Poker tracker: what should i expect?

hello zair....

I've decided to get poker tracker finally after months of trying to avoid it. Thing is I'm sick and foooooking tired of not being a winning player, i checked my stats on Officialpokerrankings.com and my ROI was -52 percent! This kinda surprised me because Ive always done well in SnG's. But i guess its that way because of cash games. Simply put, I SUCK ASS at cash games. Also, the same old cycle repeats itself with me, that is i play well, lose, go on slight tilt, the bad beats keep coming. Then i find myself not knowing what to do in most situations thinking "oh great here comes a re raise" or "i have pocket tens, could this guy really have over pair" and then i end up making stupid calls because i don't want to accept the fact that the bad streak is still on. All in all i end up losing more in this downswing then i can ever win playing solidly. So i figured if poker tracker can tell me what it is I'm doing differently during this downswings from when I'm winning, i can somehow come out with an idea on what the right play should always be in given situations.

I have never used poker tracker. Is it complicated? I'm not good with computer apps and what not. Will it really help me? what are some of the things i should be most looking for when reviewing the stats? And finally, PLEASE don't tell me its only for cash games, because i intend to only play SnG's.

Zannk you.

I'm pretty sure OPR only tracks MTTs and Sharkscope only does Sitngos, even though, it's probably still a good idea to get Tracker. IMO it's not complicated at all. I'm sure you'll have no problem finding help with it here at CC, if need be.

ROI only makes sense in the context of tournaments. You can't have an ROI for cash games. That said, pokertracker is not magic. You will have to spend a lot of time and a lot of work reviewing how you played. All it does is record the hands you play, and provide you with several ways to sort and examine the data. Pokertracker will not prevent tilt, it will just tell you that it's happening. I assume you already know this to be the case. You can figure out exactly what tilt is doing to you, but again I think you already sound like you know (calling too much because you MIGHT be ahead). It doesn't help you get better, only you can do that. If you need a tool to assist you in analysis of your own game, pokertracker will help you immensely. It's definitely worth the purchase if you're going to use it, but it takes time and work. As long as you realize that pokertracker will not make you better on its own I would recommend it.

New version coming out soon, if you can wait just a bit more...

ok, so it does keep track of sngs?

It tracks everything and should help your game if you use it properly. I bought it back when I couldn't even really afford it and it helped tremendously and has since.

PT has instructions on how to set up the program (which can be tedious), but they're a little dated and don't always help. You could either post on PT's forum if you have trouble setting it up, or if you still aren't getting it to work then I could help you.

I downloaded PT just last week but have not bought it yet. I guess the unregistered version is so limited that I am not really learning what it can do. I will wait on the new version for sure.

As AG said, there is a new version of PT out soon (I beleive they January next year) so may be best to wait, but as I understand it the upgrade costs from the existing version of PT to the new version will be based on how long you have had PT. The longer you've had it, the higher the upgrade cost. If you bought old PT now, I doubt the upgrade price would be more than the difference in cost between the old and new versions.

Personally, I consider PT not to be a cost but an investment. It has improved my game significantly. However, you should not be under any illusions that Poker Tracker will instantly make you a better player - it absolutely will not. If you are prepared to spend time reviewing the information provided by PT and replaying your hands, you will reap rewards. If you are looking for a quick fix, then look elsewhere. Like anything else in life, you have to work at it and you will get out of it what you put in.

Quote for emphasis

Don't understand why this is so (but I don't really play cash games so its not something I would know much about). Surely you can calculate an ROI based on your buy-ins and what you leave the table with?

Typically in a cash game you use bb/100 to talk about your win rate. It's more concrete and accurate information for your ring game loss/profit.

I feel PokerTracker really helped me to improve my game. As others have said, if you take the time to review hands, or types of hands, it really helps to show some patterns of weakness.

For cash games, use the BB/100 statistic; it tracks it at each different cash game level ($.50/$1.00, $1/2, etc...). It even differentiates between 6 handed and regular tables.

I recommend getting the HUD as well so that you have the real-time statistics visually displayed on every player at the table. It is great when you sit at a table and boom - you already have hand history statistics on someone that you have played before.

But for ROI you always play a certain amount. You invest x dollars into it. A cash game, I can re-buy several times or not even place a bet that puts me all-in. If I sit in with the minimum and double up should that be a +100% ROI? If I sit in on a 25/50 game with $20 and end with $40, should I have a better ROI than the guy who sits in with $50 and makes it up to $90? Also if I play for 5 hours and double my money, should that really be the same ROI as someone who doubles the same amount of money in 10 minutes and gets up to leave? As mentioned, BB/100 works because it's in terms of BB not buy-in, and is independent of time. ROI works for tournaments because you invest a set amount of money (at least for freezeouts) and keep playing until you're either out of chips or you win. There's no cashing out and no getting money out of your pocket when you bust.