What do all these stats tell me about my game

General discussion of PokerTracker 3.

Moderator: Moderators

What do all these stats tell me about my game

Postby TexasKX250 » Sat May 17, 2008 6:18 pm

I now have over 4000 hands in PT3. Is there a book or a guide out there that will help tell me what all these stats are saying about my game? When I look at the general stats what do I need to be looking at that will help my game? Please give me some advice on how to use the stats to help me play better.
TexasKX250
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:34 pm

Re: What do all these stats tell me about my game

Postby FinnOz » Sat May 17, 2008 6:29 pm

http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showfla ... er=4946669

Written for PT2, but should still apply.
FinnOz
 
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:34 pm

Re: What do all these stats tell me about my game

Postby TexasKX250 » Sun May 18, 2008 1:41 am

I found this info on Cardplayer.com form from a poster named Raxor101. I think it's some great advice. let me know what you think or if you know of any better info or books on the subject. You can check it out at: http://forums.cardplayer.com/forums/vie ... hp?t=57974

Ok I have noticed in this forum over the last couple of weeks there seems to be more and more questions regarding something a player saw in PT or their PT stats. What I hope to achieve here is try and give some guidance as the most effective and useful ways to go about looking at PT stats and hence hopefully avoid some of these less useful.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before I begin, I will preface my remarks with a few general points:

- If you want to know what any of the abbreviations mentioned stand for, then consult this thread: http://forums.cardplayer.com/forums/vie ... hp?t=53143

Here are what some of the abbreviations stand for:

AF - aggression factor
BB/100 Hands - big bets won per 100 hands played
BR - bankroll
EV - expected value in the long run
FRB - folded to river bet
HR - hourly rate
ROI - return on investment
RoR - risk of ruin
SD - standard deviation
SD - showdown
VPIP - Voluntarily put into pot - amount of times a player enters a pot. Putting money in the blinds is not considered voluntary unless you call from the SB or call a raise from the BB.
WR - win rate
W$SD - won $ at showdown
WTSD - went to showdown
W$SD - won $ at showdown

- SAMPLE SIZE MATTERS:
The bigger the sample, the more accurate the numbers are going to be. Not only does it matter but the sample sized required for the stat to be meaningful varies depending on the stat. For example, there is absolutely no point talking about your win rate when you have only played 5000 hands. Whereas 5000 is plenty of hands for working out your VPIP or PfR.

Another example of how you can’t use any universal number to establish whether you have a large enough sample can be seen in AF. River AF requires more hands than Flop AF. Over 5000 hands, we might see the flop 1000 times, but we aren’t going to the river every time we see the flop, we might only see the river 300 times.

- I am a 6-max player and my recommendations here are for 6-max. I don’t know enough about FR to talk about it with certainty.

- My recommendations are BROAD suggestions. There are no ‘ideal’ stats; they vary depending on your style and the way you play. The idea here is not to suggest the best stats but to alert you that if you are straying too far from these recommendations it may be cause for concern.

- We are talking about mirco stakes and small stakes here, yes I know cts can win running a 35 VPIP, you aren’t a top high stakes pro, so don’t worry about it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so the easiest and best place to start is at the ‘General Stats’ Tab.

First, look at your VPIP – somewhere between 15 and 30 is okay. If you are playing < 15% of your hands you are probably playing too tight and turning down too many profitable spots, if you are playing >30% of your hands you are probably playing too loose and giving away money playing poor holdings.

Now look at your PfR – PfR needs to be considered in conjunction with VPIP. You want your PfR to represent at least 75% of your VPIP. E.g. for a 21 VPIP your PfR should be at least 15.75. If you don’t meet this 75% number then you are probably limping or calling too often preflop.

The next stat to consider is AF. Look at Total AF first, I think something between 2 and 5 is about what you want to see. If your TAF is < 2 you are probably playing too passively and almost all poker players know the importance of aggression. Being too aggressive, that is >5 Total AF is less of a concern but it still may be a hint that you aren’t calling where it is appropriate (e.g. for pot control).

If you want to know where your total AF is going wrong, then look at AF by street. If we are playing a solid game centered around aggression preflop and continuation betting on the flop then we expect PfrAF and FAF to be fairly high. This should drop down as we move to the later streets. If you have a FAF of 3, TAF of 1, and RAF of 4 then you are doing it wrong. So look over it to ensure there is nothing extraordinary.

The next thing to look at is blind defence and stealing. Look at ‘Att to Steal’, which is how often you open the pot in a steal position (CO, button, sb etc). This number should be at least 25, ideally over 30. I think mine tends to hover in the mid 30s. If you are stealing < 25% of the time then you are not utilizing your position properly. The aim is not just to ‘steal the blinds’ but more that the stat shows an awareness to utilize our positional advantage by playing a wider range of hands. We want to continue to offer our opponents two poor options: keeping giving up your blinds or play a pot against us out of opposition. A solid ‘Att to Steal’ shows we are doing our job in this respect.

This brings us to blind play. Look at the ‘Fold BB/SB to steal’ columns. This indicates how we are handling the two poor options mentioned above. Generally, tight is right out of the blinds, but we must make sure we are not being run over constantly too. I find ‘fold BB to steal’ of about 80 and ‘fold SB to steal’ of about 90 are where I want to be. A thing to notice is the SB number should be higher than the BB number. There are a number of reasons for this, one is the obvious that you have more money invested and are thus getting a better price, but there are others, for example, when its folded round to the SB and he raises your BB you should be defending very liberally since you have position on every street. Again, a reminder that the 80 and 90 figures are general indication, if you are too far away from those numbers you are either playing too many pots with marginal hands OOP or you are giving up your blinds too readily.

The next most important number is ‘went to SD %.’ What you are looking for is something between 20 and 30. If your WTSD is <20 then you are folding too many winning hands. If your WTSD is >30 then you are probably taking too many weak hands to SD. I find somewhere in the mid 20s is normal for me, but again this is a function of how you play, however, a larger discrepancy here may be a warning sign.
I won’t go into the remaining few stats on the tab, mainly because they tend to take care of themselves if the other stats are right.

Now I want to take you through a working example. That is, how to apply everything I have said to your situation. The example comes from a fellow CPer, he is a 25NL player who I am currently mentoring. When he asked for the help the very first thing I did before worrying about specific HHs was to get him to send me his general stats tab.

This is how it looked:


Now looking at that and applying everything I have talked about above, a number of problems immediately stand out to me.
1. His VPIP is 25 and PfR is 11…. He is limping too many hands, cold calling too many hands
2. His ‘Att to steal’ is only 17 …. He isn’t stealing often enough
3. His Fold SB/BB to steal are 79/77… too close together, he is defending his SB too often.
So just from that tab I have quickly got 3 potential leaks in his game that need to be plugged.
TexasKX250
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:34 pm


Return to General [Read Only]

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests

cron
highfalutin