So how’s it goin?

That’s a common greeting. It is also a bit of confusion as I tried to get a handle on just how good or bad a stud player I am. I have even bought Poker Tracker for Stud and still don’t have a good idea. Although, I have a lot more statistics.

I have tried moving up to get away from having to show down against a pack of calling stations. That has worked well and horribly. PT give the guts in great fashion. Trying to interpret the data can create as many questions as answers.

I have played 5,916 hands at Stud. Along the way I paid $127.90 in rake. In doing so, I have won $182.70. I have played mostly .25-.50 and .50-1. But, the last couple of days I’ve also played up a bit with solid (too exponentially solid) results that skew thing. I’m actually around my high water mark for winnings. But, today and yesterday in particular, playing 1-2 and 2-4 make me look far better than I should.

Level Hands Won BB/100

2-4 28 77.75 69.42

1-2 63 63.65 50.52

.50-1 1019 (104.40) (10.34)

.25-.5 4806 146.70 6.10

As they used to say in the game show To Tell the Truth, “Will the real Ken Prevo please stand up.”

I hit a heater at higher limits that won’t hold up. I just left a 2-4 table up $70. That looks like I am the second coming of Chip Reese … or a lucky donk that has the regulars salivating. At the lower levels, I do play too many hands. I have the feeling that my VP$IP is skewed based on the bringin requirements at stud. I have communicated with the programmer at PT and he says it is righteous. But, I programmed enough to know that such claims always come with a huge grain of salt. VP$IP is close at times to my stats provided by Stars that do not discount for the forced bringins.

PT does evaluate folks and put neat icons by them on the table. Mine is a fish. That is loose-passive-passive. The thing is: When I browse the icons, those are the players that have more winning players than losers. Some of the folks I respect least have better ranking and some of those are huge losers. So, the ranking system doesn’t mean much or needs redesign. What might apply to the flop games seems to lose a lot in translation.

The .50-1 results are a concern. It is my true donkeyness showing? I believe the results are from bad luck. Is that belief similar to one in the Tooth Fairy? I don’t think so but the analysis using PT isn’t far from doing one with a pencil and paper. I’d have to review and rank play on all those hands. And, samples are such that that isn’t a given.

I have found that better limits promote better play. We can all over read at times but it is better and fewer calling stations are at those tables. I tend to be aggressive in ring play. At times that get a too in front of it. At the lower limits, too aggressive isn’t likely. There I tend to bet the goods or get out.

I did pick up another stud book. This time it is the Ray Zee and the Bobbsey Twins one. The one before that was West’s. The problem is I am in a browse rather than read mode for poker books. The era where I devoured them pretty much ended with book 2 of Harrington’s great first two.

I do know more about myself than I did a month ago. Or, at least I think I do. I do recognize my mistakes better. I do feel that I can play higher limits – ignoring .50-1 dontations and the heaters in those above. I’m going to try it a bit more but still play for comfort when I have a real urge to play. I should try to play other hours. I tend to be a morning player. Some evening the only exercise – physical or mental – is the surfing button on the remote. I’d certainly have more fun playing a bit or reading the rest of one of those books. I need to climb out of that rut and, if I am honest, …

ADDENDUM:

Otis and others just can’t leave this presidential season alone. It is a juicy one. The last one I remember being so ‘interesting’ was the first I got to vote in. That was Goldwater – Johnson. Show of hands on who recognizes that one. Anyway, Otis seems to be an Obama fan – more and more. He is also trying to be a cynic and that isn’t type casting.

This is stacking up to be quite an election. Not sure if it is for all the right reasons but that applies to all of them. Obama is probably the best communicator since “The Great Communicator” and we’re finding out that one may have been early onset Alzheimer. My big concern is that we can’t afford any of them. Not sure why. I have no children to leave mired in the debt they’ve been creating.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Other poker. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.