% of hands seen during MTTs

What percentage of Hands do Pros see,,,i play frigging frs,,and the DD and some rather large tournies,,and i find i cash enough to keep playing,,but my % of hands seen varies widly,,from mabey 15 to 25 percent to over 50!!!! which is a lot...ill see as many flops as possible early in a tourny,,trying to double up,,and that sends my stats up...I do realize im not quite aggressive enough,,ive had some leaks pointed out to me,,and an1 who wishes,,may look up my stats or if you use one of those programs,,feel free to critize my play.I am always looking for information in any form,,so call me names,,do whatever,,but help me improve my game,,so what percentage of hands in a large MTT if there is a "normal" % ???

There is no standard percentage. It varies tremendously on the style of play you employ. However 50 percent seems very high and its likely your playing crap hands in the wrong spots.

Your idea of seeing a lot of flops early on isn't bad though. But the hands you see those flops with should be speculative hands, like pocket pairs or suited connectors, in position. Not pure crap UTG.

Most solid CC'ers I see play at around 18%.

Depends a lot on your style and the other players at the table...
But around 20-25% should be good.
50% is a little high. You have to be the bully or you are playing bad cards which you should throw away....

I'm usually around 25-30% but sometimes lower.....50% sounds loony to me but then again I've been accused of being a nit.

I just checked my stats and, coincidentally, mine is exactly 18%.

I checked mine: 19% - that means I'm LAG, lol.

Yea, man, you`re crazy loose.

Well it depends on my table and players... Some times i play LAG and other times TAG but it really depends.

how does one check their stats? I will check mine thruoghout the course of a tourney and usually it is around 12-13% , early in the tournament, 17- 18% in the later stages

I read mine straight off my HUD. If you don`t have that facility, a lot of sites provide that info for you, often via some kind of "statistics" or "info" button.

Thanks Egon, I usually check the "stats" button during games but it doesn't keep a perpetual running total of all hands played. Although, I believe Absolute shows those stats. I will have to look into HUD.

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No normal %, but there are some guidelines...usually in a large MTT, 10 to 15% is a good guage, but realize that this is an "overall" % because you'll want to play more loose at different stages of an MTT. Following is something I read recently that may help:

One of the first things that you hear about poker is that it takes patience and discipline to be a winner but very seldom does anyone really tell you just what that means, I'm going to tell you now one of the things it means that could make one of the biggest differences in you game.


Patience and discipline means FOLD, FOLD AND FOLD SOME MORE. The most common error that I see on the table is playing too many hands and that goes for every type of poker that we play. When you sit down to play do it with the knowledge that you will be folding far more hands than you ever play. If you go into the game knowing that you will only be playing one hand in five then you will be less likely to become frustrated when that happens. If you want to play more hands then open a second table. Don't use the excuse of 'being bored' to play more hands. And if you are running cold and only play one hand in ten for and hour don't feel that you are owed the right to play a few more hands. It might be that you will only get to play one in ten for the next hour also. Know the hands that are worth playing and play those for all you are worth and throw the rest away.


Learn the trap hands for your game of choice and if you are new to poker get in the habit of tossing them. After you gain a lot of experience you can experiment with them but at first they will just get you in trouble.


Our first decision in every hand is the most crucial one. Decide to play too many hands and you will end up a money loser.