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14 February 2007 - by BrainMaker
  
Some profiling thoughts regarding the use of flop%.

Different online poker sites, different poker players, different poker profiles?
  
There has been some discussion going on regarding the making of profiles for specific sites.
I do not see the point of making site specific profiles, yet. I still have the viewpoint that the RNG (Random Number Generator) are true RNG’s and there is no specific skewed routine in it towards the backdoor flush chasers or something like that. But I do believe that it might well be possible that specific play exist on specific sites. Bu this is translated in the flop% number!
I can understand that for instance on wpex, where you get the rake back, the smarter and educated player will go too because their emphasis is on the rake back. They understand that the rake contribution is significantly reducing your hourly rate. So most likely you will find there the tighter, pre flop raise or fold player. At party poker where there is a lot of action and a lot of rake. The marketing department is able to make large campaigns and free bonuses and I do not know what else to draw the fish to the tank to produce the rake promotions. At party poker the players obviously do not care so much about this hefty rake, meaning they are more gambler minded and less educated towards playing correctly poker. In the meantime the better players are thinking along the line of… Ok, the rake is high at Party but the fish is even juicier so I play there no matter the rake. I rather play with rake and fish then no rake and rocks on wpex. An expert player is able to play on both with good results by adjusting accordingly. This translates that on party poker more multi way pots exist. The fish limps in the pot and now even the good player will limp in the pot in late positions with 56 suited because of the odds he is getting on his hand.

But it is still possible to have tight games on party and fish games on wpex. So to make site specific profiles is not the answer to our problem. The answer to the problem could be headed in making better use of the flop% number available in OPI or the table definition in Poker Pro for the creation of more specific table characteristics targeted profiles. The flop% is the most useful statistic for analyzing what type of table you are at. If this percentage is high, the table is loose. Is this percentage low the table is tight. The profile to have on a loose table is completely different then a profile for a tight table.

To make the flop% number more clear to you and what to do with it for profiling I want to give you two hypothetical extreme examples.

In a ten handed game if all ten are seeing the flop the flop% is….exactamento…100%. What you want your profile to do when the flop% is 100%. Trying to steal the blind by raising on the button with Q7? I do not think so. Playing with A6 off suit? No way either! Too many hands against you to have you buried on the river. T9 or JT suited then? Yes! Give them too me and I play. I even throw in a raise with them pre-flop, sometimes, to get the fish to crispy cooking temperatures. Bluffing them out? Are you kidding I am no kamikaze pilot! You get the picture. Now the other extreme is, that everyone is folding and the small blind folds too and the big blind wins the small blind and the next hand is dealt. The flop% will be…you guessed that one right…0%.

Having your profile trying to steal the blinds by raising with Q7. Yep, and let your profile doing this every time and all the time. Fine with me. Having the profile raising with A9 in middle position. Sure give him this pleasure. How about having the profile limping in with T9. Or calling pre flop with KJ. No point in doing that. The chance that everyone is folding is so big in this extreme example that you should almost raise every hand when the profile could be the opener on the pre flop round. Someone else is raising pre flop and you have JT. Easy fold for your profile. What you want to do with JT. No one is ever playing a hand on this table and then there is this utg raiser. Don’t make your profile thinking that JT is worth playing when there has beena raise. But if you’re the first to open a raise with it and pick up the blinds, go ahead. Steal as much as possible and never ever limp or call with hands.

As you could see in the above mentioned extreme situations your profile needs to be designed completely different for taking maximum profits out of the poker game.

The flop% number could well be the guideline how to build your profile and which profile to load prior to sitting down and playing poker to the max!

BrainMaker
www.pokerbrains.net

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