyone has to add, I am all ears [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Vote4Pedro]

VPIP 26 is waaaaay to high, and your PFR of 3 is waaaaay to low. I've been playing a lot of 1/2 fulltable lately and my vpip and pfr stay around 17-18/8-9. Steal more blinds, and be more aggressive, your AF is almost nonexistent

[shermn27]

Doesn't look to me like you really need help. You already know what you are doing wrong. Compare these stats with the one's under the FAQ sticky. As you said, you are calling down too much and not making opponents pay for their mistakes. Your PF raise % needs to be up around 8%, your AF needs to be between 2-3 and as another poster pointed out, your VIPI is waaaaay too high. Tighten up. One way to do this is to use the tight limit strategy provided by Sklansky, Miller, & Malmuth once again as a link at the bottom of the FAQ sticky.

If I had your stats in my Poker Tracker ratings system you would be semi-loose passive/passive. If tight aggressive is where the money is (and it is) you are playing in the opposite fashion. I must say that I am impressed you are only down a little as you are after 12K hands. You must be doing some things right (making correct reads sometimes). Good luck.

[Online247]

I dropped back down to 1/2 lately and I've noticed that you have a style similiar to many players at 1/2, which is too loose preflop and weak postflop. When you only raise 4% of you rhands it makes you easy to read. My pfr is close to 11% and maybe that's on the high end, but try to be above 8%. Maybe someone already reccomended SSH to you, but if they haven't then I will. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] IT's a great book that teaches you to play a more TAG game.

The VPIP is too high as well. What hands are you limping in with in what position?

I'd reccomend you play .5/1 and learn tighter preflop play and practice a more aggresive postflop approach.

[Thalum]

Shermn27:

Thank you for the preflop guide, I hadn't actually seen that, and I thinbk that will definately help me tighten up.
I didn;t think I was that loose, but I guess I just needed to hear it from somebody else in comparison to other people's stats. I knew I was pretty passive, and I really need to work on that. Tightening up will be easier for me then adjusting my passivity, but I will work on it!

Online247:

I have read HPFAP but have yet to get SSH, which I know I REALLY need to read. As for the hands I'm playing, well pretty much any two face cards, and any Ax suited get a limp. High suited ace would get a raise, and any PP > JJ. That was pretty much my "system". However after seeing the preflop hand chart, I definately need to pay more attention to position, and start raising more hands in late position.

[Dave G.]

As others have said, you're playing way too loosely. That explains why your Won$SD figure is lower than usual. Your completed from the SB is over 60%! That's insane.

You certainly aren't aggressive enough either. I suggest dropping down immediately to .5/1 to work on your game. The lessons are less expensive there.

I think the problems here are too numerous for me to go over in much detail, so I'll just suggest that you grab a copy of Small Stakes Hold'Em by Ed Miller and read it about a hundred times.

One important thing to remember... your winrate isn't just determined by how much you lose with your second best hands, it's also determined by how much you win with your best hands. So you MUST push your best hands and value bet them every time, even if you get drawn out on occasionally. Missing value bets with good hands will cost you a lot of money.

[shermn27]

Thought I might add that HPFAP is a great book to read. But at the limits you are playing, its application is somewhat limited. SSH is the most applicable read if you are playing micro-limits. I'll admit, as a young player who though he was pretty good, I bought HPFAP along with ToP first and read them. It was only later that I realized how poor I played at Small Stakes Games and bought SSH.

[Online247]

[ QUOTE ]
Shermn27:

Thank you for the preflop guide, I hadn't actually seen that, and I thinbk that will definately help me tighten up.
I didn;t think I was that loose, but I guess I just needed to hear it from somebody else in comparison to other people's stats. I knew I was pretty passive, and I really need to work on that. Tightening up will be easier for me then adjusting my passivity, but I will work on it!

Online247:

I have read HPFAP but have yet to get SSH, which I know I REALLY need to read. As for the hands I'm playing, well pretty much any two face cards, and any Ax suited get a limp. High suited ace would get a raise, and any PP > JJ. That was pretty much my "system". However after seeing the preflop hand chart, I definately need to pay more attention to position, and start raising more hands in late position.

[/ QUOTE ]

Playing any two face cards is bad. Playing Axs in any position is good if the table is loose/passive. But you also need to be able to let go of a pair of aces if your limping in with something like A3s.

But make sure you aren't playing hands like KJ and QJ against a respectable raise. Those hands are chip burners.
I say respectable because if a maniac throws in a raise I'm likely to 3-bet with these bad boys to isolate. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Thalum]

Thank you all for the very valuable advice. I just placed my order for SSH and can't wait to get it. I actually didn't think I was playing THAT badly, maybe just running into a bad string of cards, but I can see I was sorely mistaken. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] I am looking forward to turning my game around.

Thanks again everyone! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Jaran]

You're way too loose, and, as you identified, not aggressive enough. However, as you tighten up, your aggression numbers will come up. You're also too loose from the sb. You need to increase your pf raising also. I would drop down and work on tightening up first.

-Jaran