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How to interpret your opponent's Poker Stats

• 30.06.2025 7:09 pm
• Helen
• 0 Comments

Understanding well and using poker tracking software is one outstanding way among the ways of increasing your overall online poker profits.

On top of keeping accurate records in regard to your winnings and also losses, some programs like Hold'em Manager and Poker Tracker track each move your rivals make.

Through use of the HUD (heads-up display, you can literally convert all this information into some easy –to-understand statistics, and then display them beside the names of your opponents in real time, and right on the poker table.

The information available on the HUD presents precise details with regard to the playing tendencies of your opponents, and comprehensive understanding of these details is enough to make one huge difference regarding your rate of winning.

Statistics are used to a certain extent by all winning players, but awfully few of them use stats fully. It's advisable you learn how to master this outstanding tool and you will reap big rewards.

A quick look into some popular stats:

Preflop Stats

VPIP%

This is the total average percentage of the times your rival puts voluntarily some bucks into the pot. This could mean preflop raising, the big blind completing, cold calling etc.

The higher the VPIP of a player, the looser they are. The Lower it is, the tighter they are.

For no-limit six-max hold'em, most of the regulars fall within 19%-25% VPIP. Any looser or tighter although possible profitable never is optimal by any means.

Check the side picture to see a PokerStove of VPIP 19% to get a rough idea of the specific hands the specific player would play.

Incase you are unfamiliar with PokerStove here are the details.

PFR%

It's the stat touching on Pre-Flop Raise and it is a lot self explanatory. It is how regularly your rival raises pre-flop.

The PFR of most players falls between 4-6% of the VPIP they have. I.e incase they happen to play 20 VPIP, the PFR they have is usually within 14%-19%.

The larger the gap between the VPIP and PFR, the higher the frequency a given player cold calls.

For instance, a given player who has a 35% VPIP and 10% PFR literally has a cold-calling range of 25% and is more likely a fish.

3b%

This simply is how regularly your rival re-raises pre-flop

For instance, a three-better of 3% would be as follows AA-TT, AQo and AKs-AQs and would primarily have in its range any light three-bets. You can simply adjust from there.

F3

This is how regularly your rival folds to three-bets. This stat is one of the most helpful in making a decision on what hands to call with and what to three-bet with pre-flop.

Obviously, anyone with a significantly high fold-to-three-bet stat literally is a player that you can relentlessly three-bet light. Someone who happens to have any low fold-to-three bet stat is one you can value three bet.

These are simply the most popular of all pre-flop stats. Many players know the meaning of each stat, but few take their time to simply think how all relate.

For instance, a given player who has a substantially close VPIP and PFR usually has a higher percentage of three-bet simply because he cold calls less often.

Conversely, that player who has a large gap between their VPIP and PFR usually has a cold-calling range that is wide and will therefore have plenty of weak hands in the range.

It is not simply about knowing specifically the meaning of the stats. You need to understand specifically how you can put them into use to make realistic and helpful conclusions regarding your rival's games.

Postflop Stats

AG

This is your rival's aggression factor. It tells you his extent of aggression. Most players usually fall between 1 and 3. Anything below that is passive and what's above is very aggressive

If any player who has a 0.5 AG happens to be playing back at you, he is likely not bluffing and a good hand is what is needed to continue.

If a player with an AG of 6 happens to be playing back at you, the top pair you have is beginning to look pretty attractive.

WTSD%

This is simply how regularly your rival goes to showdown post flop. Most poker players fall within 20-32%.

Having a significantly low WTSD may mean two things: the player either folds too regularly before showdown of that he makes his rivals fold very regularly before showdown.

The best way to tell is through using WTSD along with AG. In case the rival is passive and does not often go to showdown, then he is weak tight.

If your rival is aggressive but has a low % of WTSD, he is making players fold very often before showdown. In case your rival shows down 35% and above, he loves showdown.

Again, make a point of examining his WTSD together with his aggression stat. This ensures you get a rough idea on how he plays.

In case his aggression is low, he might not be placing bets often enough with the lead and lets the rivals intuitively showdown much more often than there is need for.

If, he is aggressive and still his WTSD is high, he probable calls too regularly on the river, with weak hands.

Seeing a given number and then knowing how regularly any player goes to showdown is very helpful, but seeing a given number and trying to figure out why he regularly opts for showdown is also very valuable.

CB

How often your rival continuation bets as a pre-flop raiser on the flop.

Most poker players continuation-bet between 55-88% on the flop.

CB% should primarily be looked at together with PFR Stat. The lower the PFR% of a player, the higher their CB%. This is because the fewer the hands a player raises before flop, the stronger they are. The stronger the hands pre-flop, the more often the player will make worth betting the strong hands on the flop.

As the PFR of a player gets higher, he will miss the flop a little more regularly because he is raising a high count of marginal hands pre-flop. If the player's CB stat remains high, he will be c-betting air more often and he is therefore exploitable.

2B

This is how regularly your rival second barrels the moment his flop continuation-bet is called and he is the pre-flop raiser.

It should obviously be used in line with CB stat. If your rival has both c-bet and high flop c-bet stats, he is simply going to be regularly barreling his air, and it is advisable that you just call them down lighter.

If your rival has both a low turn c-bet and a high flop c-bet you have simply identified him as the one-and-done type of player. These players simply fire at the flop a single barrel and give up the moment they are called.

In case your rival is simply a one-and-done sort of player, floating is your best friend.

FC

How regularly your rival folds with the aim of flopping continuation bets.

The higher the FC of a player, the more "fit or fold" he plays. The lower the count, the more regularly he calls the flop using marginal hands.

Used together with the stat known as VPIP, it is possible to get a feel of any player's entire game.

A player who has a big VPIP and FC that's small is certain to be seeing numerous flops and turns as well. The chances are he is a fish you can literally play thus.

Alternatively, if he is a regular but has a FC that is low, you can make use of the pop-up stat and then look at the bet-when-checked-to stat. In case it is high, then you have identified a rival who loves floating.

F2

How regular your rival folds to the second barrel

Some fish simply love calling pre-flop and love calling the flop but will not continue without a decent hand past the turn. You can right away tell these player types if their FC stat is low and a F2 stat that's high.

It goes without saying that these types of players have to be punished by regularly firing second barrels.

Sample size

The thing about these stats is that they can be terribly misleading in the absence of a sample size that is accurate. Hold'em happens to be a variance game, meaning stats can vary in the short term.

Treating any player's stats like gospel where you have a significantly small sample size, only to find out that they play differently in real life is among the biggest mistakes ever, you can make.

Keep on hold drawing big conclusions with regard to how anyone plays, till you have logged a good number of hands.

What "enough hands" stands for varies from one stat to the other. While 100 hands may be surplus to draw your conclusions from the available PFR and VPIP stats, it is simply not enough to have an understanding of barreling frequencies, three-bet stats or WTSD.

The bigger the sample size you have, the better.

Stats are literally a tool, not a crutch

Starts in simple language are tools and not a crutch. A big number of players in this game rely on stats only. They usually paint every player with the same stats when in real sense every player is different.

It is possible to have a total of three different players having similar stats. However, a single player may crush this game and for 4BB/100, another might break even and the other end up beating if 1BB/100.

If all these players are treated the same, a big mistake is what you will have committed. Relying extra heavily on stats simply stunts your game of poker.

Stats simply are a single tool in a quality player's box. They require you to use them together with normal reads and observation.

Stats only succeed in giving you the average of how a given player plays against a diversity of opponents. You have to find out how the specific player plays against you. You can only get this right if you pay close attention and take notes.

If you successfully look beyond the basic infor contained in any stat then start drawing conclusions about the play of your rival, looking comprehensively at the stats he has and how they relate, you begin getting results in overcoming your rival.

In case can successfully do this, while at the same moment observing them closely and taking normal notes, you will simply be one outstanding player.