I used to play too many hands. I played sc's, 1 gappers, and other junk. A few months ago, I used PT2 to analyze where my winnings were coming from, which hands consistently won $$ - and how much they won.

The results surprised me, but this is why people say "tight is right." I filtered to 38k hands 10nl 6max, overall win rate of 6+ ptBB/100.

Gross Winnings: $890
Rake: $440
Net Winnings: $450
Rakeback: $133

Overall net poker winnings including Rakeback: $583.

1. Top 8 NLH hands (AK, 88+): $530 won.
Hands: 1500, 4% of total hand dealt (perfect odds say 3.95%).

2. PP's (22 - 77): $105 won.
Hands: 850, 2.25% of hands (perfect odds say 2.71%)

3. Premium Aces (A9+) and KQ: $150 won.
Hands: 2800, 7.4%

4. All sc's and suited 1-gappers: $60 won.

These 4 hand groupings account for $845 of $890. The rest is accounted for by bad aces, connectors and playing other junk from position or in blind vs. blind battles. In difficult hands, that are hard to play. That tend to win small or lose big. So 90% of poker profit is made on easy-to-play, win-big or lose small hands.

Lessons I learned:
1. I would have beaten the game playing only the Top 8 hands.
2. Only 10% of Holdem hands are consistently profitable, and only 8% are consistently profitable from all positions.
3. Playing anything outside the Top10% PROFITABLY requires (A) positional advantages, (B) reads, and (C) experience.
4. 95% of poker winnings come from10% or less of all hands dealt.

There are other lessons here. But if you're a losing noobie player like I was, consider this.

Are you playing only profitable hands in profitable positions? If you aren't, WTF??