3 replies to this topic

[Tarvold]

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to poker. I've been playing for about a year, and I've really begun to take it seriously. Not as a profession but as a hobby. Plus no one likes losing money. I've started working with a couple of different poker software systems to try and improve my game. I've been doing quite a bit of reading and I was wondering if anyone knows or could direct me to a place that could describe the various stats poker software uses and what they mean as far as my play goes. For example:

VP$IP 36.8 Shows how tight or loose a player is. Less than 20% is considered tight. Greater than 40% is very loose. What does this exactly entail?

PreFlop Raise% 13.5 Raising preflop more than 10% is somewhat wild. 5% is average. Less than 3% is passive.
Is this good or bad?

PostFlop Aggression 4.9 This is the ratio of (bets+raises) to calls. Greater than 2 is aggressive, less than 1 is passive. again, what does this mean for my play?

Cold Call% 25 Calling 2+ bets "cold" preflop. Numbers greater than 10% show looseness.

Blind Steal Attempt% 31.8 How often a players raises in late position to "steal" blinds. If number is greater than PreFlopRaise%, he is a stealer! Am I attempting to steal too much?


Fold Small Blind to Steal% 75 How often a player folds his small blind to a steal. If this number is high, you can steal his blind easily. I feel like this doesn't represent being "stolen" from. If I have garbage in the small blind, why call?

Fold Big Blind to Steal% 30 How often a player folds his big blind to a steal. If this number is high, you can steal his blind easily. again, is this indicative of a problem?

Went to Showdown if Flop Seen% 50 How often a player goes to showdown if he sees a flop. Numbers greater than 35% show a calling station.
I know I need to work on this, however online play seems keep me from believing people, as people love to bluff at low stakes.

Showdown Win% 34.2 How often a player wins at showdown. Numbers lower than 50% show weak hands at showdown. I feel like this ties directly into the above stat. I'm working on not getting tied up in a hand where I can't fold and getting better.

[Biff Goods]

First off you are using the email that poker-edge sends you which isn't completely reliable.

I would use PT or HEM or even look yourself up on PTR

PTR has some reasonable stats that will help out more than Poker Edge will on a street by street basis.

Of course PT or HEM will completely break everything down for you and give you complete control over checking your own stats as well as anyone you've played with constantly.

As far as your questions.

VPIP = how many hands you play voluntarily (not including bb). You really don't want to be going over 22-24 on this. Most regs play around 14-18%. Yours is SUPER high...you are playing way too many hands.

PFR = how many times you are raising the hands you play preflop. 13.5 is actually good assuming you are playing 18% of your hands...but playing 36.8 doesn't really give you an edge if you are raising half that. You basically are just playing lots of hands and are not really using any type of pf strategy.

AF = how aggressive you are as in bets and raises vs checks and calls. 4.9 is a little on the high side considering this with your other stats (preferably the vpip) it tends to mean you are a bit reckless and probably putting too much money in when you are in a marginal situation.

Cold call % = this is how much you are calling raises by more than one person. this combined with the vpip tells me you...again....like to be in pots. Not the best idea. keep in mind that the one time you flop a straight with the 75 off suit doesn't make up for the 80 times you call a raise and miss.

the steal attempts I'm not gonna comment on because I've seen both work and not work. I think stealing is opponent dependent and isn't really a factor in cash games anyway for me. I could be wrong though.

Went to showdown if flop seen and showdowns won are probably your biggest leak. In fact these numbers should be flipped.

Obviously you want to be winning more showdowns than you are losing so basically what is going on here is you are showing your hand 10 times and only wining 3 of them. That is not good. Over time you are gonna lose and lose big unless you get that number up. That is directly linked to the saw showdown/saw flop percentage but it begins with your VPIP and cold call % too. If you fold a little more of those mediocre to bad hands you are playing you will give yourself a better chance to win because you are only playing with the hands that have the best chance to win.

You made a comment about the micro stake guys "never having it" or "always bluffing." Don't fall into this trap. You will hear a lot of that coming from guys who are playing high but you need to start working on your fundamentals which means learning hows to assign players hand ranges and make the best decision you can that will give you the highest expected value in the long run. Calling simply because...."well it's .01-.02" usually is not the best idea.

That's all i got for you right now. PM me if you want to discuss specific hands or if you have anymore questions.

[Tarvold]

Thanks, I'm really trying to improve. I feel like I played way too tight early on, and I've loosened up way too much now. I will definitely try to improve on your suggestions.

[rrumsey]

something i find is i pay more attention when i dont have PT running, still pay attention, it doesn't tell you bet sizing patterns and possible time reads and that can help in thin spots a lot, but the stats help guide play, at least preflop and on the flop, a decent amount. still pay attention, use it to add to just more info. kind of a note to my own self mixed in here.