|
Everyone knows about them. The infamous, notorious even, red and blue line of pokertracker and hold'em manager. Funny thing is that they're red and blue in both poker tracking programs. They didn't have to be, I guess, they could have been green and violet, or yellow and pink, but that's besides the point. I've been thinking about them a lot recently, and you'll hear it often enough in forum posts (2+2, flopturnriver, etc). Mostly what you'll hear is the same thing over and over again, "help my red line is dropping and all my profit from the blue line is disappearing!" or "why is my red line not going up?". For the most part, people have problems with the red line, since the blue line is pretty easy to fix once you read a few poker books and start listening to pretty obvious advice like, "Don't go all in with second pair when your opponent is a calling station and has been showing strength".
So what exactly are the blue and red line?
Well, the blue line is the amount you win through hands that are shown down. This means that you've played a hand preflop, on the flop, on the turn, and on the river against a guy who has sticking along the entire way. If it's just the two of you, then whoever wins will get a little bump on their blue line, while the other guy gets a depressing little dip (or a big one, depending on the action in the hand).
The red line is amount you win through non-showdown hands. Basically, this means that you out of the hands that you play, either you or all your opponents, folded sometime during the course of play during that hand. You could have folded preflop to a 3-bet, on the flop to a c-bet, on the turn to a big bet, or on the river to a value bet (this list is not complete by any means, by the way. I just want to express the gist of the idea).
So what does this mean?
Well if your red line is dropping or staying stationary, then that means you're folding too much. You're susceptible to laying down hands (likely medium or weak strength) to pressure from what you think to be a stronger hand but is likely a more medium-ish or weakish hand.
Conversely, if your blue line is dropping or staying stationary, that means you're taking too many medium to weak hands too far. You should fold more, since your opponent will have better hands than you every once in a while =)
Deeper Thoughts (by Jack Handy) about the Blue and Red line:
After reflecting on this some, I realized something pretty obvious: the elements from the blue line and red line are mutually influencing! Say, for example, that you had not choose to call down a hand against a pretty aggro opponent (say top pairish with a weak kicker) and elected instead to fold to his raise on the flop. If you had lost this hand originally (say you were out-kicked or something), then you'd get a little dip in your blue line. If you have folded on the flop, then you'd get a small dip on the red line instead of the bigger dip (because of calling turn and river bets) on the blue line.
I think most people understand this point implicitly, which is how they get to improving their status of their blue line. Fold out medium and weak hands to pressure and bank when you have a good one. This is a recipe for a successful blue line. However, most have problems with their red line. So how do you get your red line to go up?
If you think about it, the answer is obvious. Make a lot of small bluffs. Steal a lot of small pots. It'll take time, experience to get good at this, but by practicing now you'll learn from you mistakes earlier (hopefully) and bank more later. You'll come to understand (again, hopefully) the importance of flop texture in making these little steals, the turn card for bigger steals, and the river card for big steals (though I don't recommend this one unless you're certain of a fold, since this bet tends to be the most costly and, if called, can cause a big dip in your blue line.
Personally, my red line is the most consistent element of my poker playing. It's always upward moving, though my blue line is far more inconsistent since I'm continually experimenting with different spots and being called down is damaging to my blue line's upwardness. I do feel that the consistency of my upward red line is shows a lot of promise for me and my poker playing, since even when my blue line dips (and it does a bit, when I push hands too far), the upwardness of my red line is enough to keep me with a stable winrate. =)
Also, it's pretty easy to check the status of your red line when you're just sitting there at a table and playing. Say, for instance, that you've sat down at a table online and you've been folding a decent amount for about 40 hands. You've dropped a couple blinds so your stack has dipped and so you click 'reload'. BOOM. right there. That means your red line is dropping. You haven't played a hand for a while and you reload. What may be better is, after getting situated at a table (perhaps 40 hands wasn't enough, since you've barely begun getting a feel for your opponent's styles), is to start exploiting their play in smallish pots, i.e. start stealing pots that people may not be too interested in.
I speculate but I think this is the source of wild and crazy sorts of hands that go on in higher limits. Since the red line is going to be an important, if not sole, source of successful winrates at high limits. Since players at this level understand the importance of making sure that that red line goes up steadily, they push mediumish hands further than what normal players would be comfortable doing and, in turn, these players must adapt to their opponents trying to do the same thing to them. The result? 5-betting preflop with raggedy 10-7 offsuit and getting called by K-4 or something weird like that.
|
