My 2011 Poker Leaks at Hold Em Manager

Hold Em Manager 2 and Leak Buster found my poker leaks that cost me $18,000 in 2011! I have used Poker Tracker as a poker leak finder in the past, but poker software has greatly improved since then and nowadays I use Hold Em Manager to find any kind of poker leak that costs money in the long run! It seems I have been playing super aggressive poker in the mid-stakes no limit cash games since I moved down from high stakes tables. My biggest poker leaks are found at 3bet/4bet situations and I definitely have a serious poker leak at turn aggression. Here is the list of my worst poker leaks found with Poker Leak Buster, a poker Hold Em Manager application.

First some general poker leaks before I discuss the leaks by position. It seems that 2011 has been the year I got my W$SD% down to 45%. The won-dollar-at-showdown percentage needs to be at least 50% if I want to be a profitable Texas Holdem poker player. That can be corrected by folding marginal hands earlier and calling down better hands at showdown. My increased squeeze percentage is also a major poker leak and I seem to attack my opponents a lot, especially out of position. The squeeze% is 10 while it should be 7.5 or lower. That also led to increased 3bet% which needs to be reduced a little. A couple of more poker leaks are 4betting a lot and not folding easily against continuation bets when seeing the flop.

As far as poker leaks by position are concerned, I really need to call from the blinds more marginal hands at river, where my call efficiency percentage is through the roof. That means I only call at river with the top of my value range hands and give up spots when I’m probably still ahead! I need to reduce aggression and squeezing from those positions and really give up trying to resteal with offsuit and suited connectors! 4betting more from the big blind came as a surprise as a recommendation from the Holdem Manager poker software!

Regarding early and middle positions, tightening up the opening range, reducing turn aggression and calling more often at river will help to correct my biggest leaks at poker from those positions. However the cutoff position is the position which I seem to have my biggest poker leaks. I seriously have to reduce my squeezing, 3betting and 4betting percentages, and the turn aggression. Opening with connectors from the cutoff position is actually showing a loss for my poker game and I still must call more marginal hands at river! Extra care should be taken when squeezing with AT-AK and occasionally calling instead of raising must be included in my arsenal!

Another leak in my poker game is open-raising more than 55% of the hands from the button! Having a tight image from early position and a loose one from the button is the perfect poker strategy at cash games, but I kind of overdo it! The usual poker leaks exist here as well, such as squeezing and 3/4betting don’t seem to do much good to my winrate!

Moving on to my leaks at poker hands specifically, problems exist when cold calling out of position with QTo-ATo and QTs-KJs, I guess defending from the blinds. Leading some pots and check raising missed pots by late position raisers should improve my winrate, but reducing cold calling has to be my starting point! Offsuit and suited connectors alike are losing hands for me in total, as I tend to overbet with them. I should be looking going to battle (calling) with them against weaker opponents and (3bet and semi) bluff stronger ones.

The last important poker leaks that need immediate remedy are 3betting, 4betting and calling 3bets. Reducing all of them should stop losing me money and I also need to 3bet more with K2-K9s, Q2-Q9s and J2-J8s instead of their offsuit counterparts and connectors. I guess the connector hands give me the most trouble. 3betting bluffs with suited Ax poker hands also have to be abandoned. Poker leaks at calling 3bets include losing money when calling with pocket pairs 22-77 and with small Ax’s. I should be looking to 4bet more with A2-AJ hands instead of calling, and 4betting with connectors!

The poker leaks Hold Em Manager and its application, Poker Leak Buster, found in my 2011 database of 250,000 poker hands are really important. I have not much experience using those pieces of poker software, having been a loyal customer of Poker Tracker for 5 years! Yet, I believe there is great potential in Hold Em Manager now that HEM 2 edition is out. Many users have complained that they rushed out and the software has a lot of bugs, and while that is mostly true, I kind of like the applications that accompany the Hold Em Manager, such as Leak Buster. I have purchased the combo versions of both, including support for Omaha games apart from Holdem poker, although I have not played a single hand at Omaha poker! If you were looking for a poker leak finder, you can’t go wrong trying out the trial of Leak Buster!