Musings about pokertracker and my playing

[CarlNiclas]

I have been using Pokertracker for something like a month now. I know that this isn't much, or that I have that many hands in my db (about 3000), but I was thinking about the results I have seen so far. The statistical variations are still huge, I know this, but I think they might give some indication about where things are heading for me at the $2-$4 tables I play.

I am seeing about 22,5% of all flops, aces are my best starting hands (both per hand and total win), two pairs yield the most winnings in total, three of a kind the most money per hand and I lose the most with JJ. (Might be a leak in my game together with KQo and JTo, even though I might just have been unlucky considering the enormous variance I still have in my data).

At this point I am up about $800 and have been steadily rising all the time.

How should I use this information and the rest of the vast amounts available to me in poker tracker? Is there any way I can, or is it really to early to tell anything?

[daveymck]

There are a few ways I am using poker tracker at the moment and as this point like you I have less hands than ideal to be statisically relevant.

1 Use it to develop notes on the opponents that you are playing with often ie pfr% loose/passive etc which you can then export back out so they are there at the table with you. This should start to help you with decision making particulary if there are a lot of players you play with regular. Somtimes as well as looking for the poor players it can help you avoid a table with good players that you dont want to play with.

2 After a session I review the key hands from that session ie where I lost a bit and where I won, use the playback feature which I find shows me somtimes the obvious errors I made and gets you thinking about your play. I also post key hands in the Micro forum for review and find a lot of times as I type my thoughts I understand where I went wrong.

3 Use the playback feature for the hands that you seem to be losing on ie JJ look and see how you are playing them if there is an obvious error you are making or if its just the statistics with the small level of hands.

4 Check the position data and see what hands you are playing from each position especially ep and mp check what you are raising with and if you are not raising when you should be.

5 Check your sessions see if there is a pattern to the tables where you win well or lose badly look at people seeing the flop and how agressive the table is, this may help you idendify thr type of table that fits your style and means you can look for that type of table when selecting games.

6 I also use the game time window, after played a few hands get the history into pt and then load up that session in the window, will help you see if your initial reads are in the right area and help with the note development.

You can also check your statistics on how often you goto the river, showdowns won etc, there have been quite a few posts in various forums about the rough area where your stats should be.

In short I really like Poker Tracker and there is loads you can do with it, at this point though the hand replay is probably the best tool for you.

[Redleg7]

I also use PT as a way to profile opponents.

I have started to use it in conjunction with Dr. Al Schoonmaker's book "The Psychology of Poker" specifically the chapter on rating players.

Here are some of the things PT allows you to profile relevant to that chapter in the book:

1. Distinctions Between Early and Late Streets.
2. Over Protecting The Blinds.
3. Distinguishing Between Betting and Raising.
4. Betting on Weakness and Position.
5. Check-Raising.
6. Betting or Raising on The Come.

He also talks about agression as an expression of the ratios between rases and calls, bets and checks.

You could also use PT to choose games. For example shadowing profitable opponents playing where they play.

One of the problems is sample size. There are so many players out there that oftentimes you play enough with them to get a good read, unless you shadow them and build up a big enough sample size. In any event even though the sample size is small in most cases, it's still better than nothing.

The trick is knowing what stats are relevant and how to use that info. In the low limit games the majority of players play the same cluless, so it might be easier to pick out the good players.

Many of my notes are "plays any ace, two suited, or face cards regardless of position, which was easy to track in PT (as long as they showdown their hands).

I do use the in game capabilities to make quick reads and gather intel on my opponents in semi-realtime.

[CarlNiclas]

Yes, using it to track opponents is a good thing. It is lovely to find those special gems who call over 90% of all flops and almost *never* raise. However, as you say, the sample is probably too small as even a really good player can get good cards 50 hands in a row. It is rather unlikely, though, that a good player would that passive.