Isura
04-15-2007, 07:24 PM
This is a new theory article from my blog (see profile for info). Hope you guys find it helpful. </p>
Pokertracker is a great tool for improving one's game. It can be used in conjunction with a program called a heads up display (HUD) to display statistical information about your opponents. You would have noticed that I did not use a HUD during my first video. In this article I will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using these tools for aiding in decision making in no-limit holdem. </p>
<h3>Benefits</h3>
Stats cam be very helpful in determining preflop hand ranges. The key stats; voluntarily put money in pot (VPIP) and preflop raise (PFR) give the main description of preflop looseness and aggressiveness respectively. It is generally possible to directly extrapolate a hand range from these numbers. For example, someone raising 10% of hands is likely to be raising pocket pairs, AK-AJ. However, some players like suited hands, so they might raise up 98s but decide to limp in with 33. Others would never open raise with AA or KK in fear of losing action. These examples notwithstanding, stats are very useful for putting your opponent on a hand before the flop. </p>
Another situation where stats are beneficial is in highlighting extreme examples. Very tight or very loose players are easy to spot out within about 50 hands using just their preflop stats. This is very helpful when multitabling. And finally, something is better than nothing. Stats don't give a complete read, but they can atleast help a bit when you have no other information to go on. </p>
<h3>Drawbacks</h3>
Using a HUD tends to encourage lazy thinking habits, and often diverts attention away from the essential details of the hand. We've all done it: we get into a big pot with a marginal hand against an opponent who is loose preflop. Instead of thinking through the actions in the hand, and the opponent's past history, we just put our money in because the stats say that they are loose. There are many qualitative tendencies that we can try to observe in our opponents. I'll talk more about this in my next theory article.</p>
Stats are not descriptive enough for no-limit holdem. So much of no-limit is about reading your opponent's thinking process and mood, deciphering betting patterns, and reading into bet sizes. Unfortunately, we do not yet have software that can quantify these factors. Per street aggression numbers are a start, but they were designed with limit holdem in mind. Raising in no-limit is a much stronger move than just betting (in limit, raising is considered only slightly more aggresssive than betting). Also, per street aggression does not factor in bet sizing, a topic that is very important in no-limit. Finally, postflop stats need a large sample size before becoming statistically significant, and thus limit its reliability against new players. </p>
Stats can help in making decisions at the table. But they should be well integrated with many other qualitative factors (in other words, real reads). Next time I will discuss some tips about what to concentrate on when playing without a HUD. </p>
Pokertracker is a great tool for improving one's game. It can be used in conjunction with a program called a heads up display (HUD) to display statistical information about your opponents. You would have noticed that I did not use a HUD during my first video. In this article I will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using these tools for aiding in decision making in no-limit holdem. </p>
<h3>Benefits</h3>
Stats cam be very helpful in determining preflop hand ranges. The key stats; voluntarily put money in pot (VPIP) and preflop raise (PFR) give the main description of preflop looseness and aggressiveness respectively. It is generally possible to directly extrapolate a hand range from these numbers. For example, someone raising 10% of hands is likely to be raising pocket pairs, AK-AJ. However, some players like suited hands, so they might raise up 98s but decide to limp in with 33. Others would never open raise with AA or KK in fear of losing action. These examples notwithstanding, stats are very useful for putting your opponent on a hand before the flop. </p>
Another situation where stats are beneficial is in highlighting extreme examples. Very tight or very loose players are easy to spot out within about 50 hands using just their preflop stats. This is very helpful when multitabling. And finally, something is better than nothing. Stats don't give a complete read, but they can atleast help a bit when you have no other information to go on. </p>
<h3>Drawbacks</h3>
Using a HUD tends to encourage lazy thinking habits, and often diverts attention away from the essential details of the hand. We've all done it: we get into a big pot with a marginal hand against an opponent who is loose preflop. Instead of thinking through the actions in the hand, and the opponent's past history, we just put our money in because the stats say that they are loose. There are many qualitative tendencies that we can try to observe in our opponents. I'll talk more about this in my next theory article.</p>
Stats are not descriptive enough for no-limit holdem. So much of no-limit is about reading your opponent's thinking process and mood, deciphering betting patterns, and reading into bet sizes. Unfortunately, we do not yet have software that can quantify these factors. Per street aggression numbers are a start, but they were designed with limit holdem in mind. Raising in no-limit is a much stronger move than just betting (in limit, raising is considered only slightly more aggresssive than betting). Also, per street aggression does not factor in bet sizing, a topic that is very important in no-limit. Finally, postflop stats need a large sample size before becoming statistically significant, and thus limit its reliability against new players. </p>
Stats can help in making decisions at the table. But they should be well integrated with many other qualitative factors (in other words, real reads). Next time I will discuss some tips about what to concentrate on when playing without a HUD. </p>