I played a lot of hands today to test it out, and I'll write a more complete review soon. The most obvious improvements are an integrated heads-up display (formerly PokerAce HUD), faster hand history uploading and a wide variety of statistics.
Two of the most important stats are 3-bet percentage and fold to 3-bet percentage, which were not available in the previous version of PT. The availability of this information may gradually change the online poker landscape.
Here's why:
If an opponent raises to $35 from the button in a 5/10 NL game, you can now tell how often a resteal from the blinds needs to be successful to show a profit. A reraise to $120 from the BB shows an immediate profit if your opponent folds to your 3-bet more than 70 percent of the time (.70*$50>.3*$110).
Now we can make these resteal raises liberally with a wide range of cards if an opponent's stats show that he folds to 3-bets too often. Against one player tonight, I even made this kind of move with 73s because I was so sure he would fold:
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners
Seat 1: smizmiatch ($1,000) -
Seat 2: migs2 ($1,142) -
Seat 3: utreg ($1,127)
Seat 4: PekingTokyo ($1,015)
Seat 5: HMM_SURE ($340)
Seat 6: XJUSTRUNX ($1,189) -
PRE-FLOP:
smizmiatch posts small blind $5
migs2 posts BIG blind $10
Dealt To: smizmiatch
FOLD utreg
FOLD PekingTokyo
FOLD HMM_SURE
RAISE XJUSTRUNX ($35)
RAISE smizmiatch ($120)
FOLD migs2
FOLD XJUSTRUNX
UNCALLED smizmiatch ($85)
MUCK smizmiatch
smizmiatch collected $80 from main pot
SUMMARY:
Total pot: $80 Rake: $0
I know these 3-betting statistics have been available for a while via Holdem Manager, but I have no experience with that software. I'll have to give it a try soon.
An observant opponent will catch on to what you're doing and eventually play back at you, so you have to be on top of the action and not get too far out of line. But some players, especially major multitablers, are on autopilot. They might fold 20 times before they realize they're being robbed blind.
By stealing more often and getting more aggressive, the new PT enabled me to move closer to the ever-elusive loose-aggressive style. I ran 20/17 in one session and 25/23 in another, compared to my 2008 average at 6-max games of 16/13.
Because more people will start to take advantage of these tactics, the games will continue to get tougher. Strong players will have to be ready to adjust. The defense against a player who 3-bets frequently is to call and 4-bet more often.
Here's a screenshot of my new PT layout on Full Tilt:
I list my stats on three lines:
VP$IP/PFR/WSD
AF/3bet %/Attempt to steal %
Fold to continuation bet %/Fold to 3bet %/Fold BB to steal %
2 comments:
Sounds good. I'm looking forward to reading a detailed comparison of PT3 vs. HEM (maybe I'll search for one on2+2). I'm guessing that you are going to be able to get the same information out of each one. As one of them adds more features, the other will probably add the same features. It will probably just be a matter of Coke vs. Pepsi at some point.
You don't include your session stats on the HUD? or did you just remove them for the screen shot? I think that it is important to have those on the table to see how you are playing at each table during a session. If I'm playing really tight at one table, I know I can start stealing more and 3-betting more, etc.
I do know that HEM has an unlimited trial going on right now through next Monday I believe.
It is hard to find a good comparison between the two as I am also trying to decide which one to go to.
Right now, I'm leaning towards HEM. I downloaded last night; but didn't work with it yet.
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