AK unimproved, whats your play?

[BenA]

Bernie, actually I think you said better what I was trying to get across in my 'complaint' post. I agree with you 100%, observation gets the job done in a short period of time, plus validate numbers with a shorter sample size. And I also agree with Phosix that people often just throw some numbers up there to justify random decisions.

I use Poker Ace, and the only way it really helps is 1) the stats are inordinately large 2) combined with notes I've taken and recent observations these are dynamite and 3) Often marginal decisions such as calldowns or value betting are helped tremendously if you have a huge sample size. Say you've got someone with a went to showdown stat of 65%, a huge VPIP and a small AF over 2000 hands. This makes a decision between checking between and value betting a good but not great hand easy.

Otherwise, I think that stats can often hurt more than they help if they are treated like the ten commandments and not combined with true observation. I think that's what Phosix meant in another post when he said PT could hurt your live game. Sure, if PA-Hud is all you use for reads, you'll be a virtual fish with no powers of discernment at a live table.

[SeaEagle]

PAHUD/PT help with quickly identifying people who sit down at the table who I've played with before. I can recognize and associate live people, but online I only have some oftentimes random name by which to remember them. PT often jogs my memory as to the player who's sitting down.

PT stats are an excellent tool to describe a player, as per this forum. "Villian is laggy" is subjective and means different things to different people. "Villian is 56/14/2.8" paints a much more objective picture.

Most importantly, PT provides a statistical substantiation/counterpoint of what you're seeing. There are tons of times, especially when multitabling, where someone will do something that gets my attention and PT will help me decide how much I need to worry about it. Example: There's a bunch of betting and raising on a hand and Player A shows down 2nd pair. Was it likely he was trying to make a point against a specific opponent? Has he been overplaying hands all night and I just didn't notice? PT helps me with these questions.

I seldom make in-hand decisions where PT overrules my personal opinion of villian.

Maybe if I was single tabling in a live environment PT wouldn't help at all, but playing 6 or 7 times as many hands as live against a bunch of people who all "look" the same, PT is indispensible in helping put a personality on my opponents.