Useful Poker Tracker article

This article will concentrate on the six statistics that are most important to the decisions that you make while playing a ring game. We will go through each of these statistics in detail, explaining where those numbers lie for various types of players and how to use those numbers against them in your decision making process. Those numbers are VP$IP, PFR%, AF, WSD%, W$ASD% and Check Raise%. (Voluntarily Put Dollars In the Pot percentage, PreFlop Raise percentage, Aggression Factor, Went to ShowDown percentage, Won Dollars At Show Down percentage and Check Raise percentage respectively.)

VP$IP and PFR along with AF are the three keys to understanding what kind of player that you are dealing with. The other numbers help you in your decision processes in certain circumstances, but these first three numbers define who you are up against and how they are playing. Also for the purposes of this article, whenever I say raise or bet, I mean a REAL NL type raise or bet which means at least ½ and usually ¾ up to a pot size bet. Minimum bets or 2x raises are not real NL raises and should be considered to be poor plays made by ignorant players until they prove otherwise. The 2x raise or minimum bet is usually the first clue alerting me that I am facing an inexperienced NL player.

VP$IP tells you how often your opponent is voluntarily putting money in the pot. Thus limping from the big blind is not included in this percentage. A true rock who only plays top ten hands will have a VP$IP of 10% or less. This kind of player is very rare to find in low level NL games. (Less than 1% of my database) A player with VP$IP of 10 would be VERY tight. He would only be playing pairs of AA- 66, AK, AQ and maybe AJ and KQ. He MIGHT play AJ or AT or KJ and maybe the other pocket pairs.
It becomes very easy to put this guy on a hand and remember these stats are valid when he plays any hand where he has to put money in the pot.

As the VP$IP goes higher, it becomes more difficult to determine what hands your opponents are playing. However examining what they could be playing is helpful.
A VP$IP of 10-20 is a more common range where you will find about 15% of your opponents and is still considered tight. These players will be playing top ten hands, plus perhaps any ace and small pocket pairs. His hand mix could include broadway hands which are any hands that add up to 20 such as TJ and AT. It is unlikely that an opponent with this, low VP$IP will be playing suited connectors below JT or hands like K9. However you cannot entirely rule out suited connectors if this player is not playing broadway hands or Ax. Judgment and observation must still be taken into consideration, even with all this information at your fingertips.
The next range of hands extends from 20-30% VP$IP and encompasses approximately 25% of players. Players in this range will most likely play all the above hands plus suited connectors down to 56 or so and most aces from A8 on up. He may also play some gapped connectors and probably all small pairs. Broadway hands are most likely on this players starting menu as well. It is no longer easy to put this player on a hand based on just VP$IP.

Nearly 25% of players will have a VP$IP of 30-40%. This is where the last of the players who show some semblance of hand selection reside. True LAG players will have VP$IP in this range. LAGs will play all the hands listed above, plus any two cards if they are first to act on the cutoff or the button. It is VERY hard to put this player on a hand. LAGs and non lags will play gapped, suited connectors and maybe just two connected or one gapped non suited cards.

Beyond 40% VP$IP is the level where your opponents are exercising very little hand selection. If he has a VPI$IP between 40 and 50, any two suited cards are probably playable in addition to all the above hands. Anything over 50% and this player should be on your fish list and you should follow him from table to table as he gives money away hand over fist. Surprisingly, a little over 18% of my database has people who play over 50% of hands and an additional 15% who play between 40-50. If one of these guys buys in for the max and rebuys when busted, or if he gets lucky and wins some pots, put them on your buddy list if your site has one and follow them from table to table. Truly, they are valuable enough that you should want to do this. You may even want to fire up your incognito name on the site, just so you can poach these fish after they start to notice that you and every other shark is following them around. Sadly, they usually disappear as soon as they tire of constantly replenishing their bankroll. If you find such a fish it is best to hunt him this week, because he probably won't be here next week.

VP$IP is valuable but preflop raise percentage can allow you to truly narrow in on what hands your opponent is playing for a raise. A rock and some other styles may well have a PFR of 3% or less! These super tight creatures fill up a full 20% of my database! These special creatures are invaluable since this low number tells you that they are ONLY raising with AA, KK QQ, and AK. How valuable is it to be able to narrow your opponent down to these very few hands? Decision making against these guys is VERY easy when they come in for a raise! Other than pocket pairs when the 8-1 rule is met, it is horribly negative EV to call a raise against these guys. I don't even think about it if I don't have a pocket pair!

The next band of raising percentages goes from 3-10% PFR. Opponents in this range are only raising with top ten hands and maybe AQ or KQ if they are first to act and their PFR is close to 10%. MAYBE they raise with a hand as low as a Broadway hand or any ace if they are on the button and first to act. Quite often opponents with a PFR of 10 or less will NOT even do that much! IF their PFR is 7 or less they are not raising in late position with anything less than a top ten hand probably 99% of the time! This is great information and guess what? Almost 35% of your opponents will raise with this percentage of hands! Your post flop decision making should be fairly easy when playing this type of player.

The next band of raisers goes from 10-20% PFR and it becomes more difficult to put these players on a hand. A player with 17-20% PFR is raising with top ten hands and most likely all the following hands when there is no action ahead of him and is in middle to late position: Broadway hands, suited connectors and aces down to A8. He may also be raising with small pairs when in late position.

Anything beyond 20% PFR and it becomes VERY difficult, if not impossible to put him on a hand. A true LAG will play 25% of his hands for a raise and will be raising on the button and sometimes the cutoff with ANYTHING if there is no action ahead of him.
However, when players are raising this high percentage of hands, we have many options available to us. Reraising them with a top ten hand is certainly advisable. It is also a winning play to reraise them or call with marginal hands because you know they are often raising with junk! If you have position against this type of player, it can be profitable to call their preflop raise with any marginal hand. Then call their continuation bet and when they check on 4th, bet out on the turn and you will take down the pot well over 50% of the time because 33% of the time they have completely missed the flop and will run at the first sign of real resistance. This is a great example of playing the player, not the cards since it does not matter what you have!

Anyone raising with more than 30% of his hands is a true maniac which you can exploit via the above methods with even more confidence, because his raising percentage is too high to be a successful winning style. Thus you can be confident that you are playing a LAG in training or a total donk.

Aggression Factor or AF determines how aggressive your opponents are. AF is determined by dividing the number of times you raise or bet by the number of times that you call. This factor tells a lot about your opponent. An aggression factor under 1 is considered to be very weak and you can generally bully this type of opponent almost endlessly. Unless he is a calling station, you can bet against him at will and he will fold unless he holds at least top pair and probably top kicker to go with it. When discussing Went to ShowDown percentage I will tell you how to make sure he is not the calling station variety that foils this betting strategy.
Most opponents AF resides in the 1 to 2 range. These players usually are straightforward ABC poker players who bet when they have a hand, check when they do not and call when they have a draw. These guys are the definition of plain vanilla and relatively easy to play against. If you were the preflop raiser and this guy is check raising you or betting the turn when you check, run for the hills because he is screaming out that he has a set or another strong made hand.

Lastly, you have true aggressives, aggros as some would call them. They have aggression factors above 2 and running as high as 5. These guys make continuation bets above 50% of the time. They bet flushes and open ended draws. They bet when last to act and everyone else has checked. They bet top pair with low kickers if they are first to act in a pot where everyone has limped. They will also reraise just to find out if you ‘really' have a hand or to try to get a free card for their flush draw. Playing against them is tricky if you don't have the nuts. However if their AF is 3 or above you can profitably reraise them in many circumstances since these guys only understand a swift punch in the nose. Reraising them with top pair or better is a fine way to find out where you are at. The number of times that they fold will far outnumber the times that they hit back at you when you reraise them.

Calling them down with 2nd pair or a pocket pair is a tactic that can be used successfully against them as well. Care must be taken when doing this though, since they can sometimes hit a hand and make you pay for it expensively if you call to the river. Addtionally, if you make your hand against this type of player, you can often count on him to bet your hand for you. If you are fortunate enough to flop the nuts, this is the opponent most likely to bluff his entire stack off to you as you call him down. Be aware though, that many aggros are attuned to these situations and tend to slow down if the board is scary or if you have never called in any other situation previously. These guys win by becoming great post flop players and readers so you must treat them with care.

In some Poker Tracker literature out there, I have seen claims that AF higher than 3 is too high and bordering on maniacal. On the contrary, I know many successful players with AF in the 3-5 range and mine hovers around 4.5. Some of these players have low PFR percentages (5% or less) and that is part of the reason that their AF is so high. You have to look out especially carefully for these guys because they are coming at you with AA, KK, QQ, JJ and AK and nothing else. Thus you have to begin to look at the numbers in combination in order to understand how to treat them. If your opponent has an AF of 4.5 and his PFR percentage is 25%, then you can treat him very differently from the opponent with a PFR of 5%.

The last three categories of numbers that I recommend you looking at for PT are all numbers that mean something when looked at when in combination with the numbers above. The WSD% tells you how often an opponent goes to the river. This number means little without looking at the other statistics of the player in question. This key stat in combination with the W$ASD% is how you identify your calling stations at the table.

The calling stations will go to showdown (WSD%) over 30% and they will be losing at the showdown more than 55% of the time. (W$ASD 45% or less) Most calling stations will have VP$IP over 30%, WSD% over 30% and W$ASD% of less than 45%. When all these three conditions are met and you have top pair, you can easily bet all the way to the river with confidence. Conversely he is the last guy on the table you want to try to bluff. That is what he lives for, so don't give him the thrill of picking off your bluffs.

Winning players generally have W$ASD% higher than 45%. If a player on your table has at least 100 hands logged and his W$ASD% is lower than 45%, his other stats will probably illuminate his problems. High VP$IP of over 40% might be one, or WSD% of over 30% might be another. A guy with all these factors should be painted with a big fat guppy note and hunted down relentlessly until he gives up every last dollar on the site that he dares to put on the table.

The last category of interest is the check raise percentage. Many aggros use this tactic too much and can be detected by observing this statistic. A good/great player will normally have a check raise percentage of .5 to 1.5%. Anything over 2 and there is a very good chance that your opponent who has an AF of 3 or more is abusing this tactic.

Since he is often using the tactic as a bluff or semi bluff, this opponent is a great target for a reraise to send him reeling and folding in shame. Just remember to make the reraise a strong 3x one or he may call and outplay you on later streets. I find that certain tournament players tend to be among the worst offenders of this tactic. PT helps me identify them and a timely reraise often neuters their stacks.