In efforts to stop the 3-4 PokerTracker posts in General and Strategy (Where they belong) I'm going to put together this small Q and A guide. Most of this information is from things I've learned through the Poker Tracker Website and a Few other Articles I'll be linking onto here.

First off...What is Poker Tracker?
Poker Tracker is a computer program that allows you to analyze your on-line Texas Hold'Em and/or Omaha/8 play. Poker Tracker stores and summarizes hand history data that can be downloaded from your poker site.

When posting your Poker Tracker info, First of all, Posting 1,000 hands isn't going to help much. If you're doing bad and really need some advice You can post at this time, But if you're looking to "Plug Your Leaks" 10,000 Hands is really the minimum to get an overall idea where you stand.

Important Information to post, The Statistics you want to look at.

VP$IP - Voluntarily put $ in Pot - The typical range is between 15 and 20, But this isn't Uniform. You should be tight from Earlier Positions and play more hands in Late Position.

PFR - Preflop Raise percentage - Typically this should be between 7-10, If you're <7 You're not playing aggresively enough and if your >10 You could be playing too aggresively.

WSD - Went to showdown - This number should be between 28-32%, It can vary but this is the average and if you're way off on this you've got some leaks in your game.

W$SD - Won money at showdown - This number should be between 50-60%, This is taking from the Percentage WSD.

AF - This isn't a number you should affectively try to change on it's own. This number should be between 2-3 overall and get higher on the turn and river.

BB/100 - This is the average Big Bets (Not Big Blinds) You win or lose on average every 100 hands, again this isn't something to worry about after a few hundred hands.


Knowing how to properly use Poker Tracker is important, it's not just to track your own stats, this article is a 5 part series and you should bookmark it for future reference. Although it's written by a NL player, the same basic knowledge applies. It will also help you in learning how to use Poker Tracker from the get go.

http://www.bet-the-pot.com/poker-tracker-p...one-page31.html

GameTime+ is an add-on program to Poker Tracker and is free of charge. GameTime+ Offers you live information on your table with information about every player at the table, It is a very effective tool that will help you save bets and make extra bets. It can be downloaded at the Poker Tracker Website.

Ishmael's Analysis - The intent of this post is NOT to have players change their game in an effort to make their stats look more like those presented. This post is intended to give people who are curious about their stats an idea as to where other winning players stand. The one-half standard deviation range about the mean is probably a good range for your stats to be in.

I'm certain I'll be adding information to this as well, if you have any recomendations let me know.

I hope this helps,
Jayson Weber

Very nice post. Pokertracker is information overload if you don't know what to do with it.

PS. I think the PFR should be "<7" and ">10", respectively.

That's incorrect. It should get LOWER on the turn and river.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat...art=&PHPSESSID=

Im dislescic (sp) lol. Thank's For catching it, Both problems fixed.

I added it, allright continue.

Ishmael did a great job putting all of that together

Yeah, Chris and I were talking like 2 weeks ago and I was telling him how I wanted to get a huge database and find the averages etc. etc...

Didn't know it someone already did it, Made my job easier lol.

thanks jayson and whoever linked to Ishmael's post. i only have 1000 hands and have actually changed up my play recently to become more aggressive, but it was still interesting comparing things.

both my PFR% and VPIP% were below the minimum! hmmm
i have already redone my game to become more aggressive at .5/1, so i'll try to institute those changes at 2/4 and see what the stats look like.

Jayson, the guide you linked to in turn links to a topic on the PT forums regarding a set of autorating rules for limit. In the short term (3000 or so hands) these rules give me the Eagle icon, so naturally they're completely reasonable and obviously correct. Seriously though, I was wondering if you've used them and, if so, what you think about them--are they generally a solid set of rules for limit? How about microlimit? Or are the default rules really not that bad?

Im also curious about the autorate of PT. Do you suggest anything different from the default autorate for full ring limit games? Ive browsed some forums but have only come across autorate rules for NL games.

The default rules are fine for ring limit games, in my opinion.

The Default are fine for normal ring games.

But I prefer to be specific, as every edge helps, There are Specific Autorate rules for NL$50 buy-in that Excession just updated, so if thats you're game you should pick that up.

Also, Make sure to change the auto-rate rules for No-Limit/Limit.

I have seperate databases set up for No-Limit and Limit so it's pretty easy to do this way.

I played with NL Autorate rules in Limit Ring Games and it got messy

I recently started using pokertracker, and it definitely comes in handy.

I'm trying to get more effective use out of it during play though (right now I keep going back and forth between PT and the games I'm playing)

So I had two questions:

1. Does anybody use the GameTime+ program that I've read about? It sounds like it would be really handy.

2. Is there away to use poker tracker to average the stats of an entire table? Right now if I'm trying to use it for table selection, I have to look at the stats for each oppponent individually to get an idea about the table. Is there an easier way to do this?

Thanks,
-Bill

What kind of changes did you make to the default rules when you play limit? if any.



GT+ is a must if you use PT imo. It will solve both your problems as it eliminates the need to flip back to find players stats, and it also gives table averages.

gametime helps with table selection, but i'm still having trouble since it 'averages the table stats' by just giving the averages of the players you have in your database, instead of a true table average.
any way of getting a true average? i only have about 4000 hands so far.

while i'm here i'll ask my other questions too.

firstly - what opponent types tend to be most profitable? i am tight/aggressive - overall i'm the rock thing, but since i've changed my style of play i'm the money bag (only for 2000 hands though). probably 12-14 VPIP, 6-8% PFR, etc. of course the fish are good, but what are the others? is it just fish, elephant, phone, dynamite, etc?

aggression - what does this stat signify? 2.00 seems to be the dividing line between passivity and aggressiveness, so is 1.5 considered very or a little passive? is 0.75 closer a measure for a really passive player?

datamining - i've heard this term, not sure what it means. i'm looking for a way to increase my database - is there a way to do so without playing/sitting at tables? i.e. can i just leave some tables open, without sitting at them (since you get kicked off in just 30 minutes or so) and somehow import this data?

thanks for any/all help.
daniel

LAP, TPP, TAP, LP... All people you want to sit with. Notice anything about all 4?



Aggression is better if you give it to us by street and pre-flop etc... If you post that I'll go into a bit more detail. The first post also explains guidelines.


Depends on what site you play at, You can datamine at partyskins. To do so at other sites, like PokerStars for example. Fire up GameTime+ and select a user @ the table, it begins collectings stats around that players so when you sit down you've got good reads.

i do have a party skin (empire).

how do i go about getting info from tables without sitting down at them?
thanks,
daniel

Auto import Party and affiliates.

Set the Observed Hands stuff up.

Start timer.

that seems to be working
does playerview only work if you are actively playing at a table? seems to.

also can't seem to get gametime to work, at least not well. i've heard that GT is more important than playerview. any suggestions on how to best use it.

Are you using the GameTime included in PT or GameTime+ (separate application)?

GameTime+ is the one you want to use. It's fantastic.

im using that one. i think i've figured out how to use it now, but it seems to be less useful than i guessed. is it most useful when you've been sitting a table for awhile? i've been using playerview and it seems to accomplish many of the same things.

I play almost exclusively 6 handed limit games. I take it my VP$IP should be higher than the typical 10 handed player? Should my autorate criteria be different and does anybody have some good autorate criteria for 6 handed limit games?

Any help would be appreciated. Just getting used to PT.

I play almost exclusively 6 handed limit games. I take it my VP$IP should be higher than the typical 10 handed player? Should my autorate criteria be different and does anybody have some good autorate criteria for 6 handed limit games?

Any help would be appreciated. Just getting used to PT.

You should definatly be playing a few more hands and more agressively both pre and post flop. Passive play at a short handed table is usually disasterous.

The 10 man autorate states won't work per-se.... Would you guys like me to try to make a set of autorules for 6-max? I'm sure with the help of a few we could put something good together.

i certainly would like that as i play almost exclusively 6max tables.

That would be great. I minorly changed the defauly settings to have higher VPIP but nothing beyond that.

I am new to using Poker Tracker. So far it seems like a great tool. I was just wondering if anyone has a good set of autorate rules(10 man) or a few pointers.

I am still learning the details of the software. I am sure with time and familiarity with the software I will come up with my own, but why reinvent the wheel.

Thanks in advance

the default rules are pretty good if you're playing 10-handed limit hold'em.

cheers,
daniel

Thanks

Has anyone found pokertracker to be very useful for tournament play?

What statistics would be the best to focus on?

Good question. I have no idea, I'm curious to know myself

What does AF mean?

BB/100 What about those playing no limit? Does BB mean twice the big blind?

VP$IP. Does PT give a VP$IP from every slot. 10-handed game. UTG, UTG+1, ......,CO, button, SB, BB. Shouldn't every position have a different VP&IP? This way if you remove the first four slots from a 10-handed game, you can get a VP$IP for the 6-max game.

AF is agression factor. It's the ratio of how often you bet or raise to how often you call.

Not sure what BB/100 is for NL.

Yes, you can get stats by position.

In the first post of this thread, Jayson put a link to a good article at Bet the Pot that you should read. It gives a basic overview of PT and tells how a NL player uses it.

In the Auto Rate window, it's only showing $25 NL for me to "check"
But it has processed several LHE, too.
In the "Ring Game Player Stat", only the $25 NO Limit shows.

Why is it not looking at the LHE games it's processd?
I know I should ask PT, but tought it was easy/obvious to somneone here and I wouldnt have to wait!

thanks.

ok.
now its looks like its working.
this seems intense...I need more sleep

how do you get gametime+ to give stat on a table you are just observing?

omly one on the list are ones I'm sittng at...

yet pt is collecting stats for observed tables...I can see that

I don't think you can get GT+ to show the stats of the table you're just observing, unless you change your name in GT+ to the names of one of the other players at the table and then use it. At least on UB.

But what do I know...

Same question re SNGs if anyone knows.

Does PT work for NL as well as limit?

What about tourneys?
Does it tell you what % you cash in SNG's and MTT's?

I think I'm about to invest in it

It works for NL (and pot limit) and also for tournaments. You should check the forums at pokertracker's website for more details.

I own a Mac, and last time I checked Poker Tracker was only available on Windows machines, so that explains why I don't have it. I do however play on Bugsys Club, and they have a pretty good stat section, so I thought I'd share some of those stats with everyone to see how I stack up.

I mostly play in full ring No Limit games (currently at the .50/1 blind level), and I've been keeping stats at Bugsys Club for just over 5000 hands.

VP$IP - All I got is % flops seen outside the blinds, which I guess is kinda the same thing. My percentage is 22. In recent sessions this number has been leaning more towards 17 though.

Pre-flop raise - 11%

Went to Showdown - I had to do the math on this one, but it seemed to come out to 34%.

Won $ at showdown - 53%

Based on the numbers Jason used mine seem to be a little off, but pretty close to par. If anyone has any other insight I'd love to hear it.

hey can anyone tell me how I can delete previous hands on my stats.
Say I wanna start fresh today and I had logged 10000 or so hands, how would I go about removing those hands.

Is 4.34BB/100 acceptable after 12375 hands??

Thanks
Viper

Your wallet should have the answer to that.

Gametime + sucks...try the Poker Ace HUD...its free as well...so good u will want to send the programmer money after u use it....

http://www.pokertracker.com/forum/viewtopi...5028ca53e91d791

For those who want to autorate limit games u may want to follow these guidlines, the default settings are a lil sketchy....

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat...=7&o=14&fpart=1

K, ive got a question.
I havent downloaded poker tracker yet, but supposing i purchased it, would i be able to account for all past hands that are in my history folder, or does it not work retroactively?

it will get all of those the first time.

at least it did for me, Party Poker.

Just point it to wher the folders are.

Ok, I have no idea what I am doing. Is there some sort of this is how to use poker tracker tutorial?

I have a database of about 1.5k hands (not nearly enough, I know) and I just want to see what the stats look like.