Saturday 29 September 2007

Poker Tracker Analysis

As I stated in my previous post, here's a detailed Poker Tracker Analysis of how I think my game is running at the moment.

I've based it on the hands I've played since 01st August as my game has changed alot since then particularly as prior to this I was too tight. My VPIP is still a bit low but I'd rather see a gradual increase which I'm more likely to be able to sustain and feel comfortable with than immediately get it up to where I want it to be in one jump.

This is the article I have used to base my analysis on: -

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4946669&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1


1.Pre Flop Aggression




The idea here is that if you divide your Pre Flop Raise Figure by position into your VPIP for each position other than the SB then if you get a result of less than 0.5 then your not aggressive enough.

My lowest figure here is from the BB which is 0.69, for all other positions, my lowest figure is from the Button which is 0.94.

Overall, I am showing 0.92.

I think this is ok but would lead me to ask whether you can ever be too aggressive?

2. Positional Awareness

Using the same table as for Part 1, your VPIP from the Button to the UTG should steadily drop with the VPIP from the Button being double your UTG VPIP.

I also seem to be ok here and my Button VPIP which is 24.54 is more than double my UTG VPIP of 10.07.

3. Blind Stealing



Using the General Tab, the idea here is that your Attempt to Steal Blind Stats should be at least 20. Mine are at 30 which I am happy with and don't envisage making too many any adjustments here.

Selecting the Chance to Steal and Raised Filter, as the table below shows I am currently running at 0.23 on Blind Steals which when multiplying this number by 100 should be at least double the BB/100 average which it is although I'm not too sure whether I am interpreting this correctly.



4. Defending The Blinds

T
his should be at -0.375 or better and as the
following table shows, I am currently running at 0.68 which again I am ok with.



If I change the filter to show Steal attempted against my blinds, I get a result of -0.41 which is slightly below the optimum of -0.375 which I find very strange because I very rarely defend unless I have a good hand, although on occasions I will reraise someone who is constantly stealing my BB which may be a reason for the negative figure. I'll stop doing that and see if it improves the result here.

5. Heads Up Play



This is probably a bit too neutral a situation than what I would have liked it to be. At least I'm not losing money overall here but would like to see a positive BB/100 here.

Changing the filter to show where I didn't raise pre flop shows a pretty damning set of stats and basically shows that I am losing alot of money heads up when I don't raise pre flop this is obviously a major leak I am going to have to fix.



6. Multiway Pots

This is a bit bleak and is also obviously a leak in my game which I am going to have to fix one issue I know I have is calling on the River when I know I'm behind but I also have recently stopped c-betting with more than 1 other player in the hand and hopefully this will see an improvement in my game: -



If I change the filter to no pre flop raise, then it gives a similar position so I need to be more careful multiway.

7. Pocket Pairs



Other than 2,s,3,s and 4,s the VPIP on all the other pocket pairs is around the 85% mark or higher which I am happy with and I am raising with Pocket Pairs 87% of the time which is kind of what I'd expect if not a bit higher. What on earth is going on with 9's I don't know. I'll post on the Card Runner's Forum with these to get a higher quantity of responses hopefully. Other than 9's 2,s, 3's and 4's are the only losing pair's I have and then these aren't really significant.

8. Suited Connector's




About the only comment I would make here is at least I have positive figure's albeit only just. I would question whether I am playing enough Suited Connectors as I will generally fold to a raise regardless of position. I need to look at AK (S) because this is one of my losing hands.

I have 3 hands where I have cold called pre flop which is as insignificant a number as it should be.

9. Unsuited Connectors

This is a bit of a worrying result, my VPIP and win rate for Unsuited Connectors are higher than for Suited Connectors which are not scenario's I should be seeing.

I am also playing more Unsuited Connector's than Suited so I will need to reverse this particular situation.

My VPIP for Suited Connector's is 20.41 and for Unsuited Connnector's is 21.44.

The Win Rate for Suited Connector's is 0.01 and 0.05 for Unsuited Connector's.

10/11 Post Flop Agression & Check Raising


These final 2 measures use the following table and deal with post flop play: -


Adding together my Bet/Raise %'s when acting first after the flop following a raise pre flop, I get a result of 42.17 which is just above the optimum of 40. I could probably do with getting this to nearer 50 but on the whole its not too bad.

My aggression factor is showing at 3.33 with figures of 2 and above considered to be acceptable.

I've check raised 0.82% of the time which is fine although it is a play I like I don't use it that often.

Summary

T
his is the first time I have analysed my game to this degree and it has shown some obvious leaks which I need to tighten up and eliminate from my play: -

  1. Eliminate Re raising from the Big Blind when someone is constantly stealing my blinds.
  2. Try and avoid Heads Up Situations where there is no pre flop raise.
  3. Address how I play Multi Way Pots as this is a big issue which I wasn't aware of. If I can fix this then I should substantially increase my win rate.
  4. Adjust how I play Connected Cards both suited and unsuited.
I have mainly done this analysis for myself but feel free to make any comments or suggestions. I would recommend that any one who hasn't done a detailed analysis of their game does so as it has identified leaks I didn't know I had.





Sunday 23 September 2007

September Progress

Its been a while since I made any comments on my progress so here goes.

September Progress To Date

Overall, things aren't too bad this month I'm showing a BB/100 hands of 0.99 hopefully I can get that over 1 and may be closer to 2 by the end of September. I've decided that this is going to be the measure of my progress from now on as I'm trying to get away from being results orientated.

As the following graph/tables show, I have been running at 15.51/14.45 with an overall aggression factor of 3.2 over just under 6,000 hands. This is lower than my usual number of hands but I took a week off where didn't play any poker whatsoever and I think that this did me alot of good: -





On the final table, I have also shown the hands which are the significant losing hands for me this month. The sample is probably too small, the Ax hands are mainly from c-betting where resistance has been met. I'm going to adjust my c-betting for this group of hands to remove this obvious leak from my game. The JJ loss resulted from one hand where I ran into KK and the board had no card higher than a 10. The AKS losses have also occurred from c-betting when I've missed the flop may be I'm being too aggressive with this hand.

Hopefully I can kick on from here and have a good finish to the month but I need to avoid the horror weeks I have had about this time in the past couple of months.

Ok thats it for now, my next post will be an in depth Poker Tracker Analysis of my game based on this 2+2 article: -

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4946669&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Good luck at the tables.

Chris

Sunday 16 September 2007

Back In The Swing of Things

I started back on the Cash Game Grind yesterday played about 900 hands and ended up down 1 buy in. I didn't really have any cards for most of the time I played but was generally pleased with the way I played and the patience and discipline I showed in not forcing anything.

Here's a few hands I've played which are of interest: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487081

I'd only got a few hands with the other player in this hand and he hadn't stepped out of line at this point or done anything unusual. I have two issues with this hand: -

Firstly on the flop do you do as I did and call his min re raise or do you 3-bet him here.

Secondly on the turn because of the flush possibilities, I check raised him all in which I think may have been a -ve move as I think I could possibly have got all his chips. Does any one play the turn any differently?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487095

On this hand I think I got away with the minimum as it played out, the River Card wasn't really the greatest for me and to say I played it badly would be an understatement. The other player is at 33.6/6.1 over a small sample.

I think I could possibly have raised on the flop but the board was horrible for my hand. If he'd bet more I think I'd have folded.

I decided to make a play on the turn to try and take it down there and then. However I think I probably should have bet more to do so.

Finally on the River I felt I had to call even though the Straight was obvious but in hindsight I think folding would have been the better move.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487106

On this final hand, I decided to fold to a raise and reraise preflop with AK. The reason I did this was because the initial raisor was playing 14.79/14.79 and I felt he had a strong hand. The other player was playing 50.74/20.1 and if he'd have been the only other player in the hand I would not have released it at this stage. It was the existence of the initial raisor that put me off. Should I have at least seen the flop?

I seem to be doing ok in MTT's at the moment, cashing in a $10 Deep Stack MTT on Stars last night and I also finished 12th out of 484 using my FPP's in a qualifier for tonight's WCOOP event where 4 people got seats.

Its my parents Ruby Wedding Anniversary today so I'm not sure whether I'll get any chance to play it will depend on the Alcohol Consumption.

Thursday 13 September 2007

Card Runners Site Down?

Has any one been able to access the Card Runners Web Site today because I've not been able to from Firefox or IE?

The break from Poker has done me alot of good and I'll be back grinding on the Cash Games tomorrow.

Finished 4th in a $1,000 Freeroll on Gutshot this evening for $60. It all helps towards the bankroll.

Wednesday 5 September 2007

A bit of a dilemma

I've got a bit of an issue at the moment in that am currently playing on a Crypto Site and Prima/Microgaming Site where although you can set tables to a smaller size i.e. Pro View/Mini View respectively so that you can play more tables, if I do so then I lose my PA Hud Stats. As a result, I can currently only have 2 tables open and even then they over lap big time. I would like to play 3 tables which is about my limit before I start losing control. I'm sacrificing the additional table so I can continue playing with my Hud Stats showing. How would any one proceed with this scenario?

The poker's not been going to badly this week. I've pretty much been playing ABC Poker and trusting my reads and using my PA Hud Stats a bit more. There's not really been much of interest happening and I only have one hand of interest to post here: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1449277


The other player here is playing at 38.61/6.14.

With an early position raise and call, I reraise pre flop here with a view to isolating one other player in the hand or even taking it down there and then. With QQ was the fold an option here.

I absolutely hated the flop oop and decided to check/fold I guess I should maybe have bet out here to find out where I was and too get rid of the potential draws even with a paired board. Having been checked behind me, I decided to make a bet at the pot to try and win it but should I have just check/folded this hand down?

I'm going to be taking a break for a week or so because I will be another year older tomorrow, A bit closer to 40 so no fit state to play hopefully and the hangovers take longer to recover from these days. Then on Sunday I'm off to Nice for a convention for three days with work. Its a hard life. The break will do me good. I'll probably check the forums/blogs out at some point if I get chance but thats about it.

Good luck

Chris

Sunday 2 September 2007

Average Start To September

Its been a while since I posted some hands, here's a couple I played last night where I got into a couple of awkward situations: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1436379

The other player is at 32.46/23.68 and I didn't really have too much on reads from him at this point.

I made a standard Button Raise which he called from the Small Blind with AK I would have expected a raise from him Out of Position which would have seen me fold. I checked the flop with an open ended straight draw, maybe I should have bet out here but I think he would have called regardless. The turn was not exactly a card that helped me and at this point, I think the money was going to go in eventually. Could I have played this hand any differently?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1436398

I just don't like the way I played this hand on the Turn. Check Calling I think is horrible. I should have done one of three things - Bet out, Check Raised or even folded because having been called pre flop and on the flop he obviously had some kind of hand probably KQ/AK. I don't think I had any option on the river but to fold. His stats are 24.15/13.13. How would people have played this on the turn?

Thanks

Saturday 1 September 2007

August Results and September Goals

Here are my results for August which aren't great which I have already documented but were mainly caused by one bad week and I feel taht I am playing better than my results would indicate: -









I played 18,743 hands in August with VPIP/Pre Flop Raise figures of 14.63/13.47. Which is a bit better than it has been. I would still like it to be a bit higher if possible but I would like to see a more gradual improvement up to about a VPIP of 18 as I'm more likely to be able to sustain that than if I get there quickly. As a comparison, my VPIP/Pre Flop Raise Stats in July were 11.92/10.69.

My stats by position were as follows: -

Button 23.72/22.35
Cut Off 15.81/15.30
Mid Pos 12.43/12.23
UTG 10.48/10.32
BB 5.90/4.01
SB 17.38/15.12

My initial thought is that I probably need to play a bit more from the Cut Off.

I'm having problems with My Paint Shop Programme today for some reason and couldn't get the PT Stats to show as I would have liked.

September Goals

I'm not going to set a No. Hands target this month instead I want to focus more on quality instead of quantity.

To avoid being Results Orientated and concentrate on making the correct decisions in every hand I play.

Improve My Post Flop Play i.e. Bet Sizing and also stop making speculative calls on the River when I know I'm behind.

To Be more active in the Forums and these blogs.

Use Card Runners More effectively.

Ensure that I have 1 day a week when I don't play or think about Poker.

Good Luck.

Chris