15k hands played: please help me to improve my game

hello to everyone,

after starting my poker"career" in februar i've played about 15k hands (9000 nl10 at pokerstars, 6000 nl25 at playboy poker, both fr). i'm break even now but made some money with bonuses.

it would be great if you can have a look at my stats and tell me how to improve my game. i know that i'm still playing too many hands. pokertracker marks me as semi loose passive/aggressive. maybe i should switch to sh games in the long term?

thank you for your help.

I'm a 6max player nowadays so it's been a while...

You play too many hands from early positions. Muck QJo, KJo EP and MP. Muck AJo, KJs, QJs EP. These are just examples. If you like the TAG style you should aim for VP$IP 18% or lower.

Raise more often with hands you play. Raise all pocket pairs ( but you can limp/call 22-66 from EP if you wish imo). Steal more blinds. Your steal rate is ~18%. 25% would be better. Re-raise JJ-AA, AKo, AKs when OOP. You can add TT, AQs and maybe AQo as well when you'll gonna have the position.

Play the flop more aggressively, c-bet more. Play the river less aggressively, call and fold more and rarely make a blocking bet. Remember that position is the key. "Be a TAG pre-flop, LAG on flop and a NIT on turn and river."

6max is more harder postflop. You can take a stab if you wish and see how it goes.

Some more experienced player may disagree with something I said...

Yay yay, wilkommen bei FTR, endlich mal jemand in meiner Sprache

Ich bin auch seit 40k händen auf 6max, von daher geniess meine kommentare mit vorsicht.

Du bist definitiv zu loose in ep. Selbst auf 6max ist mein vpip utg selten über 12.

Dein postflop play ist sehr passiv, attackier den flop öfter und sei vorsichtiger auf turn und river, wie jupiter sagte. informier dich über potcontrol, check mehr turns ip mit marginalen händen wie TPGK/TK.

kein plan, ob sich fr von 6m unterscheidet, aber 25% w$@sd ist ausbaufähig, ist aber auch gut möglich, dass du einfach gerade schlecht läufst.

wenn du sonst fragen hast, icq oder aim.

Yeah, pretty much what Jupit3r said...

I was an 18/10 when i played at these levels and that seemd to work fine. UTG I would guess you ought to be something like 11/8 depending how tight/loose the games you play at are - I like to raise low pairs from here in tight games and limp them in looser games.

You seem to be calling preflop raises with too wide a range for my liking at these levels - Without a read on the villain and if the stacks weren't really big I would limit myself to pairs and AQ/AK - this should keep you out of trouble post flop and help to bring that W$@SD up over 50%.

everyones notice something for you to look at, im probably jut repeating but meh +post count.

1. Your vpip is too high for full ring games. You need to stop limping and raise, and if you dont think you can raise then fold. Raise more in ep with hands like AT/QJ which play well against the blinds but muck them in ep.
Youre looking to be at least 15/7 so a range is pp's Ax when you have a couple of limpers and AK/AQ plus KQ/AJ in mp and a lot of big broadways in lp.

2. When someone raises stop calling with one pair hands. AQ/AK are the exception, but really you should reraise or muck these too. PPs are find to call riases with and id add hands like Axs KJs JTs type hands when the pot goes multiway. But remeber we look for flushes or two pair hands with these, not tp against an ep bettor.

3. C-bet lots, but not always. People will figure out you missed at times so you dont need to always fire when youre AQ misses. Just do it enough to keep your opps from calling you down light.

If you add all that your steal blinds % will increase, remember AT/QJ plays quite well versus the blinds. That'll push your winrate up and when you stop calling raises unless you have a pp or super strong hand or the pot is multiway youll stop throwing cash away preflop.

Remeber, KJ is strong when you raise, not when they do.

Hope this helps.

thank you for the answers! i think this will help to improve my game.

i'll try to ...
... play less hands
... play even lesser hands from ep (only pp's and ak/aq)
... (re)raise more often with good hands
... call raises less often
... attack the blinds more often
... make more c-bets
... play the river less aggressively

ok. i think i'm ready for the next 15k hands

i am going to disagree with some of the advice so far.

in a 10 NL game (FR), you dont need to raise as much opening the pot. you dont need to tighten up. you need to learn how to play post flop! be selective about your spots. cbetting is high for you, especially for a 9% pfr. too easy to tell you are cbetting everything you raise from late position. i 3bet you about 1/3 of the time when you cbet with a % over 45...just for fun, and to see what you do.

i will agree with the advice that you DONT CALL RAISES PF. especially not with the "trap" hands...AJ, KQ, KJ, QTs...that stuff. however, you do open raise, and occasionally raise limped pots with that stuff.

i dont think you should be putting to much stock in what PT says you are just yet, either. PLAY MORE HANDS! PT is an effective tool at identifying OTHERS BAD PLAY. just tailor your game to beat them. dont worry so much about YOUR stats. yes, look for leaks, but if you're winning, dont think "i need to loosen up from 4th position." at 10 and 25, its overkill. once you get over 35k hands or so, you will have a good feel for your game, as well as, the games in general. at that point i recommend...

-open up PT and adjust the auto ratings.
-use your stats as a baseline. if you are 22% to the flop, then 22%+ is semi-loose, <22% is tight, and over, say, 33% is loose. do the same with aggression.
-now, use those numbers to identify YOUR fish.

by then, you will know how to adjust your game against other opponents a little better.

another thing. a 1.24 AF is not aggressive post flop. period. and your W$SD is low (aim for 55%) and your WtSD is very low to have such a low W$SD...telling me you are choosing the wrong hands to showdown with, and blowing people out of the pots when you are WAY ahead.

you need to get a little better at picking your spots. thats all, and experience will help that...PLAY MORE HANDS!

and keep posting your questions. thats how we all have improved.

some more than others...

See you as a 24/10/1.2 You’re in the range of a Semi-Loose Aggressive, Ultra-Aggressor, and almost a Weak-Tighty.

1. Attempted to Steal Blinds is way too low – if it comes folded to you on the Button, Raise with any suited/paint/PP/connectors and others at random, and C-Bet.
2. Went to Showdown is a little tight… try taking it more to the river. Should bump up that BB/100 rate. I think you’re maybe folding too much when you actually are most likely ahead and folding to over aggressiveness. Especially with a 71% fold to a river bet… WOW!!!!. Just call them more often. No need to raise or try being aggressive yourself.
3. SB play sucks bro…. learn to fold allot more often.
4. Even worse, your BB play is you’re biggest loser. -0.22 BB/Hand. Um, learn to check-fold post-flop unless you ave TPTK+.
5. LEARN POSITION – your best ally. Learn to fold early and play looser on BUT/CO. Notice that Positions 3 & 5 (as well as blinds) are both at a negative BB/Hand. What R U playing here and losing to? Drop those losing hands from your game early on in positions.
6. Need to be more aggressive pre-flop. Limping is nice at times, but raise it when you’re in position to do so.
7. Your PFR by position sucks as well. This is what I mean tighten up early and loosen up late.
8. Check-Raise more often.
9. C-Betting looks fine, but numbers will improve with doing so with 6 & 7 from above.
10. Stop calling PFRs unless you got a VGH - Very Good Hand.
11. A good way to tell what you were doing right and wrong is look at your data in ranges. EX: Right around Hands 2,080 thru to about 5,800 you were on an up hill climb. Then you stumbled a bit till about hand 8,500 onwards. Compare both ranges (2,080-5800 and 8,500-14,200) to see the differences. Compare all the numbers. Ask yourself questions like was I playing position better? Was I playing tighter? Was I playing more/less aggressive? Etc…
12. I like what Chopper said with adjusting auto-rate rules. Hmmm never thought of that. The rest of…. Well let’s leave that to you to decide.
13. Last, PT offers something valuable. The ability to find the big leaks. Notice a huge one right before Hand 10K. You lost almost 300 BBs or more in that short time frame. What happened there? Look at the hands where the ranges of dips occur. Did you play pre-flop OOP? Post-Flop you didn’t make the correct read. Etc.

Jupiter made a nice post. One thing I disagree with though is raising all pockets. I think it is probably best to openlimp in EP 22-88 and raise 99-AA. In MP maybe raise 77 and 88 too. In late position never openlimp a hand.
Your plan with a low/mid pocket pair is to see a flop and then stack someone when you hit a set against their TP. At low stakes everybody is willing to stack off with TPTK. And IMO, there's no need to put in extra money pf. They'll stack off to you either way.

Apart from openlimping pocket pairs, I don't think it's ok to open limp anything else.

BTW, my advice applies to small stakes FR. I don't advise openlimping at higher stakes.

I play 5 max NL HE. I went tried out a lot of different things when I started playing online. I played FR, short handed and sngs of course the occasional MTT or HU game.

The 1st time I settled I played SnGs. I realized there wasn't enough money in it and moved on to cash games. I then played FR for a few months. I started doing well, but after a while I got bored and moved to 5max. I think this is where I'm going to stay. You get to play more hands and so it's therefore more fun and exciting.

I definitely advice playing 6max or 5 max for a while. You learn different skills from each type of game and even if you move back to FR it will still help you a lot. You learn to play the player and post flop a lot more when playing shorthanded.

1 more thing. Play aggressively. Bet your hands and don't slow play. Never check a big hand on more than 1 street. ie. if you flop a set OOP to a pf aggressor - it's ok to check the flop, but if he checks behind, then bet the turn and river. Don't slowplay. Build a big pot with a big hand.

Good luck

For small stakes: bet your good hands. fold your bad 1s. the only bluffing should really be cbetting

thank you for all your answers again.
i've played about 1.5k hands after posting my stats and was trying to adjust my game based on your advices ... and it worked my winrate is better and - even more important - i have a better feeling at the tables. more raises from the late positions and a much tighter play from ep really improved my game. i used to limp with hands like qj and kj from every position. now i muck them in ep and raise them from lp.

i've almost cleared the bonus at playboy poker. i'll deposit at pokerstars then and play fr and 6max tables there to see how my play works at sh-tables. the pokerstars tables should be looser than the playboy tables (the vp$ip is about 20% there)

Originally Posted by XTR1000

Yay yay, wilkommen bei FTR, endlich mal jemand in meiner Sprache

Ich bin auch seit 40k händen auf 6max, von daher geniess meine kommentare mit vorsicht.

Du bist definitiv zu loose in ep. Selbst auf 6max ist mein vpip utg selten über 12.

Dein postflop play ist sehr passiv, attackier den flop öfter und sei vorsichtiger auf turn und river, wie jupiter sagte. informier dich über potcontrol, check mehr turns ip mit marginalen händen wie TPGK/TK.

kein plan, ob sich fr von 6m unterscheidet, aber 25% w$@sd ist ausbaufähig, ist aber auch gut möglich, dass du einfach gerade schlecht läufst.

wenn du sonst fragen hast, icq oder aim.

I love how I can understand everything except the last two paragraphs and I don't spek a word of German