Am I Leaky?

[Loughckaisz]

Greetings from a long time lurker but a first time poster! This place has been a goldmine for improving my game the past few years.

I just picked up poker tracker and wanted to compare a certain stat with other users. The stat in question is my BB won/ hand on my big blind, which is -.34. my small blind is -.13. This data is admittedly from a ridiculously small sample size (1200 hands)...but I don't think its a stat that takes time to level off. Any other PT users care to post this stat? Basically I think that I'm getting blind stolen to the felt. I'm a big time TAG, I play just a bit tighter than SSHE suggests (since tables like Sklansky describes in the book are rarely found online, idk maybe they used to be that loose like 4 years ago). I'm sure there are many on the board who would call me weak tight, but I'm not exactly a pushover. My aggression factor is 2.35. I am worried about my blind defense though. I fold A LOT of blinds, but its only because calling with 75s or whatever always seems like -EV against one or maybe two opponents. Would anyone say call for metagame value? Likewise, I don't like A rag or K rag because of the likelihood of being dominated. I do sometimes call if they're suited though, depending on the raiser.

It would make sense that right after I buy PT I go on a big downswing! I hate all these red numbers [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I feel like I have the most watertight game I've ever had, but my sessions as of late don't portray that feeling. I'm also playing a bit higher than usual (5/10 full and 6 max now, usually 2/4, 3/6), although the games often seem looser and easier if you look around for a good one. Any thoughts on the rake structure making these games hard to beat? In my opinion 5-10 limit is probably the most rake-intensive game...possibly 10-20.

Well I've rambled a bit but any insight to these questions would be helpful. Thanks!

[Bob T.]

This has been covered a lot. You are supposed to lose in the blinds. That is the way the game is designed. Your numbers are fine. Think about it. When you post the big blind, you are already -1.00 smallbets for the hand. If you end up -.34, you won back 2/3 of a small bet after you posted. That's good. Same deal for the small blind.

[Ricks]

Bob,

The -0.34 is a BB. He is only winning back 1/3 of a small bet.

I don't believe that -0.34 BB from the BB is good. This may easily just be from the small sample size.

The guys that wrote Poker Tracker Guide say that, "We believe a reasonable loss rate in the big blind is somewhere below two times your win rate at your most profitable position. For example, if you are winning .13 BB per hand on the button, and losing 0.18BB per hand on the big blind, you are playing your BB extremely well." I believe they are saying that you should not be loosing more than 0.26 BB in this example.

[Bob T.]

bad arithimatic. It is sunday morning.

[Loughckaisz]

[ QUOTE ]
Bob,

The -0.34 is a BB. He is only winning back 1/3 of a small bet.

I don't believe that -0.34 BB from the BB is good. This may easily just be from the small sample size.

The guys that wrote Poker Tracker Guide say that, "We believe a reasonable loss rate in the big blind is somewhere below two times your win rate at your most profitable position. For example, if you are winning .13 BB per hand on the button, and losing 0.18BB per hand on the big blind, you are playing your BB extremely well." I believe they are saying that you should not be loosing more than 0.26 BB in this example.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the input. I'll post again in a few more thousand hands and see if things improve. I'm still curious of other people's winrate in the big blind. And yes, the BB there is big bets, not big blind (small bets). In the meantime I think I'll go crush me some 2/4.

[Yoshi63]

After ~4000 hands, here are my blind results:

SB: -.01 BB/hr
BB: -.26 BB/hr

As pointed out, the BB isn't very good. Yet the SB is far better than can be expected long-term. I only have about 700 hands from each blind, so I think it's incorrect to state that your blind return doesn't take a long time to normalize. Like everything in poker - short term is all about the cards/luck! You just need more stats before really reviewing this.