Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Playing stats tell a story

Last January they had a free tournament for bloggers. Winners won seats into the SCOOP. I won a cheap seat ($11) and played last night.

There were 18,353 runners entered in my SCOOP event, and that's a lot of donkeys to climb over. It began at 7 p.m. Memphis time and I lasted until around 11:15 when there were 3673 left. 3100 got paid and I could have folded to the "money," but the prize for that was around $12, bleh. The prize for first was $18,000 -- big difference. If I had won my last hand, I would have had a good-sized stack and a chance to run for the big money. I didn't mind, therefore, the way I went out:

In the big blind I had 6 5. The button raised 3X the BB, the SB called, and I did, too. The flop was (I think) 7 3 2, giving me a baby flush draw and a gutshot -- 12 outs or around 46%. Also, I had enough chips to have plenty of fold equity. I shoved and was called by K-K in the small blind who had been slow playing. The turn and river bricked and I was out.

After, I asked Poker Stars for a Tournament History, and, instead, they sent a list of all 18K+ players, so I asked for the wrong thing. I wanted to see the hand history (don't have it yet, so that's why my busto hand is sketchy -- missing stack sizes, blind and ante sizes, etc.)

They did include my "personal statistics" which were telling:
You finished in 3673rd place (eliminated at hand #43627817444).
252 hands played and saw flop:
- 3 times out of 28 while in small blind (11%)
- 13 times out of 29 while in big blind (45%)
- 21 times out of 195 in other positions (11%)
- a total of 37 times out of 252 (15%)

Pots won at showdown
- 4 out of 7 (57%)
Pots won without showdown - 18

Winning 18 pots without a showdown is a good number, I think, but do you notice anything else?

Only playing 15% of my hands is way too low. I think 20% to 30% is more like it, and maybe even higher in such a large field (you have to take more chances to build up your stack).

What's your percentage normally (in a tournament) and what do you think is optimum for one of these large MTT fields?

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P.S. There are two more "can't-miss" tournaments tonight. There's the Very Josie Tournament (Click here) at 9 p.m. Eastern time and there's The Dank (See here) at 10 p.m. Eastern. (Yes, it's called The Dank now -- see Waffles.) I'm a goofball degenerate blogger thinking I might do both.

4 comments:

  1. That's a really good question. I know I don't play enough hands at times and then sometimes too aggressively the ones I do play. Would be an interesting thing to know. If you go to options and instant hand history (on pokerstars) it will store you hands in your hard drive. I do that on fulltilt too. Great job in getting through 15000 or so

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  2. Since when has Waffles gone from being the ranting maniac of the blogosphere to leader of the pack? Do you actually have the hots for him or is it you think making nice there gets you a shot at Josie? Damn the blogging world is really going to hell in a handbasket when Waffles cites Hoy and everyone else follows Waffles' lead.

    See you at the Mookie and/or that other one at 9

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  3. In your PS Lobby, go to Requests -> Hand History and fill out whatever you need.

    Also, you probably have all the hands in a folder on your pc. If you check Options -> Instant Hand History Options, you can see where.

    But I guess you already know this :)

    I think it's hard to say something clever about your play, by looking at the numbers only. But you're right that in general, 15% is somewhat nittish.

    /j.

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  4. Mojo - I think that' a great showing even if you didn't cash. I'll most likely see you tonight at both games unless I'm on serious tilt at 10pm.

    Thanks for mentioning the very josie. Starting to think it'll be a two table.

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