VPIP and PFR are different because they are preflop stats. You do not need anywhere near as big of a sample size for these two stats. Lastly, if you want to know the complete poker strategy that I use to consistently make $1k+ per month in small stakes poker games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet. Que Es Pfr Poker play your bonus funds. It’s usually the case Que Es Pfr Poker that online casinos stipulate a wager requirement for winnings received via no deposit bonus offers. This wagering requirement could range from ten to 200 times the total bonus given won.
I help you categorize your opponents into their respective player types based on stats and tendencies. I also give some easy-to-use exploits against each.
Listen to this podcast episode #289:
You MUST Understand Player Types
“The money available to a player winning long term comes from other players’ willingness to put money into the pot with bad hands that a perfect player would not play.”
– Ed Miller in his incredible book, The Course
This is exactly why we must understand player types and assign each of our opponents to one of them.
When you’re profiling your opponents, you’re looking for weaknesses. When you see those weaknesses, you know exactly how to play against them to earn their chips. You can also selectively target the weakest players who are most likely to give you their chips.
“Attack weakness, avoid strength.”
– Ed Miller in his incredible book, The Course
You’re looking to play more hands versus weak players and avoid hands versus strong players. Battling good players can kill your profits. We’re all playing this game, at least in part, to make money. Since it’s easier to make money versus the weak, that is who you MUST go after. The key to going after them is to understand and spot each of the weak players around the table.
You must become an active observer when you’re not involved in the hand:
- If a player just open-raised from the Hijack, and it’s the first hand he’s played in 3 orbits, he’s likely a tight player who only plays the best hands.
- Maybe another player makes her 4th limp in a row… she’s likely a Fish.
- Now a different player 3bets then triple-barrels down the streets with J8s after flopping TP. Wow! You found a loose and aggressive player.
Because you’re paying attention, you’re able to categorize each of these players and now you can use some basic exploits against each.
The 4 Common Poker Player Types
We use two different tendencies to put players into one of the 4 player types.
Tight versus Loose
Pfr Poker Definition
A tight player plays few hands (VPIP < 20%), and a loose player plays a lot of hands (VPIP > 20%). 20% VPIP is just the cutoff percentage. Of course, players can be ultra-tight at 5% or ultra-loose at 95%.
Passive versus Aggressive
A passive player doesn’t raise preflop that often (PFR < 15%) and an aggressive player raises a lot (PFR > 15%). Again, 15% is just the cutoff with the ultra-passive player having a PFR of 1% and the mega-aggressive player at 45%.
Loose-Passive
LOOSE = Plays lots of hands; PASSIVE = prefer making checks and call; they love to see flops; they stay in way too long with weak hands and draws; #1 targets at the table; if they raise post-flop, WATCH OUT!
AKA: Fish or Calling Stations
Common VPIP/PFR Stats: 22/6, 28/5, 45/9 (Mention video in show notes detailing VPIP & PFR)
Color Coding: Green
Characteristic #1: Passively plays very wide & weak ranges. Not positionally aware.
Exploit: Play ranges that dominate theirs and isolate them (as limpers or in the blinds) whenever +EV.
Characteristics #2: Generally losing players.
Exploit: Target them and play as many hands as possible in +EV spots!
Loose-Aggressive
LOOSE = Plays lots of hands, AGGRESSIVE = prefers bets and raises; can be a high variance loser; they use the power of position yet they might not be that positionally aware when it comes to starting hands; capable of spewing chips in bad bluffing spots.
AKA: LAG, Donk or Maniac
Common VPIP/PFR Stats: 24/18, 36/24, 55/35
Color Coding: Orange
Characteristic #1: Too much aggression with weak ranges. Open-raises, iso-raises and calls too much preflop.
Exploit: Play with hands at the top of their range, and strive for IP play.
Characteristic #2: Constantly applies pressure.
Exploit: ALWAYS gauge how well the board interacts with their range. Be willing to call wider with 2nd and 3rd pair when they can be bluffing worse.
Tight-Passive
TIGHT = Plays mostly strong hands, PASSIVE = prefer checks and calls (but sometimes they’re aggressive with few calling hands); quick to fold post-flop; beware their bets and raises.
AKA: TP, Rock or Nit
Common VPIP/PFR Stats: 11/9, 11/2, 7/3
Color Coding: Red
Characteristic #1: Strong hand selection & positionally aware. Folds too often preflop and raises only strong hands.
Exploit: Play a wider but still strong range when IP. Call their raises with hands that play well post-flop and can crack big hands (good playability).
Characteristic #2: Doesn’t often fold to 3bets and 3bet = the nuts.
Exploit: 3bet and 4bet with the best hands to get value from his tight range.
Tight-Aggressive
TIGHT = Plays mostly strong hands, AGGRESSIVE = prefers bets and raises; can be winning regs; multi-tabler; quick to fold most marginal spots post-flop and when OOP.
AKA: TAG, ABC or Reg
Common VPIP/PFR Stats: 12/10, 18/13
Color Coding: Yellow
Characteristic #1: Plays multiple-tables, so they’re selective, patient and they choose the best starting hands (small & value intensive range).
Exploit: Play strong hands against them, but speculative hands can crack their strong ranges.
Characteristic #2: Quick to fold weaker pairs and draws because they see little value in these hands.
Exploit: Bet and raise to earn post-flop pots, make sure your size hits their “pain threshold” so often at 2/3 pot or more.
Here’s my challenge to you for this episode: While you’re playing your next session, set a timer to go off every 10 minutes. When it does, pick a table and think about each player there and describe all you know about them – player types, weaknesses, how to exploit, etc. This will train you to profile your opponents and it’s a great way to test that you’re paying attention.
Now it’s your turn to take action and Scooby-dooby-doo something positive for your poker game.
Pfr Poker Stat
Support the Show
Tunisianking, Dayne Dice, Nathan Yamuder, Richard Cheason and Rosemont Tony picked up PokerTracker 4 (get it here to support the show), the best poker tracking software. I love it and use it everyday! In appreciation, I sent each of them a copy of my Smart HUD for PT4. With an ever-growing database of hands to study and all the helpful features, PT4 is the go-to software for serious poker players.
Mark Fleming, Lois Thomas, Stephan Eck, Murry T., Massimo Gramegna, Stephen Diesner and Ole Engkrok bought the Smart HUD with a 1.5 hour webinar for PokerTracker 4. It’s the best online poker HUD in the business with every critical stat in the HUD and the 7 custom popups. This is what every online player needs to maximally exploit opponents.
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- Counting Outs and Making Profitable Calls - February 4, 2021
- Don’t Respect the Player, But Always Respect the Math! - January 28, 2021
- Curiosity Kills Your Winnings - January 21, 2021
I believe that poker players can be divided into two main categories. The first category is the amateur poker player which makes up the vast majority of players in the world, probably somewhere around 80-90%. The amateur player plays once a week with his buddies and a bit online when he has both the time and the itch. The amateur player loses money each month playing poker but that is fine with him because the utility he is getting out of the cost makes the losses worth it. Another characteristic of the amateur is his disinterest in improving his poker skill level.
The second category is made up of players which are striving to improve their game and climb up the ladder as they try and beat the game of poker. These are the players which are sitting on the forums and watching the videos and putting in tens of hours a week in both learning and playing the game they love.
This is the first post in a series of posts I plan to publish on the basics of online poker stats. These posts are aimed at the second category of players, those players that are trying to improve game. These posts will most likely be very boring to the poker amateur, just a friendly warning.
In this first post I will cover three of the most basic poker stats, total hands, VPIP and PFR.
Why is using tracking software and a HUD important?
There are a number of important reasons to use tracking software like Holdem Manager.
1. It gives you an edge
Using tracking software and a HUD during your sessions gives you an edge over players which are not using such software. Players which are not using such software will not have all the statistical data which these tools help you collect and therefore have less information available to them when facing you in a pot.
2. Numbers don’t lie
One of the benefits of using tracking software is the reporting capabilities. If I’ve been experiencing some horrible sessions then I can start diving into the data and see what has actually been happening. Most of the time it helps me realize that even though I’ve lost a lot in a short time period, those losses can be credited to bad luck and not bad play. The numbers don’t lie and therefore voodoo, “it must be rigged”, and all other excuses die.
3. Holdem Manager is a training tool
Once you have enough data in your database and are familiar with the reports Holdem Manager becomes a playground to those who want to find their leaks. The data can be sliced and diced to your will and every possible scenario can be investigated. Wonder why you are losing money with small pocket pairs? Holdem Manager can help you analyze how you’re play these hands in every position, against 3 bets, and even help you see which lines are most profitable when you finally hit that set.
4. Better table selection
After you’ve collected enough hands from the players at your tables you will be able to identify who is tight (usually means a decent player) and who is loose (a fish). Knowing the overall tightness of your tables can help you identify which tables you should leave. Playing on tables full of regulars will badly effect your potential hourly rate.
Ideal Pfr Poker
4. For $100 its a steal
$100 is not a lot of money and trust me, it will pay for itself in no time. Worst case scenario, you are out $100.
Total number of hands
The first stat which is important to know is the total number of hands you have on a specific player. Whenever you are looking at statistics on anything, it is important to understand the sample size of your data. To say that the average person is 6 feet tall because I took my height and applied the average to the entire population is obviously wrong. Without knowing the size of your sample, you cannot take any stat seriously. The more hands you have on your opponents the better. Some poker stats require thousands of hands to be close to their true values, while others start painting a clear picture within a small sample size of less than 100 hands, it all depends on the stat.
In the image below the total number of hands is represented by the blue number.
Voluntarily put money in pot
Voluntarily put money in pot or VPIP for short is the most important stat in online poker in my opinion. VPIP is a percentage which indicates the percentage of hands dealt to a player that he is actually playing. So for example if someone has a VPIP of 50%, it means that half of the hands they are dealt, they end up paying the big blind or raising.
I like to refer to VPIP as the “fish finder stat” because it is the one stat which is the most relevant for marking players as either “he knows what he is doing” or “he has no clue”. Check out the image below. The blue number next to each player is the number of hands I have in my database for that specific player, the number directly to the right of the blue number is the players VPIP. Can you find the fish at the table?
The big fish at this table is adobrfc464. This player is playing 31% of all the hands he has been dealt. 31% is very high. So far we have 197 hands on the guy which may seem like a small sample size but for VPIP it is enough. Most players usually fall into the very tight or very loose category and therefore within as little as 30-50 hands you can determine which category a player falls into.
You may also notice that other than the fish, the rest of the players have a VPIP of 20 or lower which mean that this is a really bad table full of tight players and I shouldn’t continue to play at it. You will also notice that I have thousands of hands on these players which indicates that they are regulars which play often.
VPIP is important because it is the one stat which has the most impact on the range of hands you should be playing against specific opponents. If we know that someone is playing 50% (shown graphically in the image below) of all the hands they are dealt, well then you know which hands are crushing their range and which hands are behind their range. It now becomes easy to raise KQ or Q10s against this players because we know he is playing with Q2 and K6.
Important things to keep in mind regarding VPIP
- The VPIPs of players are going to be much more polarized in cash games than in tournaments. The reason for this is that the structure of cash games don’t change so a players style will remain the same. In tournaments, players will play differently based on a number of factors from the number of players at the table, to the size of their chip stack in relation to the blinds.
- VPIP can be misleading when looking at how a player plays in a specific position. For example, my VPIP in early position is 10.5% while when I’m on the button it jumps to 19.5%. This makes sense because when it is folded to you and you are on the button there is less of a chance that someone who is left to speak has a strong hand, thus allowing you to steal more often with semi-decent or even weak hands.
- The VPIP stat is only one piece of information which is available to a player and shouldn’t be the only thing you consider when deciding which play to make. Someone who is a tight player might wake up with a junk hand once in a while. Don’t get locked onto any one stat, use all the information which is available. Also remember that if you think someone has a specific range of hands and you end up being wrong and lose a big pot, think long term and don’t be result orientated.
Pre-flop raise percentage
The second most important stat in online poker is the pre-flop raise precentage or PFR for short. This number is very similar to the VPIP stat except it represents the percentage of dealt hands that the player raises pre-flop. This stat does not include hands which are re-raised by a player, that stat is called 3-bet percentage and it will be covered in a future post. If someone has a PFR of 10%, it means that the player is raising 10% of their hands (the first raiser, not re-raising).
The PFR stat helps you understand a number of important things about your opponents. The first thing it helps you determine is how crazy he is. If someone has a PFR of 35% you know he is a maniac and raising pre-flop with all kinds of junk hands. In this case we would want to re-raise him with our strong hands because we know it is unlikely he has our strong hand beat.
The second important thing which the PFR helps us understand is the overall style of the player. The way you do this is to compare the PFR to the VPIP and see if there is a big gap. Lets look at three examples:
- Player A has a VPIP of 30% and a PFR of 28%
- Player B has a VPIP of 30% and a PFR of 5%
- Player C has a VPIP of 15% and a PFR of 13%
Player A is playing a 3rd of his hands and raising almost the same percentage. This player is a loose, crazy player which is playing a style which will ultimately cost him money in the long run.
Pfr Poker Tracker
Player B is a loose, passive player which wants to see flops and doesn’t like to bloat the pot pre-flop. When you see a player like this raise, be careful they are only raising with their strongest hands. This style is even worse than the style played by player A because it is very easy to play against such a style.
Player C is what you call a “nit”, players that have these stats are usually playing many tables and looking to force weaker players into making mistakes. These players are very tight and generally only play the top range of hands.
Have another look at the image above and tell me which styles adobrfc464 and ThomasM21 play.
Adobrfc has the same style as Player B, loose-passive, while ThomasM21 is a nit.
Important things to keep in mind regarding PFR
- Just like the VPIP, the PFR percentage will change based on the position they are in a hand. My PFR in early position is 10% while on the button it moves to 13.8% (I’ve recently identified this as a weakness in my game and have started raising wider from late position). Make sure you look at the players PFR per position when deciding to call or re-raise their raise.
- Players that are nitty (have a low PFR percentage) are generally playing very ABC poker and raising with very strong hands. Once you have identified this it becomes easy to play against these players. Don’t get out of hand with these players.
- Once in a while a crazy, loose player will wake up with a monster and your JJ will be drawing to two outs. Don’t let this get to you, remember, you are playing for the long run.
In the next post in this series I will be covering 3-bet percentage and steal percentage. If you are currently using Holdem Manager or any other tracking software and you feel there is something missing from this post then please let me know in the comments section below or contact me via email at justin@thegreatgrind.com.
PS: If you liked this post, you might also like What I’ve learnt playing 500,000 hands of online cash game poker.