Analyzing Poker Hands

Nearly of all us would like perfecting our poker skills, as better skills usually means more money. But how can we achieve that? Basically, players have to evaluate their hands and see where they might fail. In live poker it might be hard to do, because you have to depend only on your memory and numerous hands might pass before you have enough time to sit down and evaluate them. On the other hand, online, there are software programs available for you that track down all your hands for you providing you with valuable and full statistics about them.

What are poker statistics?

Poker statistics are just a way of tracking your poker hands, and “calculate” the way you are inclined to behave at the table. Poker tracking software tools are valuable for saving and collecting this information about your poker opponents, and can provide you with the information you can use against them at some point. In the same time, it is valuable for collecting information about you. The greater the knowledge about your inclinations in your game play, the simpler for you to recognize those predispositions that might damage you instead of helping you. It is all about lining up your game to your projected poker strategy.

How poker statistics help you

You might find yourself in a position of losing in the last ten sessions and you fail to understand the reasons of it. You might say, “I am a tight-aggressive player, I should be normally frequently winning.”

Nevertheless, when you analyze your statistics over those sessions you might notice that your VP$IP – voluntarily puts money in pot – is 65%, but your pre-flop and post flop aggression numbers (percentage of raises-opens to calls) are under 1%. Although in the game you might consider you are folding everything and you are often attacking your opponents, but the cold analyze of the hands you have played, tells you exactly the opposite of that.

Why you have to analyze your poker hands

Sadly, people are seldom truthful about themselves. It is just human to credit good things to one’s skill and bad things to accidental bad luck. This reality can be deadly at the poker table, being the most important reason why experienced poker players are capable of always finding poker newbies to take money from. This tendency might alter your impression of your poker playing style as well, and this is where the statistical analysis steps in to help you. Analyzing the hands you have played, you will find out new things about yourself and your game itself. That is starting point of your voyage.