looking out for leaks

RustySpoon

I want to find find where and why i am not a winning player using my pokertracker stats.
I have amassed 14K of hands in PT on .25/.50 .50/1 and 1/2 NL 6 Handed games.

Currently i am down $112 over this number of hands, and if it wasn't for the rake i would be well up
I want to try and analyse my play so that i turn slight losses/ break even play into winning play (i know this is what everyone wants!!)

Where would you suggest that i start looking, the hands that cost me the most money or hands where i didn't get enough from the pot when i was well ahead? What filters do i need to put on and what do i start to look for.

Any advice will be appreciated and used*

*not all advice will be used if its rubbish or too much effort

Mr. Flibble

Psychologically it's bad that you are down but $112 isn't much when playing 1/2. If one pot out of the 14000 went differently you could be up by the same.
I would go to game notes press get all and order your hands by net then go through all the larger pots you have lost and see if you think they were played perfectly - if not work out what you should have done differently and try to do that in the future.

Post a screen shot of your position stats and I'm sure you'l get some helpful comments.

If you export your hands and email them to me I'll have a quick look at them and give you my advice - can't promise it will be good advice though

fuzzbox

Its hard to tell the reasons as to why you are losing.

The standard reasons are:

1. You are playing too many pots. In holdem - if you bring rubbish into the flop, then you most often end up with rubbish at the river. If you tighten up considerably, then the strength of the average hand you play will be greater than the strength of the average hand of your opponent. Over time, this means that you have a better hand more often than they do. Thus, you win.

2. You call raises oop with two offsuit broadway cards. e.g., somebody open raises in the CO to 3x BB, you call with KdJh. Result - you lose money

3. You love to slowplay. At the levels you play at, just bet like a crazed lunatic when you hit. They will pay.

4. You cant fold "big" hands. If you get AA, you see a showdown everytime, and often its for all your chips. This is regardless of action and regardless of the board.

RustySpoon

it's mostly .25/.50 not 1/2 but i get your point. I think a lot of my loses come from calling what GT+ displays as muppets when they wake up with good cards.

Attached is a screen shot of positional stats. Comments welcome......

Mr. Flibble

I made the same mistake when I first started using GT and PT. I would completly ignore everything I was being told by the players actions and go with what PT was suggesting. Now I make sure I use what I think is happening 1st and use PT only as a backup.

I would play tighter UTG and UTG+1. I actually play alot tighter in all positions - but different people have different styles. Tighter is alot easier to play at these levels as you don't needlessly put yourself in lots of very difficult post flop situations. There's a pic of my pos stats at the end of this thread. Also some useful info in that thread.

What is your defend BB steal %? You are obviously loosing alot in the BB, perhaps you are defending it too much with marginal hands ending up OOP for the rest of the hand.

kincsem

My guess is Fuzzbox answer no. 1

I play small MTTs on PokerStars.

Recently I decided to only play with the best hand. <--- read that again.

In a freeroll last week I was 2nd of 9827, and on Sunday morning in a $20 MTT I was 5th of 673 receiving $740. Also in August - 43rd of 997, 127th of 1302, 16th of 908, 39th of 1566. I'm not making much, but getting my entry fee back, with the chance of going deep.

I now play about 15% of hands, previously it was 25/30%.

After one tourney I looked at my winning hands. I won with A2 (folded to my BB), and 77 (BB, flopped a 7). Otherwise my lowest winning hand was JQ twice. Most winners were AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ. I've given up the J9o, KJo, and other nice looking hands.

FastMachine

Those stats look a bit loose preflop, that's your first leak. Next, you should probably be folding more. Most people's biggest leak is not folding. Another thing to remember is a winning player is generally the one doing the betting not the calling and you should be looser with your betting than your calling. Another common mistake is bluffing too much, I'm not talking about continuation betting here btw. At .50/1 and 1/2 you really should be bluffing very little. I'd say the main thing you need to improve though is knowing when to let go of a hand.
To Summarise:
1. Tighten up preflop
2. Be the aggressor
3. Fold more
4. Cut down on the bluffing