You need some pretty basic book I would say.
"Harrington on Holdem 1" is good, officielly for fullring tournaments, but this book has some pretty good explanations of the basics.
Do not use "Harrington on Cash Games", I find those much worse, and some of the advice for online games is just outright weird.

grinded pretty breakeven again today, is it normal to hit so many coolers and run against so much donks who suck out after getting their money in?

Running 4xrush 0.02/0.05 tables..

Hello, just started to learn some things, a few day outcome playing on the lowest limits possible.




Ideas, suggestions?

bulbazaurs: differences between the two limits are pretty big, and the overall sample is small. Let alone each of the individual samples.
One thing is for sure even on this sample: way too much preflop calling/limping.
Also, AttToSteal way too low, Folding to steal sort of on the game theoretically optimum level, which means it's probably too low for the games you are playing.

Gather up a decent sample, show real sample size, and give more meaningful stats.

Yeah. Need more hands before I can say anything meaningful (10k+ for me atleast).

Only thing I can say is, I would bring my Vpip & PFR closer together.

Hey fabadam and others,

I tried following advice and read some guides on the forum before trying again. What happened was i felt i was playing better but for some reason i ended up losing again in my big hands..

This normal or should i be worried and study more before going again?



Thanks alot for the advice so far !

xkev86: These graphs really don't tell all that much, to be honest.
This one's odd because you look like a weak-tight nit over the first 10k hands and then start going more aggro. Looks like you're just not doing that right, but could also be just running cold. There's definitely some runbad there, but probably some tilt/spew too.
You really need to have a look at your play -- these things do just happen, but I usually know whether I've been playing bad or running bad when I have a graph like that. It's usually both, BTW.

Any helpful advice about these stats?

Also what is my red line supposed to look like vs my blue line? If the red one is really low and the blue one is really high, what does that mean?

Thanks

kse24: These look like really nitty weak-tight TAG stats. I am guessing your EV graph has the blue line go up diagonally and the red line go down at about the same angle?
This means you are weak-tight: you are always folding because you are afraid villains have some big hand, thus folding many winners.
Some points:
(1) Almost completely position unaware -- your VPIP/PFR is about identical in all positions, while button VPIP/PFR should be AT LEAST 2x that of early position. Probably more because you play fullring.
(2) AF is OK but AggFreq% is too high. That indicates you are just check/folding tons of hands, where you could be betting or bet/folding to get thinner value and to pick up orphaned pots.
(3) W$SD% is way too high. You are only seeing showdowns with big hands, see (2).
(4) Read the classic post on FGators syndrome:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/39...ry-post-32391/

can you tell me how i display my stats in holden manager by position? Thanks alot

Wow you're good, this really the spot. You're dead on about everything you've said but this really enlightened me, especially the fgators post.

So in order to stop being an fgator, i need to make more of my profits from my redline. In order to achieve this i should start working on everything you've said correct? Do i want my red line to be as close to my blue as possible?

Also thanks for your input, you've really helped me realize some things.

I will return after 10K hands to see if I have improved at all or if I'm headed in the right direction.

That would probably be overdoing things, and a lot of people here at 2p2 get needlessly obsessive about their red line.
Ideally you'd want to make money both from showdown and non-showdown pots, but realistically that is so immensely difficult to balance, that hardly anybody ever manages it.

There are many ways to play NL Holdem, and you should strive for what fits your character best. Since it looks like you are naturally tight, you should probably aim to keep your blue line maintain its nice upward direction, while trying to minimize losses on the red line.
Many very good players have this graph type: a blue line that goes up and up, and a red line that sort of hovers around zero.

(1) Go to the main Reports tab.
(2) Choose "Position" in "Select Report from List"

Once you have done this, take the time to read some, or all, of HEM's FAQs and tutorials. There is an enormous wealth of invaluable information there.

What are some characteristics of players whose red line hovers around zero? What steps can I take with my game to get that number closer to zero?

kse24: That's a tough question, because it's basically "how do I Play poker", which is what just about ALL strategy discussion is about here on 2+2.
Some ideas:
(1) Use position. When your have Ato UTG fullring, the odds that someone still to come has a better hand is > 55% or so. When you have J8o on the button and it's folded to you, the odds that someone behind you has a better hand are < 50%. (Not entrirely sure about exact numbers here, but it's the general idea)
(2) Put your opponents on a range and bet for value thinly. Say you open-raise AJo on the button and small blind calls. Flop is Q42r. Now always c-bet -- you probably have the best hand.
(3) Make thin value bets on the river. All that matters here is whether you are good > 50% of the time if called.
(4) Learn the power of bet-fold.
(5) Pot size control is very valuable at micro stakes.
(6) Attack orphaned pots. Someone limps pre, SB limps and you check with 74o. Flop is T62r. Everybody checks. Turn is a Q. SB checks. Now bet pot. You'll pick it up 80% of the time.

Hi, just discovered this thread and this forum in general. Looks really valuable!
I’m playing Hold ‘em NL now for about 6 months somewhat more seriously (as in reading some stuff about it and looking at HEM to learn)
I’m curious to know what you can tell me about my stats so far?



My VPIP looks very high I guess, but I’m not quite sure if that should be considered a ‘leak’ or that it is something that can be addressed to a playing style.
Also, I guess it’s normal for position BB to have huge losses compared to the other positions, but is there something else to read from this number? In other words, defending your BB too often, can that be a leak and how can that be discovered?

Thanks,

Hi guys,

I thought I was a solid player but it turns out I was very, very wrong. I'm actually quite terrible:





If someone could offer me some advice I'd greatly appreciate it. I've poured so many hours into this game and feel like I've gotten absolutely nowhere. The games are primarily 5/10 and 10/25NL Rush (I moved up to 10/25 but then moved back down after losing too much).

enrieko: The $ numbers on your table give me the impression that these are tournament stats? Because if these are real money, you are playing NL Holdem with $500/$1000 blinds.
So, assuming this is tournament poker, then there is not much useful information to be had from these stats: good strategy varies enormously across blind levels and a table that bunches them all together is useless.
Even so, it's a fairly safe guess that you are much too passive and much too loose.

Kallak: your overall play is not terrible, but there are some leaks in your stats:
(1) You are limping preflop way too much. The PFR/VPIP ratio should be in the area of 75-80%. Advice 1: just stop open-limping. Raise or fold when first to act. This is by far the biggest weakness.
(2) Your W$SD% is much too high, given your low W$WSF and WTSD. You are letting yourself get bet off winning hands.

These two are clearly the most important ones. There are some other leaks, but these are probably rather inconsequential at micro stakes Rush.

I'm not sure whether Rush is still basically readless these days, since I don't play Rush really. If so, you probably need to start 3-betting a lot more.

thanks, and yes, it's tournament poker, mostly 45 man SNG's - varying buy ins 1$ to 5$.
what is it in the stats that makes you think I play much too passive?

Hi Fabadam, thanks a lot for going over my stats. In relation to limping, I basically limp with any pair under JJ from early to mid, call a raise then check/fold the flop. Should I be folding all small pairs until late position, and then raise with them? Should I raise 99-1010 early-mid or just fold?

I use HEM and it tracks all players so it's not entirely readless; with that in mind, should I 3 bet more often with any hand depending on the villian's stats (in late position)?

(1) Preflop, your VPIP is MUCH higher than your PFR, indicating that you limp/call preflop most of the time. This is bad -- either you think you have the best hand, so you raise, or you don't so you fold.
(2) Postflop, your Aggression Factor and Aggression% are very low, indicating you are not betting much.

Basically, when you limp small pocket pairs, and then start raising when you hit a set, you are saying "HEY GUYS!!! I FLOPPED A SET!!" to everyone paying attention.
Just raise all of those. It makes it much harder to read your hand postflop.
Say you open-raise 66 UTG, and get 1 caller. The flop is A72r. You bet out, because, well, you have AK or AQ right?

Playing just to hit big and hoping to get paid off only works against the worst players. Nowadays you have to think deeper even at lower levels.

Basically you can 3-bet from the blinds a ton against guys that steal a lot. There are more situations like that.

Hello!
How to find out/count how many hands I have played lifetime?
ex. Tom dwan said he played over 2 million hands when he turned 21....
1. How does he count them(hands)?
2. Does some kind of software do it for you?
Thank you!

Software like Poker Trakcer or Holdem Manager will do this for you.