How do you evaluate yourself

Bear with me.

People talking about hand histories and checking through "poker tracker". Could someone fill me in. I have a feeling that this could really help me but that I'm lost in the dark. Thanks

I sorta ignore hand histories and poker tracker stats becuase when i'm losing that's when i think back on the hands I lost money on, think about what i did differently and fix it. Poker, like in life, you learn from your mistakes. So anytime you lose 50 bucks at the 25 tables think about how it happened, if you're satisfied with your play (which you probably shouldn't be) then you're ok. But if you arn't figure out what was different or wrong and fix it. You can try to apply yourself to a certain mold of agression or tightness but it's all about correcting your post flop play.

-'rilla

People talking about hand histories and checking through "poker tracker".

Pokertracker is software that keeps track of your on-line poker hand histories and $. You can find it and download a demo @ pokertracker.com.

I just purchased it and I am still figuring out how to use all the information , but it is neat to see how you play certian hands and if you have won or lost money with them.

Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

I sorta ignore hand histories and poker tracker stats becuase when i'm losing that's when i think back on the hands I lost money on, think about what i did differently and fix it.

i'd have to strongly disagree with this advice. maybe it's my elderly mind, but after a couple of hundred hands of two tabling, i don't remember so well! also, if you've had a big loss, your "remembering" maybe a bit distorted.

i still review hand histories for every session i play. and constantly monitor my overall poker tracker stats.

reviewing hand histories will tell you:

- did i play that hand well
- could i have played it better
- did i win because i played well, or got lucky
- did i lose because i played like crap, had a run of bad cards, or couldn't hit a flop
- did i get beat by better play/bigger hands

my two chips.

Wading through old hand histories is tiresome for me, and to be honest, I'm usually analyizing every hand i play immideatly afterwards, until another big one swings around. It's how i spend my time between hands really.

-'rilla

Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

Wading through old hand histories is tiresome for me, and to be honest, I'm usually analyizing every hand i play immideatly afterwards, until another big one swings around. It's how i spend my time between hands really.

-'rilla

i do this on party. on poker stars, you have to actually request the history or let PT pull it out for you.

a bit more convienent on party.

Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

So anytime you lose 50 bucks at the 25 tables think about how it happened, if you're satisfied with your play (which you probably shouldn't be) then you're ok.

Horrible advice. You're over-looking all of the little mistakes that "leak" chips. Additionally, you're over-looking hands you could have made more money on. Finally, without a tool like Poker Tracker it's hard to see the big picture.

If you grab my biggest losses, ~90% of them are either via a beat beat or being second best to an unlikely holding.

Being too results oriented in this game is a sure path to insanity.

Originally Posted by Fnord

You're over-looking all of the little mistakes that "leak" chips. Additionally, you're over-looking hands you could have made more money on. Finally, without a tool like Poker Tracker it's hard to see the big picture.

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll try to get back through those old hands. It might do me some good. I'm still at that point in my game where I'm trying to fix the big mistakes and not fine tuning my game where I can.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to check it out right away.

Poker tracker is great. It not only allows you to examine your play, but also your opponents.

It tells you how loose/tight passive/aggressive they are, where they fold most, if they overplay hands, what positions they play certain hands, etc.

It says all that and more for you too, so it's great for examining your play.


For 55 bucks what else can you ask for?

so I down loaded Pokertracker, but found it kind of obtuse.
So I wrote my own little Python text app. This works on Party because the hand histories are dumped to your hard drive.

I track stuff like:
# bets called
# hands folded (%)
# flops seen (%)
# bets raised
# pre flop raises
# all-ins (not so useful in limit!)
all hands shown

I can also look up hands by winners, and I can do it all in real time. It doesn't (yet) store it all in a permanent database... but at .50/1 it's probably not likely to see repeat customers

What else does PT have that I should be looking at?

but found it kind of obtuse.

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Obtuse means not intelligent, so you are saying the software is not intelligent? I will admit that it takes some getting used to, I had to incorporate PT into my 'poker routine' but now it is second nature to fire up PT when I start playing. It also gives me something to do in between hands if there's nothing new to see at FTR.

I find that I get repeat customers all the time at both Party Poker and Poker Stars, even at the low limits.

Originally Posted by zenbitz

so I down loaded Pokertracker, but found it kind of obtuse.
So I wrote my own little Python text app. This works on Party because the hand histories are dumped to your hard drive.

Share with the class?