The Beer Guy's PokerTracker Stats Assessed...

Housekeeping item

The tourney at River Belle scheduled for today with CheckRayz has been postponed. I will also announce the reschedule date tommorrow.

Pokertracker Analysis

As mentioned yesterday, we're going to take a look at my pokertracker stats and see how well the Beer Guy is... or is not playing. We'll begin taking a look at it today, and finish up tommorrow, along with the ever so popular Friday Night Mailbag. I first want to credit and thank Shark for introducing me to pokertracker and getting me situated on what to look for, stats wise. Additionally, thanks go out to Sharky, Doug, and Clay for the strategy posts, regarding pokertracker on the Shark Forum. Through them specifically, as well as the commentary, input, and feedback of the entire Shark Army (in addition to the numerous hours of study and self-evaluation I put in on my own), I've been able to continually improve my game. Which for the record, everyone can... and must continue to improve, learn and develop as a player in order to be successful. That being said, on to the poker stat crunching where we'll look at my last 3000 hands (approximately) at the $1/2, $2/4 shorthanded limit ring games.

Preflop Play

As we all know, I shoot to be a tight-aggressive poker playa. I'm not wanting to let anyone at the table run me over. I'm the monster, I'm in control... that's how I like it. That being said, I need the proper image to achieve the control I'm looking for. For that reason, I have to limit the starting hands I both play and show down. Otherwise, I'd end up being a joke of a monster, right?

VPIP- Voluntarily Put into pot

Very Tight - under 20% see flop - be careful with this guy. He carries big cards and probably is not afraid to use them! More often than not, this guy is only coming in with premium hands. Proceed with caution when encountering this guy's raise.

Tight - Under 25% - This number is ideal. Hand selection is probably in order.

Semi-Tight - 25-30%

Semi-Loose - 30-40% Ladies and gentlemen, we're now entering donk land, please fasten yer seatbelts!

loose - 40-50% - A pros best friend! Not playing real money for long. Get him while he/she still has a credit card or until mom figures out what he/she is doing

NO CLUE - Seek and destroy - over 50% with exact % in notes. An inheritance or power ball is his/her only chance.

That being said, my stats read a VP$IP of...... 22.79%, putting me on the tight scale, which is once again where I am wishing to be.

Preflop Raising:

Once again, we're a leader not a follower. Consequently, leaders tend to raise, not call. We'd expect my numbers to be high, but not unreasonablly high as outlined below.


PRE-Flop Raising Very Passive - Never Raises Preflop
Passive - 3% or less Avg. agg 3 to 6% - this clown typically is afraid to raise it up without premium hands. I can often drive him out of pots through my "storytelling" approach (raise, bet, bet, bet...).

Aggressive 7-10%

Very Aggressive - 11-15%

Extremely AGGRESSIVE - Above 15% - take note of this, save for rainy day, though you'll know to bring an umbrella. Its likely he will not, and you'll see that he's prolly raising any A, any PP, any King, and perhaps even any suited connectors. Keep your eye out on his play further into the game. It should be duly noted though that many pros are well above 15%, though it doesn't necessarily mean you should "try this at home."

My Preflop Raise percentage: 13.62%. This puts me on the higher end of the range of where I want to be. I used to be a lot less "hostile" on the table til Sharky and I discussed limit strategy (I was originally a low stakes no limit player). He convinced me that I needed to make more of an effort to raise and play from "position," looking to raise up in the cutoff and on the button, especially if I have some sort of hand and the pot has yet to be open. We'll look at this next.

Steals

As far as stealing goes, we're first looking at attempting to steal a blind. This means it was folded around to player in these positions and these were their actions in Cut Off and Button (cut-off is seat before button to act)

No Steal 0% - the kid is playing only his cards, and position matters not to him.

Low steal under 15% - He may or may not have a clue, keep an eye for the hands he shows down when trying to steal to get a better understanding if he is using his cards or position.

Average steal 16-25%

hi steal 25% - 40%

40 always steals (write these exact percentage in your notes) - any two cards for this clown.

My steal attempts: 20.55% - right in the middle of average. Once again, I am happy with this number.

Allowing your blinds to be stolen. Keep in mind here, playing out of the blinds is dangerous. Sure, you're already partially or fully invested in the pot, but you act at the worst possible time after the flop comes. For this reason, you want to be somewhat picky in when you choose to play, call, complete, or raise in the blinds. Many bad beat stories begin with "So I was in the Small Blind..."

Ideally speaking, we fold the following to steal attempts:

Folded SB to steal 78-88%

Fold BB to steal 55-65%

My percentages:

My SB Folded to Steal Attempt: 71.26% --- this is a little lower than what we'd have shot for. I've been working on this number over the past several weeks, and from a progress standpoint, its been rising nicely.

My BB Folded to Steal Attempt: 51.49% --- once again, this is lower than what I'm shooting for. The blinds were one of the leaks in my game I've been trying to plug. Consequently, because this number is on the rise, I'm happy with it, relatively speaking. Still some room to go for improvement though.

Finally, we'll look at my won when saw flop percentages. Ideally, we should be winning approximately 31-40% of the flops we participate in. I'm sitting at 39.60%, so this puts me in relatively good shape.

Tommorrow, we'll continue, beginning where we left off today, and assessing my post-flop play.

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