Hey chispa,
I don't actually have my stats from that level, but I can give you some guidelines. Are you playing full ring or 6-max? VPIP and PFR will vary heavily based on how many players you typically play with. But the following stat guidelines should apply to all LHE from 4 to 10 players:
WTSD: 35 to 45
ATSB (Steal): 40 to 50
FBBTS: 30 to 45
FSBTS: 70 to 85
These ranges are fairly wide, because a number of styles can be profitable. Numbers outside of those ranges are not necessarily incorrect, but they're less likely to result from a winning style. I say "result from" rather than "result in" because your stats come from your play, not the other way around. I'd recommend posting some hands when you're not sure rather than worrying too much about your stats. Shoot me a PM with a link if you'd like me to take a look at a hand.
Not speaking for Buddha here, but most coaches who get paid well to give strategy advice don't post a lot in hand analysis forums. Why buy the cow if the milk is free? They'll post in more general threads (like this one), but they're not going to be the most active poster giving out strategy advice unless its in Drag the Bar's forums or something.
And since this is a sort of well thread, I wouldn't mind Buddha responding to that
First off, thank you for all your honest answers throughout this thread. I think its great.
I was particularly interested in your response to chispa, as I'm also working my way up the FL limits. So what kind of VPIP/PFR stats do you recommend for a full ring table? How much do these change as you progress through the levels? I'm currently at $.50/$1 having started at $.10/$.20...and if things go as they currently are will have the BR for $1/$2 soon (I use a 500BB br to move up). I feel "fairly" confident my stats are within decent ranges, but I just find it difficult to find recommendations for what these stats should be for full ring limit. I find that I have all this information related to my HEM stats, but no real base to compare it to. Any advice or am I just making too big of a deal about this? Also, do you have any general advice for advancing through the limits?
Appreciate any time you have to answer my questions.
Firstly...
Congratulations. Hell of a grind that was eh? Can mess with the mind a bit when you dont see the light of day for that long id imagine. I admire that fact that you took the time to give back to charity using a profession in which you excel at. The impressive part imo was that you showed that you weren't just writing a check but altering your life for a significent time in order to help the less fortunate and for that very well done sir. It's never about the monetary amount when donating to charity, but the urge to help others and the ability to realize that no matter what most of us have, but to realize more and more everyday have much less than us.
My question to you will be this. Will you continue to stay here and post now that your challenge is done?
Am very sure people will be interested in hearing your feedback on strategy threads and hand analysis.
Once again well done bro. Welcome to Cardschat. Please stick around. Great players here and a very friendly atmosphere. Also may I say, there are very experienced great players here that frequent the higher stakes that could also give you advice/constructive criticism/feedback or a ego boost every now and then, that can highly contribute to a positive poker attitude on a regular basis.
Not speaking for Buddha here, but most coaches who get paid well to give strategy advice don't post a lot in hand analysis forums. Why buy the cow if the milk is free? They'll post in more general threads (like this one), but they're not going to be the most active poster giving out strategy advice unless its in Drag the Bar's forums or something.
And since this is a sort of well thread, I wouldn't mind Buddha responding to that
Off the top of my head, anything between 15/10 and 20/15 is probably fine for Full Ring. You can play profitably with tighter or looser stats, but those are a decent ballpark for stats filtered 7 to 10 players.
The best piece of advice I can offer for moving through the limits is this:
Don't change anything just because you change limits. You're playing the same game against similar players. Only adjust once you see players around actually playing differently. Always keep learning, and focus on game selection. A good $1/2 game is softer than a bad $.50/1 game. So if you find the best table at the new limit, things shouldn't be that different. Also, try to think in bets rather than dollars. This helps keep variance in perspective.
Paul, you mentioned in a DTB vid that you're writing a book(s) on LHE, sounded really interesting - is that something we'll be seeing sometime this fall-ish? Sorry if you mentioned this in this thread already, I didn't go back to check...
Thank you sooo much for this. Great advice, and congrats on your accomplishment.What I can say, is that understanding why you should be winning in the long run (i.e. where your edge comes from), understanding how long the long run can be, and being properly bankrolled can help keep things in perspective. I think a lot of tilt comes from wanting to win now, and expecting to win now. That's not how poker works. All we can do is consistently make good decisions, and over time the money comes in.
Another common source of tilt is the belief that poker is some epic match of guts and wits. It's not. It's a strategy game where consistently making good decisions results in a paycheck. It's okay to get outplayed. Everyone does. Just learn from it. It's okay to make mistakes. Everyone does. Learn from it.
Thank you sooo much for this. Great advice, and congrats on your accomplishment.
What is the "state" of LHE midstakes games? A coach on another forum has suggested that it's very good atm - if you agree, to what do you attribute that?
Part of my curiosity is based in my perception that good winrates at limit games are smaller than NL/PL, implying that to make the equiv overall winrate, you'd have to play at least midstakes to make any reasonable money or to increase tables dramatically (the coach I'm referring to, though, apparently single tables).
No problem, and thanks. Also, don't get mad at yourself for tilting, thus causing you to tilt more. You can create a bad feedback cycle this way. Accept that you're going to tilt from time to time, and work on reducing it until it eventually approaches zero.
I curious which coach single tables LHE. It really depends on what you mean by "reasonable" money. You can make $100+/hr playing $5/10 and $10/20. You can make $20 to $30/hr at small stakes, which sounds reasonable to me. That's $50k/yr off a pretty small bankroll.
Midstakes LHE games are fine, although I wouldn't describe them as perpetually awesome. If you game select well, you can find good games. If you don't, you're likely to be stuck with some tables full of regulars, which isn't great with the high rake. In LHE, a higher percentage of our earn tends to be from rakeback. I don't see any legitimate reason to separate those earnings from table winnings, though. It all spends the same.
Just read your bio.. pretty sweet that you teach Tae Kwon Do! I took Tae Kwon Do for 10 years and earned my 2nd degree black belt.. how long have you been teaching?
continuing this point, I was reading the limit over at 2+2 + the general feel is that 2/4 and 3/6 is full of regs on stars + really tough? I then looked at the lobby + PTR some dudes + there seemed to be some pretty decent games going on and some regs are losing regs, RB pros I would have thought.
What do you think of the 2/4 + 3/6 games is it the same as the 5/10 + 10/20 in that game selection is very important, I would have thought if you 4/6 table then you can game select 2/4 + 3/6 and get some pretty good tables but im very new to lhe, just joined DTB too
I started teaching in 2001, just before I got my 1st degree. I ran a school from 2004 to 2006. Now I just teach class most of the time I go to train, since as a 4th degree, I'm often the senior belt.