Plugging Leaks with HEM

I would tell any poker player, that if you don't have Holdem Manager you are missing a lot. The other day my padawan was feeling a little insecure about his game, and I told him to do the Plugging Leaks article on Holdem Manager. Everyone should do it, and is super easy and can be done pretty quickly. He is now more confident in his game and what he should be doing on the tables, so I expect him to do good for the rest of this month.

So what is this article? Simple, they took a sample of over 1790 player with at least 5k hands in the database and run a report in Holdem Manager to determine what where the stats of the biggest winners by BB/100. That way its easier to see what areas of your game needs improvement, and they even suggest ways of how to improve. First, you need to input your stats in the provided table (By selecting the plugging leaks 01 in the Reports Tab then write them), and every 50k hands or so go and check them again to see what changes or improvements you have accomplished (You can do it for less hands of course, but variance may fuck the results).

The Report is only for 6max, and here are some of the results.

VPIP = 21.9-25.3
PFR = 16.1-17.7
Agg = 3.22-3.84
Agg% = 33.7-36.6
WTSD = 24.9-26.4
W$SD = 52+
WWSF = 43.2 - 45.5
3Bet% = 5.2 - 6.2
4Bet Range = 2.13+
Call 3Bet = <23.7
Fold to Flop Raise = 46.5-52.22
CB% = 69.7 - 75.1
Turn CB = 40.8 - 45.3
Fold to flop CB = 56.8 - 61.7
Fold to turn CB = 34.4 - 40

So What does this mean? Well when I put on my stats it told me basically that I am a GOD!! yeah thats right, basically those are my stats or very very close to them. Anyway the cool part is that you can also do it with your own database, so I decided to start a little experiment to see what are the stats for the biggest winners at Heads Up.

I started datamaining a lot of the Highstakes (50/100nl) to small stakes (1/2nl) and then compared them with my stats. I used players with over 3k hands, so the results won't be perfect, but at least can give me a general idea of what can I do to improve.

Right of the bat I noticed some specific areas that I need to improve on. For example the calling 3bets preflop, I'm used to 6 max where I fold to 3bets a lot and in HU I was folding 65% and it seems I should be folding a lot less (Closer to 44%). It looks like people 3 bets too much and I should be exploiting it more with 4bets or calling in pos. Another big area that I need to improve is the double barrel spots, even thou I value bet super thin I may give up too early against some specific opponents.

This month I've been trying to improve some of those numbers, and I have in some ways and getting good results in my sessions. I am up $3,860 in 1/2nl HU, but down like $2,300 in 2/4nl HU (Thanks to last saturday, Douh!) Still up for the month so thats good.

So even thou I'm pretty sure I can beat the 2/4nl HU players I will continue playing HU in 1/2nl and will start again some 6max at 2/4nl.
Cya at the tables!