A 10 dollar hand

The true value of the hands you play

I have a software called pokertracker that keeps track of every online hand of poker that I play. All the information is organized in a database where I can search for any imaginable information about how I play and what results I get.
One of the things I look for is how much money I make on average each time I play a certain hand. Ace King offsuit for example nets me about $10 each time I play it at $400 NL. The blinds are $4 and $2, so if there is a limper and I raise it up to say $18 with AKo and everyone including the limper folds, that is an average win with AKo.
I see people being upset about players folding when they raise with Ace King or some other big hand, they don’t realize that often what they pick up in blinds and dead money from the limpers is a good win for that hand. Inexperienced player often have a hard time letting a good starting hand go, even if it completely misses the flop. I think they have an unreasonable expectation to how much any given hand earns them.

Since I started to think about hands in this way, knowing their true value. Some hands have gotten easier to let go. After all it’s only a $6 hand I tell myself. And as a result of this my hands start going up in value, because I am not throwing money away looking players up with Ace High just because the hand I have happends to be a good hand pre-flop.

Links of interest:

Poker Tracker