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anauna's picture
what do you guys think about blocked players at sharkscope?

are they usually losing player?

I tried to sharkscope players but many of them are blocked

so I dont even get any clue about what kind of player he is such as break even losing or winning

do you think that most blocked player who play $110 higher are losing player? or they just do not want to show their stats?

In the past I could see their ROI even though they blocked themselves but not anymore..

are there any good accurate SNG tracking site as sharkscope?

thanks!

TrippyTrippy's picture
Try topshark:

Try topshark: http://www.pokerprolabs.com/topshark/
Its free, I dont really know how accurate it is but works fine for me. The only downside is that 4mans arent recorded in the HU section but seperatly in the SnG 2-4 players section (there it doenst show the HUs).

WBR's picture
OPR also

OPR (www.officialpokerrankings.com) tracks HU sng's, but only from Full Tilt.

jackoneill's picture
What's the point in having

What's the point in having stats visible to everyone ?
Do you really need the entire planet to see it when you just lost 5 buy-ins in a row against a guy who as an IQ that's lower than the one of an animal - all that happens it that some regular comes to your table and starts 3betting you half the time and donk pot the other half just because he thinks you're on tilt.  Sucks even more if the guy is otherwise weak-tight and easy to play against.
And when you run hot, all these shitty regulars who think they're jesus suddenly start avoiding you and you don't get any action anymore.
It's even a bit more extreme in the Cereus network because of Shakscope's 60% coverage - your stats have some variance, so you need a larger samplesize than in other networks.
I'm not such a huge fan of stats anyways in a network which is full of fish and only covers 60% of the results - if there are too many fish and only a few good players, then you can get away with so many huge mistakes during a match.  I've seen people have some decent 8% ROI in the $100's on Cereus who most likely wouldn't be able to beat the $30's on Full Tilt or Stars or some other network where the bad players are a little bit less passive or don't play top pair any kicker like the absolute nuts.
And sometimes I even prefer playing against a 9% ROI regular if the guy is extremely weak-tight and easy to play against, so I can simply slowball-grind him down - rather than having a -5% ROI guy who donks pot at me every 2nd flop and turn, letting me guess what he has.


AQs's picture
Many players (like me) don't

Many players (like me) don't like show the profit. It's like if a strager ask you how much do you have in your bank account...
I blocked the username cause I don t wanna see my results to my friends 

 

FreakOfNature's picture
I have mine blocked, but I'm

I have mine blocked, but I'm experimenting with it to see the types of players I attract.
I have my stars and PKR (main site) blocked but I'm leaving my full tilt one unlocked.
I had my stats blocked a long time ago, basically beacause I didn't think I had an edge over alot of players and I know that people would sharkscope you to get information when they played you. As I didn't really know or understand how I could use that information to my advantage all the time, I didnt want to give others that advantage - anal I know, but blah :p
But I try and see how having them blocked effects my "game selecting" opponents. If I feel it better to stay blocked, I will, if not, I am fine unblocking also.

Skates's picture
 I think having your stats

 I think having your stats blocked is almost always the best thing you can do.

jackoneill's picture
Well, I basically have the

Well, I basically have the same problem - I don't want other regulars to see that I'm currently running extremely bad and then just try their chances.  Even if they're bad and I have some edge over them, it's still a lot easier to play against complete fish and my edge is also alot higher against random fish.
And I also don't want my friends or family to have a look at my stats, if they by accident see my play - especially at recent results.  For instance I just had this horrible session, just dropped a bit over 10 buy-ins - my non-poker playing friends wouldn't understand that swings can be that hard and that you can lose more than $1000 in one single night.
IMO, recent results do matter a lot - running bad over the last couple of games can really encourage mediocre regulars to play you, even if they'd usually avoid you.  Running into bad regulars over and over again is really annoying if they're running hot - even if they have huge leaks in their game, you still need to get the cards to be able to exploit them, if they keep hitting two pairs on you or have a flush each time you have the nutstraight, then they can play as badly as they want and there's little you can do.
Looking at other people's stats just makes me sad each time I see how bad some player is and how good he's running, even over a large samplesize.
I'm not sure whether having my stats visible would have changed anything during my last session - basically this guy had a 8% ROI over 1000 matches with > $5000 total profit at avg. stake $100.  I played him before and knew he was very weak-tight, in the past I've already seen him put about > 2/3 of his stack in on a ragged low-card board and then fold&show AA to my shove.  So my feeling was I can move this guy off a lot of his hands post-flop - as long as he gives me credit and thinks I'm reasonable.
Things changed when he made a hero call with trip decues on a 4-flushed board - from that point on, he kept calling me down extremely light if he had any piece of the board and I lost another buy-in before I realized that.  I adjusted in the next match and started to bet really huge for value, made it to an about 3:1 chip-lead but then his luck changed - he started hitting the boards really hard, called me with complete garbage and then hit his two pair or made a flush when I had a nutstraight etc.
Well, I was running generally bad this entire weekend.  If I had my stats shown so he could see that - I wouldn't have felt that comfortable bluffing him today in the first match.  I was pretty sure he remembered me because he asked about my avatar the first time we played, and I remembered the read that he's weak-tight and calling 3bets way too light with dominated hands.
And now - well without my stats being visible he may think I'm a huge donkey after today's session - so if I ever play him again in the future it's basically like nothing happened in between and he may still think it's a good idea to call a 3bet with A3s against me (any maybe not hit a full house with it) or still think 99 is good enough against me to stack off at a KQT board with a flush-draw (and maybe next time my set of kings will hold).
If I play 200 or 500 more matches before seeing him again and run good in them, then I'd never know what he's thinking of me - does he still see the donkey in me (because apparently he doesn't realize that he's just been running extremely hot) or did he see my recent results and switch his strategy back to week-tight because of it.
That's a huge argument for me not to make my stats available - his are, so at the moment I have more information about him than he has about me.
Oh, one last word about stats - I did a quick shot at the $200's this afternoon.  First guy I played had pretty shitty stats but only less than 50 games, so I thought it was easy money.  After we played a while, he told me I should google his nickname - turned out he was some huge $200k+ MTT winner and just created an account at Absolute to learn heads-up - autsch :-(
Jack


RyPac13's picture
People that worry about how

People that worry about how people perceive their stats aren't focused on the right things.
I keep my stats unblocked, always will.  The minute I care about how good or bad my sharkscope looks is the minute I need to stop playing and rethink why I even play poker.
I still don't understand all the fuss about personal stats, yet I still see solid 6 figure winners complaining to me about their stats "man, I lost 3 4 man flips, now my stats are 2k off" or "Yea, that guy is probably 5-10k over equity bc of 4 man flips."  Whatever.
I'll get off my high horse in a second, maybe people just get bored of making 10k a month or something and need other things to entertain them than berating players, but I've never understood it.
At the low stakes it means like nothing, you can get fishy action at any level, even into the low high stakes games.
At the high stakes it doesn't matter if you block your stats, since you're a husng grinder and every good player knows your name, every losing or bad player that doesn't know your name is unlikely to know about Sharkscope.  And even if they did in the high stakes, they either see "8% ROI blocked" or "8% ROI unblocked with 50k, 100k, 150k" in profit.  A fish shouldn't play either of those players.
People put way too much into blocked vs unblocked.

jackoneill's picture
Hmm, good point - but people

Hmm, good point - but people like you also have a lot more experience at these things than begginers like us do.  For you it doesn't matter that much because people know your name anyways, and you also have the skills to plays against anyone.
I think it's a bit different for us beginners who don't play heads-up that long, just moved up to the $100's and try not to get eaten by bigger shark in the process ;-)
For a beginner who's new at a new limit it's more like ugh what does that guy know about me, isn't he trying to exploit me based on some info he might have about me, etc. ... - I'm always worried when a player who's better than be sits me, that he might have some tiny little information about me that he may use against me, and that I may not know how to react to that.
But you're right, we shouldn't worry about stats that much and concentrate more on the game instead.
Jack


RyPac13's picture
If you're winning in the

If you're winning in the 100s, you probably won't be playing very many players that are better than you.
I think a lot of what you said in your post sounds like a lack of confidence.  That may be temporarily solved by blocking your sharkscope, just for peace of mind, but in the long run you should be confident and not worry at all about your stats.
And I'm not some golden sharkscope guy either, if you pull up my graph I look like I had some degenerate ways.  In reality 4 man games made my swings go up and down more drastically than was real, also sold action on higher games plenty of times, so it doesn't paint a realistic picture.
I could do one of two things:
1) Block my stats or worry that I look like a weaker player and that good people might sit me
or
2) Just focus on playing my best, then when I do run into really good players from time to time, I can work on finding ways to exploit them to negate their superior skills, or if they are even skilled with me I can work to find ways to get a small edge.
There's something to be had in every situation.  When I came into the $110s, I was a lot less experienced, and I was one of those guys that would bitch if a good player sat and say "why don't we chop" or "mind not sitting me anymore?  no reason to sit each other."
Nowadays, I believe I've learned some of these lessons.  I don't ask for chops from people, I sit first and usually bad players sit.  Sometimes good people sit, but that's factored into my estimated ROI.  It also helps me as a player, I learn adjustments I can make against better, thinking players.  This took some time for me.  While I did not spew, I certainly played a little looser and carelessly against too many regulars in the past, nowadays I'm much more comfortable against a wider array of regulars, particularly the very aggressive players and the very tag winners.  I find the more balanced players take me out of my comfort zone the most, though not in a very negative way, I just get bored with preflop wars, if a guy isn't folding a ton but isn't being overly aggressive, the game is often fairly boring and uneventful.
Anyway, I think focusing on your own game, rather than the bottom line or worries about better players is a much better way to play.  I know it's not easy, definitely easier said then done, but learn from my experiences and you should get to where I am a lot quicker than I did, which isn't necessarily "balling," but I'm very comfortable with my life and the poker aspect of it.

jackoneill's picture
Hey, thanks a lot for these

Hey, thanks a lot for these kind words !
I'll try to follow your advice in future and concentrate more on my game instead of being so results-oriented - hopefully this'll also help me find some more confidence in my game.
Jack


Trankuility's picture
Already received some

Already received some replies. I'll just add mine. I think that blocking your stats is best. Not because it prevents other people from seeing if you run bad/good, trying you out, etc., but for the simple fact that it gives them less information. It's not much but it's one less piece for them to obtain. IMO, you can make a few good assumptions based on how much profit a person has made, how big their swings are, how many games they've played, if they are a HU regular or coming from 6man SnG's, MTTs, etc.. Without that information you're a complete mystery until they play you. The only thing they know is that you know about Sharkscope which doesn't say too much and implies far less than a viewable graph.
 
If a good reg sits you, even if you lose play your best and make him work his ass off to win. Put him in as many hard spots as possible. He will be unlikely to sit you again after that. So though you may lose that game, in the end you win by earning some respect and have one less reg to contend with.

jackoneill's picture
Another thing to consider is

Another thing to consider is if you ever play at a public place, like an airport lounge or a bar, where some of your non-poker playing friends, colleagues from work or your family may see you, then it may be a good idea to keep your stats hidden.
If you have them visible, they may eventually also show up on google, so they may find them even if they don't know anything about sharkscope or OPR.
For instance, I sometimes play at my parent's house while sitting in the garden and I don't want my dad to see my results if he comes home earlier, by accident sees me playing and remembers my screenname.


RyPac13's picture
The limiting information

The limiting information part is fine, but I'd also include:
- Never showing a hand
- Almost never talking to your opponent
- Not making your username known in a public or private setting with many users (2p2, even these forums, etc.)
Also, on the flip side, having good stats may intimidate bad players even more.  If you guys are talking about having a lack of confidence as winning players at the 100 level, imagine how intimidated bad players are when they sit with you?  Now imagine how much more intimidated they are when they see good profit, graph and avg buyin rather than just a blocked ROI.  I think that point is worth some consideration.

Trankuility's picture
I prefer to keep mine

I prefer to keep mine blocked, although they are unblocked at the moment, hah. However, as it pertains to confidence issues, I think all new players or players who lack the confidence in their skills should play with unblocked stats. Using blocked stats as part of an overall strategy is one thing, doing so as a mental crutch is another.