Analysing my Game

I found an article about how to use PokerTracker stats to analyse your game. I'm going look at it and see how I do. Here goes...

1. Do you have sufficient preflop aggression?

Divide the "PF Raise %" by the "Vol. Put $ In Pot." If you get a number smaller than 0.5, you're not aggressive enough out of that position.

Mine is about 0.25 - NOT AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH

2. Are you positionally aware?

I'd love to see my button VPIP at double my UTG VPIP, but if my Button VPIP is at least 50% larger than my UTG VPIP, I'm happy with the situation.

Mine is about 50% larger - OK AT POSITION

3. How's my stealing?

I'd like to see that number at LEAST 20%.

Mine is only 12% - NEED TO STEAL BLINDS MORE

4. Defending the blinds.

A "BB/Hand" of about -0.375 would indicate that you were no better off putting money into the pot than if you had folded. If your "BB/Hand" is larger than that, then you typically win back some of your blind money when you put money into the pot from the blinds. That's all you can really hope for.

Mine is 0.13 - WIN BACK SOME MONEY OUT THE BLINDS

Here you'll now see how you did when you chose to defend against a blind steal. Again, the magic number is for your "BB/Hand" to be bigger than -0.375; that means you're making back some of your blinds when you try to defend against a steal. If either of these numbers is lower than -0.375, you'd lose less money by always folding rather than doing what you're doing.

Mine is -1.24 - BAD AT DEFENDING BLINDS

5. Heads-up play.

This will show you how you’ve done when you didn’t raise preflop, but the hand was heads-up on the flop (this includes pure limping and when someone ELSE raised preflop, but not when you were the preflop raiser). Is this number positive? If not, it could be an indicator that you have trouble when you are not the aggressor preflop, especially without padding in the pot.

Mine is -0.01 - NOT GREAT WHEN NOT AGGRESSOR

6. Multiway pots.

This shows you how you do in multiway pots. If things look good, go back and select “No Raise” under “Pre-flop Raise.” Is it still positive? If so, you’re selecting good times to play/limp multiway pots, and you’re playing them well postflop.

Mine are both positive - GOOD AT MULTIWAY POTS

7. Pocket pairs.

Your Total VPIP with these should be EXTREMELY high; unless you play at highly unusual tables, I’d be surprised to see this number below 85%. Mine is 93.7% Pocket pairs make extremely powerful hands that are extremely well-hidden; if you’re not playing them almost all the time, you’re leaving money on the table. Also, your Total PFR% with these hands should be rather high -- at least 1/3 of your VPIP, if not 1/2. Mine is 27%, so nearly a 1/3. Some people have this number higher still, and I don’t have a problem with that, especially at short-handed tables. If you have enough hands, I’d expect every one of these lines to be positive, and reasonably significantly so. If you have any glaringly negative numbers, especially AA-88, it may indicate bad play. Only 55 is negative for me.

GOOD AT POCKET PAIRS

8. Suited connectors.

Your BB/hand should be positive; if it’s not, you’re probably not playing your suited connectors well. Mine is -0.02. Remember: these hands play best in a multiway, unraised pot, or as a steal move. In the “Filters…” change “Vol. Put $ In Pot” to “Cold-Called.” When you hit OK, you should have almost no entries to view. Of the times you cold-called, you should be able to come up with a specific explanation for why you did so in each and every one of them. Your default play here should be to fold weak suited connectors and reraise strong ones.

SHOULD ONLY LIMP IN A MULTIWAY POT OR STEAL BLINDS

9. Unsuited connectors.

Check your winrate and make sure it’s positive. Filter for cold-calling and see if you had good reasons for doing so, keeping in mind that the reasons need to be even stronger than for suited connectors.

Mine is -0.01 - ONLY PLAY IN MULTIWAY POTS OR STEAL BLINDS

10. Postflop aggression.

There is a section marked “First Action on Flop After A Pre-flop Raise.” This shows your likelihood of continuation betting. If you add Bet and Raise, the total should be at least 40%. Mine is 45.79%. If it’s not, you’re probably giving up too soon on your good hands, and that will cost you money in the long run. Continuation betting should be your default play.

Your total aggression factor should be at LEAST 2. Mine is 2.4.

GOOD AT POST-FLOP AGGRESSION

11. Check-raising.

I personally like to check-raise at least once in awhile; 1% would be fine, 0.5% would be acceptable. If you are check raising much more than 2% of the time, you’re being entirely too tricky for a SSNL table, and straightforward play would probably be more profitable for you.

Mine is 1.14% - CHECK-RAISE SLIGHTLY TOO MUCH

So this is what I am going to try and improve...

1. Raise more pre-flop
2. Steal more blinds
3. Don't defend my blinds so much
4. Don't limp with suited/unsuited connectors unless a multiway pot
5. Check-raise slightly less

I am going to print these out and stick them next to my screen, and hopefully I'll improve.

Cash Hours = 143
Cash Profit = $982.50 ($6.87 p/h)

Tournament Hours = 71.25
Tournament Profit = $1468.38 ($20.61 p/h)

Total bankroll = $2500.88 ($499.12 to next target)

September 1st - $3000