Which poker stats are most important?
Knowing the blind level at your poker table is very important. However, in many live and online poker rooms the blinds are equated to the stakes, so it's important to know both terminologies.Note that the name of stake is representative of the $ amount for 100bb's for that stake level. A lifelong poker player who moved online in 2004, Josh founded Beat The Fish in 2005 to help online poker players make more-informed decisions on where to play and how to win once they got there. He hopes to counter the rampant dishonesty in online gaming media with objective reviews and relevant features.
- No Limit, Pot Limit and Poker Tournaments using your preferred base poker game should also be offered by the site at which you are thinking of playing. Banking Options – It can drive even the most placid of poker players completely mad in regards to being able to deposit and cash out from online poker sites swiftly and in a hassle free fashion.
- In order to see a nuanced picture, you need different indicator – and which one you'll use depends on your poker HUD program of choice. Aggression percentage /Agg Pct/ is used in Holdem Manager and represents the frequency a player takes an aggressive action on a given street.
Our poker HUD software offers a large amount of statistics. Knowing which ones are relevant and important can be overwhelming. If you are new to poker software you can initially ignore all statistics except the essential three poker statistics. Once you have understood how to use the basic statistics, you can add more depending on your style of play, and your chosen table size.
The big three poker statistics (and one bonus stat):
- Voluntarily Put $ in Pot (VPIP)
- Preflop Raise (PFR)
- Postflop Aggression Frequency (Agg)
- A bonus stat: Big blinds won/100 hands.
These three statistics are a great starting point to get an idea of a person's playing style. They only require 25 hands or so to reliably give a good idea of a player's tendencies.
Voluntarily Put $ in Pot (VPIP)
VPIP in poker measures how often you voluntarily pay money into a hand before seeing the flop. Paying the big blind, the small blind, or the ante is not considered voluntary. Therefore this percentage indicates how often you called, bet, or raised. The lower this value, the tighter your hand selection is. The higher, the looser. Only preflop betting is taken into account.
Good players know to only invest money in the pot when they have decent starting hands. A simple way to measure whether you are doing this is to keep your VPIP at a sensible value.
What is a good number for VPIP?
Simple answer: between 15% and 20%. This assumes you want to play tightly, you are playing micro-stakes, and you are playing on full ring cash tables.
Now the more complicated answer: it depends a lot. If you are still learning to play good poker, then you should be very selective in which hands you play, so your VPIP might acceptably be a tad lower than 15%. The less people on the table, the more hands you can play. If you are on a table full of ultralight players, you can also loosen up. An experienced player who understands the subtleties of the game can get away with a VPIP between 20% and 27%. In 6-max or heads-up, most players have a much higher VPIP. In Pot Limit Omaha, VPIP values will be even higher.
Preflop Raise (PFR)
The PFR statistic indicates how often you have raised before the flop is seen. A high value is an indicator of an aggressive player. A low value indicates a passive player. Good players are aggressive players.
Your PFR has a possible range between a minumum of 0% and a maximum equal to the value of your VPIP. That is, if your VPIP is 20%, then your PFR can't be higher than 20%. Ideally it should be a little lower than your VPIP, but not much lower.
Poor players and beginners play timidly. They call too often preflop. Good players frequently fold or raise preflop, especially if no other players have yet raised. If you are not prepared to raise, then you should consider folding. Calling preflop just in case the flop is good for you is not a winning poker strategy.
What is a good PFR range?
Between 2% and 3% lower than VPIP. If your VPIP is 15%, PFR should be about 12%. These two numbers in combination indicate that you are only playing quality hole cards, and you are predominantly raising with them pre-flop. In other words, you are playing how most poker books and poker forums say you should play.
Postflop Aggression Frequency (Agg)
Agg indicates how aggressively you play postflop. The higher this number, the more aggressively you are playing. This must be interpreted in combination with VPIP. Players who see very few flops will naturally tend to have a higher aggression percentage because they are only playing top-quality hole cards.
Poor players play passively postflop. They'll check or call too often. Good players know to play good hands aggressively postflop:
- because players with speculative hands are forced to fold before they get free cards
- because if they hit the flop or have a dominating hand, a bet or raise will increase their return
What is a good Agg range?
50% to 60% is ideal, assuming that you have a VPIP of 15% to 20%. Much higher, and you are probably overplaying speculative hands and bad hands, and bluffing too much. Much lower and you are not playing your good hands strongly postflop.
Leave the bluffing for the movies and for live play. At low stakes online play, bluffing is much less important than a good understanding of the probabilities of winning hands.
Big blinds won/100 hands
The three stats I've presented so far mean nothing if you can't keep your win rate positive. A nice way to 'normalize' your win rate across different stake levels, table sizes, and opponents is to measure how much you won in terms of the big blind. If you are playing at a table where the big blind is $0.50, and you won $20, then think of this as winning 40 big blinds.
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If this number is not positive, then you are losing money. The best remedy is to drop to a lower stake level, where the opponents are weaker. If, according to this stat, you consistently win over time, then you should consider going up to a higher stake level.
Adjusting your play based on the villain's poker stats
This is where our poker HUD software gets really useful: analyzing and exploiting opponent weaknesses. Let's consider some hypothetical players:
Tight Tim has VPIP of 5%, PFR of 5%, and Agg of 100%
With such a low VPIP, we can guess that this player folds anything except the very best hands. And with a PFR equal to VPIP, when he gets premium hands, he raises. So if this player raises, and you are next to act, you know that you should fold every hand except the best few hands, such as AA, KK, QQ. You can be almost certain that if you go to the flop, he'll raise postflop. So play tighter than usual with this player. But when you do get a premium hand, and he comes along, you can be sure that player B will put plenty of chips into the pot. Your pot, hopefully.
Passive Pete has VPIP of 20%, PFR of 16%, and Agg of 10%.
This player seems take have a good handle on preflop play. But when he gets to the flop, he gets timid. He is probably going to give you a chance postflop to see the turn and river for free. If you go to the flop with him and raise, there is a good chance he'll fold. So you can play a bit more aggressively both preflop and postflop.
Online Poker Nederland Ideal Cash
Eso armor slots. Eddie the Eagle has VPIP of 22%, PFR of 19%, and Agg of 55%.
Eddie has a good all-round balance between preflop and postflop play. Preflop, he plays tight and aggressively. Postflop, he balances between pushing hard with his good hands, and being willing to fold or check with his weaker hands. Eddie would be well-served to move on to understanding more advanced poker statistics.
Tracking your poker stats
Poker players use poker software like Poker Copilot to automatically record their hands. Each hand is broken down into many statistics, which are then aggregated into simple percentages.
Poker Statistics Guide
What's next after you've understood the basic poker stats? Read our Poker Statistics Guide for a comprehensive explanation of understanding and using all the main poker statistics.
Aggression. It can be measured in several ways – aggression factor (AF), aggression percentage (Agg Pct) or aggression frequency (AFq).
Tradition requires that we mention the classic Aggression Factor /AF/ calculated as (Bet + Raise) / Call, checking or folding with no effect.
The drawback of this indicator is that due to its formula it can't differentiate between a hyper-aggressive player raising any two cards and a fit-or-fold player throwing away everything but the pure nuts. Basically, all a high AF tells you is that the player doesn't like to call.
I myself don't rely much on this indicator, but it's a part of the so called Holy Trinity of Poker HUD stats (VPIP, PFR, AF) so you have to know what it does.
In order to see a nuanced picture, you need different indicator – and which one you'll use depends on your poker HUD program of choice.
Aggression percentage /Agg Pct/ is used in Holdem Manager and represents the frequency a player takes an aggressive action on a given street. So if I bet the flop but check the turn and river I would have 33% Agg Pct because I made 1 out of 3 aggressive actions.
Aggression frequency/AFq/ is used in Poker Tracker and is calculated as (total bet + total raise) / (total bet + total raise + total call + total fold) * 100, the idea being to include all possible actions in the divisor of the equation.
There is a slight difference in the way Agg Pct and AFq are calculated, as Agg Pct sees checking as passive and AFq as neutral. Node js blackjack server commands. Some players say that counting checks as neutral is OK as the player could intend to check-raise, but I personally prefer the Holdem Manager Agg Pct statistic – it's more straight-forward. The probability of a Check-Raise can (and should) be analyzed using the separate Check-Raise statistic, but more on that later on.
Both Agg Pct and AFq start to become useful for the different streets after about 300 hands. Knowing these stats allows you to clearly identify overly passive and aggressive players. As far as ranges go, an Agg Pct less than 30% is extremely passive and more than 60% extremely aggressive. AFq range is similar – too passive when less than 35% and too aggressive over 65%. The slight difference occurs because checks are neutral in AFq and not counted as passive. These ranges depend heavily on the limit and the type of table – lower limits usually have more timid players compared to the higher limits and shorter tables see more aggression than full ring tables.
As always, remember to look at the stats for the individual streets – often players are very aggressive on the flop but proceed differently on the turn and the river.
Birmingham alabama poker. Examples using Agg Pct and AFq
/For sake of simplicity we'll assume all opponents have stacks of about 100BB/
FR (full ring) table, you are in middle position with a pair of 6s. A player in EP (early position) limps in, you limp in, and the BB (big blind) checks. Flop comes 259 rainbow (of different suits). The big blind bets half of the pot and the early position player folds. Now what? Well, let's look at his stats (we'll assume a decent hand sample is available).
a) VPIP=27 / PFR=15 / Agg Pct=55 (Agg Pct Flop=64).
The opponent is definitely a loose-aggressive player (LAG). He obviously plays a lot of trash hands, so his flop aggression percentage of 64 is borderline crazy. He didn't raise pre-flop, so a big overpair is unlikely; probably he caught something on the flop. Against a passive player we can consider folding here, but this particular opponent can bet just as easily second or third pair, or simply two overcards. You should at least call, but a better option may be to look at the villain's Fold to F Raise percentage and if it's high enough, raise him to force a fold.
- No Limit, Pot Limit and Poker Tournaments using your preferred base poker game should also be offered by the site at which you are thinking of playing. Banking Options – It can drive even the most placid of poker players completely mad in regards to being able to deposit and cash out from online poker sites swiftly and in a hassle free fashion.
- In order to see a nuanced picture, you need different indicator – and which one you'll use depends on your poker HUD program of choice. Aggression percentage /Agg Pct/ is used in Holdem Manager and represents the frequency a player takes an aggressive action on a given street.
Our poker HUD software offers a large amount of statistics. Knowing which ones are relevant and important can be overwhelming. If you are new to poker software you can initially ignore all statistics except the essential three poker statistics. Once you have understood how to use the basic statistics, you can add more depending on your style of play, and your chosen table size.
The big three poker statistics (and one bonus stat):
- Voluntarily Put $ in Pot (VPIP)
- Preflop Raise (PFR)
- Postflop Aggression Frequency (Agg)
- A bonus stat: Big blinds won/100 hands.
These three statistics are a great starting point to get an idea of a person's playing style. They only require 25 hands or so to reliably give a good idea of a player's tendencies.
Voluntarily Put $ in Pot (VPIP)
VPIP in poker measures how often you voluntarily pay money into a hand before seeing the flop. Paying the big blind, the small blind, or the ante is not considered voluntary. Therefore this percentage indicates how often you called, bet, or raised. The lower this value, the tighter your hand selection is. The higher, the looser. Only preflop betting is taken into account.
Good players know to only invest money in the pot when they have decent starting hands. A simple way to measure whether you are doing this is to keep your VPIP at a sensible value.
What is a good number for VPIP?
Simple answer: between 15% and 20%. This assumes you want to play tightly, you are playing micro-stakes, and you are playing on full ring cash tables.
Now the more complicated answer: it depends a lot. If you are still learning to play good poker, then you should be very selective in which hands you play, so your VPIP might acceptably be a tad lower than 15%. The less people on the table, the more hands you can play. If you are on a table full of ultralight players, you can also loosen up. An experienced player who understands the subtleties of the game can get away with a VPIP between 20% and 27%. In 6-max or heads-up, most players have a much higher VPIP. In Pot Limit Omaha, VPIP values will be even higher.
Preflop Raise (PFR)
The PFR statistic indicates how often you have raised before the flop is seen. A high value is an indicator of an aggressive player. A low value indicates a passive player. Good players are aggressive players.
Your PFR has a possible range between a minumum of 0% and a maximum equal to the value of your VPIP. That is, if your VPIP is 20%, then your PFR can't be higher than 20%. Ideally it should be a little lower than your VPIP, but not much lower.
Poor players and beginners play timidly. They call too often preflop. Good players frequently fold or raise preflop, especially if no other players have yet raised. If you are not prepared to raise, then you should consider folding. Calling preflop just in case the flop is good for you is not a winning poker strategy.
What is a good PFR range?
Between 2% and 3% lower than VPIP. If your VPIP is 15%, PFR should be about 12%. These two numbers in combination indicate that you are only playing quality hole cards, and you are predominantly raising with them pre-flop. In other words, you are playing how most poker books and poker forums say you should play.
Postflop Aggression Frequency (Agg)
Agg indicates how aggressively you play postflop. The higher this number, the more aggressively you are playing. This must be interpreted in combination with VPIP. Players who see very few flops will naturally tend to have a higher aggression percentage because they are only playing top-quality hole cards.
Poor players play passively postflop. They'll check or call too often. Good players know to play good hands aggressively postflop:
- because players with speculative hands are forced to fold before they get free cards
- because if they hit the flop or have a dominating hand, a bet or raise will increase their return
What is a good Agg range?
50% to 60% is ideal, assuming that you have a VPIP of 15% to 20%. Much higher, and you are probably overplaying speculative hands and bad hands, and bluffing too much. Much lower and you are not playing your good hands strongly postflop.
Leave the bluffing for the movies and for live play. At low stakes online play, bluffing is much less important than a good understanding of the probabilities of winning hands.
Big blinds won/100 hands
The three stats I've presented so far mean nothing if you can't keep your win rate positive. A nice way to 'normalize' your win rate across different stake levels, table sizes, and opponents is to measure how much you won in terms of the big blind. If you are playing at a table where the big blind is $0.50, and you won $20, then think of this as winning 40 big blinds.
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If this number is not positive, then you are losing money. The best remedy is to drop to a lower stake level, where the opponents are weaker. If, according to this stat, you consistently win over time, then you should consider going up to a higher stake level.
Adjusting your play based on the villain's poker stats
This is where our poker HUD software gets really useful: analyzing and exploiting opponent weaknesses. Let's consider some hypothetical players:
Tight Tim has VPIP of 5%, PFR of 5%, and Agg of 100%
With such a low VPIP, we can guess that this player folds anything except the very best hands. And with a PFR equal to VPIP, when he gets premium hands, he raises. So if this player raises, and you are next to act, you know that you should fold every hand except the best few hands, such as AA, KK, QQ. You can be almost certain that if you go to the flop, he'll raise postflop. So play tighter than usual with this player. But when you do get a premium hand, and he comes along, you can be sure that player B will put plenty of chips into the pot. Your pot, hopefully.
Passive Pete has VPIP of 20%, PFR of 16%, and Agg of 10%.
This player seems take have a good handle on preflop play. But when he gets to the flop, he gets timid. He is probably going to give you a chance postflop to see the turn and river for free. If you go to the flop with him and raise, there is a good chance he'll fold. So you can play a bit more aggressively both preflop and postflop.
Online Poker Nederland Ideal Cash
Eso armor slots. Eddie the Eagle has VPIP of 22%, PFR of 19%, and Agg of 55%.
Eddie has a good all-round balance between preflop and postflop play. Preflop, he plays tight and aggressively. Postflop, he balances between pushing hard with his good hands, and being willing to fold or check with his weaker hands. Eddie would be well-served to move on to understanding more advanced poker statistics.
Tracking your poker stats
Poker players use poker software like Poker Copilot to automatically record their hands. Each hand is broken down into many statistics, which are then aggregated into simple percentages.
Poker Statistics Guide
What's next after you've understood the basic poker stats? Read our Poker Statistics Guide for a comprehensive explanation of understanding and using all the main poker statistics.
Aggression. It can be measured in several ways – aggression factor (AF), aggression percentage (Agg Pct) or aggression frequency (AFq).
Tradition requires that we mention the classic Aggression Factor /AF/ calculated as (Bet + Raise) / Call, checking or folding with no effect.
The drawback of this indicator is that due to its formula it can't differentiate between a hyper-aggressive player raising any two cards and a fit-or-fold player throwing away everything but the pure nuts. Basically, all a high AF tells you is that the player doesn't like to call.
I myself don't rely much on this indicator, but it's a part of the so called Holy Trinity of Poker HUD stats (VPIP, PFR, AF) so you have to know what it does.
In order to see a nuanced picture, you need different indicator – and which one you'll use depends on your poker HUD program of choice.
Aggression percentage /Agg Pct/ is used in Holdem Manager and represents the frequency a player takes an aggressive action on a given street. So if I bet the flop but check the turn and river I would have 33% Agg Pct because I made 1 out of 3 aggressive actions.
Aggression frequency/AFq/ is used in Poker Tracker and is calculated as (total bet + total raise) / (total bet + total raise + total call + total fold) * 100, the idea being to include all possible actions in the divisor of the equation.
There is a slight difference in the way Agg Pct and AFq are calculated, as Agg Pct sees checking as passive and AFq as neutral. Node js blackjack server commands. Some players say that counting checks as neutral is OK as the player could intend to check-raise, but I personally prefer the Holdem Manager Agg Pct statistic – it's more straight-forward. The probability of a Check-Raise can (and should) be analyzed using the separate Check-Raise statistic, but more on that later on.
Both Agg Pct and AFq start to become useful for the different streets after about 300 hands. Knowing these stats allows you to clearly identify overly passive and aggressive players. As far as ranges go, an Agg Pct less than 30% is extremely passive and more than 60% extremely aggressive. AFq range is similar – too passive when less than 35% and too aggressive over 65%. The slight difference occurs because checks are neutral in AFq and not counted as passive. These ranges depend heavily on the limit and the type of table – lower limits usually have more timid players compared to the higher limits and shorter tables see more aggression than full ring tables.
As always, remember to look at the stats for the individual streets – often players are very aggressive on the flop but proceed differently on the turn and the river.
Birmingham alabama poker. Examples using Agg Pct and AFq
/For sake of simplicity we'll assume all opponents have stacks of about 100BB/
FR (full ring) table, you are in middle position with a pair of 6s. A player in EP (early position) limps in, you limp in, and the BB (big blind) checks. Flop comes 259 rainbow (of different suits). The big blind bets half of the pot and the early position player folds. Now what? Well, let's look at his stats (we'll assume a decent hand sample is available).
a) VPIP=27 / PFR=15 / Agg Pct=55 (Agg Pct Flop=64).
The opponent is definitely a loose-aggressive player (LAG). He obviously plays a lot of trash hands, so his flop aggression percentage of 64 is borderline crazy. He didn't raise pre-flop, so a big overpair is unlikely; probably he caught something on the flop. Against a passive player we can consider folding here, but this particular opponent can bet just as easily second or third pair, or simply two overcards. You should at least call, but a better option may be to look at the villain's Fold to F Raise percentage and if it's high enough, raise him to force a fold.
b) VPIP=12 / PFR=5 / Agg Pct= 22 (Agg Pct Flop=28).
A weak-tight player bets two opponents out of position – a definite sign of a big hand – at least top pair with decent kicker. He probably would have slow-played a set or two pairs, but a nine in his hand would explain the bet as protection from overcards on the turn. Anyway, under the circumstances we have no more business in the hand and should fold.
Get a poker tracking program like Poker Tracker to put the odds in your favor!
