Analyzing your play statistically

I've never been one to analyze my play statistically but thought it might be a good idea.
Alot of players don't know what to make of all the %s, including me.
Maybe we could get someone who uses Poker Tracker consistently or analyzes their play through stats to put down some notes/info here to teach those of us who don't understand?

For example roughly what flop% qualifies you as a tight or loose player?
What % of hands should you be winning at the showdown? (is there a % you should aim towards?)
etc etc

I'm not as proficient at Poker Tracker as others, like FP & Dorkus, but I'll share what I know.

In the "Details" report (the "More Detail.." button on the General page), I like to keep and eye on my "When Folds Hand: Pre-Flop %", "Aggression Factor", & "Raised Pre-Flop %". Then I glance at my "Check-Raises %" & my "Won $ When Saw Flop %". This all gives me an idea of how aggressive I am and a bit of my starting hand quality. I have had a problem with sometimes being too passive and limping mediocre hands too much.

I first look at a month's worth of data to give me a better idea of how quickly changes in my game take hold. Then I may expand out a few months to see the bigger picture. I don't go out too far because I was playing pretty badly 6 months ago.

Oh, and I have heard Annie Duke say that the ideal fold % should be around 60-66. That's seeing 1 out of 3 flops on average. Not sure of the ideal winning showdown %, but mine could use a boost.

Good topic Chuck. Thought I would post my hand history for the last 1000 hands just as a basis for discussion, might be easier to talk about with some numbers to look at. I omitted the 69 hands I have played of Omaha lately as I will get roasted for those ones .

I suspect my % of pots won at showdown is low and my see flop% is about right on. Otherwise, beats me.

************************************************** **********
Hold'em (Real Money):
931 hands played and saw flop:
- 91 times out of 158 while in small blind (57%)
- 118 times out of 162 while in big blind (72%)
- 129 times out of 611 in other positions (21%)
- a total of 338 times out of 931 (36%)
Pots won at showdown - 39 out of 90 (43%)
Pots won without showdown - 87

I thought about posting some typical stats, but to be honest...

I don't know how koscher this is, but it just doesn't make sense for me to make a half-assed post about Poker Tracker stats when the information is readily available on another forum:

For micro limit hold 'em (everything below 2/4 limit), look here (scroll down a bit to part 3):

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1659321&an=0&page=0#Post 1659321

You will find similar stat summaries in the other forums (shorthanded, etc.) depending on which game you play.

Here is my two cents on your stats here. I play PokerStars cash games also and don't have a stat tracker besides what PS keeps for me. I am assuming NL and 9 person tables. If you are playing limit or six person tables then my advice would be different.

Flops
You are a loose cash game player seeing 36% of flops (this is about right for touraments when you need to press sometimes). You should be in the mid 20% for cash games. You are defending your blinds to much or you are at very passive tables that let you see for free or cheap and is altering your stats. Your other position is close to what you want so your Blinds might be a little leaky (losing money when you should have folded preflop).

Pots
You are a little low but not doing to bad with showdowns. You tighten up your preflop hand selection and this will improve. Yes, you should be close to above 50% in this stat. This means to me that you are calling when you don't have the winning hand or bluffing and getting caught to much on the river.

Another good stat that I like is to see what my winning percentage is of flops seen. You are 126 of 338 (37%). That also is alittle low for me but that I think is because of your showdown percentage. You get that up to 50% and your win % of flops seen will be in the 40s which is where I like it. Good sessions I run in the 60-70% range.

overall
You tighten up your preflop play alittle and I think the rest of your stats will follow. Really think about letting some of the blinds go if you cards are not all that great even if you think it is for a good price. Cash games to me is about waiting for the monsters and making the people pay who are playing or calling with marginal hands.

I would say the ideal see the flop % is 18 to 22% . As for winning showdowns, even 50% is way to low. I think 80 to 90% is what you need, especially at the low levels, ( from .2/.4 to 5/10$ ) This is very possible.

I reccomend you read the 2 hold em books by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, you will see your numberd and profit skyrocket.

As of this writting , i see the flop 23% of the time and win 86% showdowns. Ofcourse you need to be able to make good reads to laydown and not chase unless the pot odds warrant it

Stats depend largely on the game of choice, but for limit I disagree vehemently about the showdown win percentage. If you win as many as 80% of them, you're laying down the best hand too often, and you almost always have better than 4-1 odds on the river. Call the river more. 50% is on the low end, but a better number than 80%. Mine is at about 55%.

As with everything, it depends on what you want to do, but if you've read no poker book at all at this point, and don't feel that you're much of a reader (you play mostly for the fun of it and don't want to read 2000+ pages of poker literature) then consider picking up Ed Miller's "Getting Started in Hold 'em". It's a great book, because it's short, it's easy to understand, it's inspiring and it teaches proper poker. A lot of the beginner's literature out there focuses too much on shortcuts instead of teaching the appropriate way of thinking.


Fredrik

Tightened up over the weekend (I have read a couple books although it may not have seem like it with my stats) and had a great run! I think I finished my session at %19 of flops seen and %70 showdowns won and a lot of pots with no showdown. I played super, super tight until I got reads off people and once I won a couple hands I was able to push people around a bit and almost tripled my buy in. YAY!!!! Thanks for the comments people. And I hope the discussion was of use to Chuck as well since I seem to have hijacked his thread