Using Poker Tracker to find leaks in your game

fatboy

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if any of you have tips on using Poker Tracker to find leaks in your own game. Or what should I be looking at to find leaks in my game. What would you consider to be the most obvious for the newer tourney player.

Thanks again

AcidJoe

I find the easiest spot to start is to look at the hands that have cost you the most money. For example if AQs is costing you lots (and it shouldn't) review how you played it, from what position, was it a raised pot, etc. Until you have a lot of hands you may find some interesting tidbits, where your 3 5 off in the blinds flopped a straight and you lost an all in to someone with the flush draw etc.

TexLexus

Where is Poker Tracker? Is it part of a site or is it separate software?

westside8

TexLexus wrote:

Where is Poker Tracker? Is it part of a site or is it separate software?

Its a seperate software. Check out www.pokertracker.com for more info.
You can also get it free from www.pokersourceonline.com by playing at one of their many affiliated sites.

Spicol

You might want to consider Poker Office as well. I prefer it, myself.

www.pokeroffice.com

ScoobyD

I find the easiest spot to start is to look at the hands that have cost you the most money.

This was my general approach as well. I had noticed trends where basically looked to see which hands lost me the most and then of those what hands I was voluntarily entering the pot with. I noticed some obvious types of hands that were losers (KJo, KTo, QTo, etc.).

The simplistic solution is to tighten up preflop with those hands. As far as trying to evaluate postflop play I find that tougher.

I still don't think I have a very comprehensive method of trying to evaluate my play (reviewing recent sessions is simple enough since the hands are fresh in my mind), but trying to review specific scenarios (blind defense, steals, and specific lines taken, etc) I find I tend to be fairly clueless...

jpajamas

Tracking by any method is a good idea, you will learn a ton.

beanie42

ScoobyD wrote:

I still don't think I have a very comprehensive method of trying to evaluate my play (reviewing recent sessions is simple enough since the hands are fresh in my mind), but trying to review specific scenarios (blind defense, steals, and specific lines taken, etc) I find I tend to be fairly clueless...

Basically, find specific scenarios where you aren't getting the results you want, and then determine what you could do to change your result. Sounds overly simplistic, but it is really just something you need to put time into. The hard part is figuring out what to change when you identify a leak. Personally, I find it most valuable to look at my hands by position (rather than overall), since that shows a lot more issues.

For example, KQs may be a loser up-front but a winner late. Seeing you are either losing with the hand doesn't mean to stop playing it, you need to know when and where you are losing with it. Once you realize it's up-front, start looking at the specific hands. You may find that on tight tables it's still profitable up-front when raised, but losing when limped or on loose tables. So now, instead of deciding to tighten up and not play the hand, you've found that you only need to stop limping early on a tight table. A contrived example (and not necessarily the right way to play KQ), but you get the idea. Find a problem, and then keep zeroing in on a more specific problem, until you hit the root.

Note that you need a lot of hands in order for this type of analysis to be helpful.