Full tilt MTTs stats, please evaluate

[BigAlK]

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I didn't say I ignored it, from the way you phrased your response that answer was for someone just begining and that there were tweaks to be made in my game for the next level of play. Sorry for trying to make it clear I'm open to listen to anything

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If I understood your original post it said your % of flop seen was mid to high 30s when you were told to tighten up. Now your VPIP% is 39%. You might see a flop for free in the big blind (not voluntarily put money in pre-flop) or voluntarily put money in and fold to a raise, so these numbers don't measure exactly the same thing. But they're pretty close. You didn't say you ignored their advice, I did. Now RonFezBuddy gave you the same advice. I would do the same.

[ahsfl]

Ok, another 2500 hands in, have gotten the VP$P down to 36, pfr is up to 19, and TA is up to 1.3. I didn't get any guide numbers from this other than to tighten up. That's getting there (I don't know how much you can really drop in 2500 hands when u already have 4k logged) but how am I doing PFR and TA?

[BigAlK]

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Ok, another 2500 hands in, have gotten the VP$P down to 36, pfr is up to 19, and TA is up to 1.3. I didn't get any guide numbers from this other than to tighten up. That's getting there (I don't know how much you can really drop in 2500 hands when u already have 4k logged) but how am I doing PFR and TA?

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RonFezBuddy gave you a number for VPIP of "somewhere in the low 20s." When I go deep in an MTT I'll generally see numbers for the players at my table with more than a trivial number of hands (those I've been with a significant part of the tournament or have played with a lot) of somewhere between 15-25% for VPIP. Some are lower and some are higher. Those with a higher percentage are usually either bad players who have gotten really lucky in this specific tournament (I'll often have seen them suck out multiple times)or really good post flop players.

You can filter poker tracker to only give you stats on hands played over a specific period to narrow down what your percentages are since you've tried to tighten up, but based on the additional hands you've played I'd guess your VPIP for that period is somewhere around 33% and your PFR% around 20%. It looks to me like you're raising almost as many hands as you should be playing. Here's what I would recommend.

Look at your poker tracker stats for each starting hand. Sort them by BBs won/lost. Review every hand that shows a loss starting with the worst. Ask yourself why you were playing that hand to begin with. It's a loser. Do you find it impossible to muck A4s or QJs? An ace or two face cards don't always make something a good starting hand, suited or not. Are you losing a lot with KJ because you're calling a raise from the tightest player at the table and stacking off with top pair? If you're convinced that a particular starting hand should be a winning hand, but hasn't been, evaluate whether the hand is a winner if you play it from late position and a loser from early position (KQ and KJ are two possible contenders here). If you find that maybe you can safely play these cards profitablly under the proper conditions (possibly from middle to late position in an unopened or unraised pot).

Alot of starting hands, under the right conditions, can (at least in theory) be winning hands overall. But figuring out when the conditions are right only comes with experience. That's what RonFezBuddy meant when he said some players can play more cards than others. But for the moment you should be looking for reasons NOT to play the two cards you've been dealt. Right now you're looking for a reason to justify playing them.

[Sherman]

Whatever anyone is telling you is probably wrong.

So what you have played 4K hands and are 39/18/1. That means absolutely nothing (or at least it should) to a tournament player.

Maybe you should play less hands, but we can't be for sure. How many of those hands were played in 6 max? How many at short tables? We have no clue.

Main Point: Situations change in tournaments. Basic stats like overall VPIP and PFR are meaningless.

Now if you gave us some stats that showed your VPIP and PFR at each level or based on your position at the table, they would be much more informative, and we could give some more direct advice.

Sherman

[BigAlK]

Sherman, you make some good points. I think the replies so far have made the assumption that these were medium to large field MTTs (not a lot of small field multi-table sit-and-go's) and full ring, not six-max. Those don't seem like unreasonable assumptions. If these assumptions are true I'm trying to imagine a situation (buy-in, type of tournaments played) other than a statistically improbable run of great cards where a beginner playing 39% of his starting hands could possibly be right. Can you think of one?

My suggestion to dig deeper into hands that are losing for him was an attempt to point him in the direction of self-evaluation to figure out how he might improve and move his focus from his overall poker tracker numbers to something more specific and hopefully helpful.

OP, The correct answer to most poker questions is "it depends." Each tournament hand and how it should be played depends on a myriad of factors beyond the two cards you're dealt. Number of players, blind sizes, stack sizes of all players, position, play of recent hands, how you perceive the likely opponents in the hand and how you believe they perceive you. The list goes on and on. Reading this forum helps understand how each of these may influence your decisions. Post your specific hands and respond to other posts (even having the flaws in your responses pointed out as Sherman has done helps). If you haven't already read the books "Harrington on Holdem'" books. They'll provide a solid foundation for tournament play.

[ahsfl]

Because the first question posed will take some time to research and the second one is a bit easier to check quickly I just have to say wow. Looking over my position stats I'm a big loser from UTG+2 (possibly overaggressive in middle position?) with VP$P at 30 PFR 15% -0.08 BB/H. Now looking at what Big was saying I do see quite a few 25o, 23o type hands and also see major losses with aqo and ats so bigs read is pretty much dead on with me. On sherms last point, that just really clicked that fact that VP$P would be highly affected by short handed play late in MTTs and STTs because more often your coming into the pot in steal situations or with lesser hands because of the SH play hoping to hit a flop, very good point that I had not considered. Regardless though I do see now exactly how loose I've allowed myself to get, thanks for all the advice.

[JammyDodga]

[ QUOTE ]
Whatever anyone is telling you is probably wrong.


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lol. From now on, I'm going to start all my posts with this line...