The on line poker games have changed drastically in the past 4 years mainly due to the introduction of poker tracking software which gathers all the hand histories played at your table and stores them on a database on your hard drive. Not only that but the software integrated a 'Heads Up Display' feature which then takes the information which is stored in your database, translates it into useful information and places this information beside yours and your opponents name on the screen in real time.
Many people fear that this will put an end to the massive win rates the good players were able to produce in the early days of on line poker, whereas some truth lies in this statement, with decreasing win rates for the average to good players, the very good to excellent players can still glean a very healthy win rate.
And what does this tell us? Basically it tells us that some players who use this poker tracking software do not use it to the maximum of their or the software's ability. It does mean that big losing players will now become marginal losing players/breakeven players quicker as they can see their results right in front of their eyes after a session. They can compare their stats to the stats of a player who is always winning and try to replicate their style. Basically it aids them finding their leaks quicker than they normally would.
The two main poker tracking software packages are Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker. It's no contest here, even though poker tracker were the innovators, Holdem Manager has surpassed them by leaps and bounds. It has more features, first to introduce 3 bet% stats, hundreds of analytic statistics to help analyse your own and your opponents play and much much more.
So what are the main statistics that are used which help you identify what type of player you are up against?
VPIP% - Voluntarily Put $ In Pot %. The SB and BB postings are not voluntary unless they add more money e.g. SB calling or BB calling or raising. This tells you how often some one is seeing flops. The average winning player has a VPIP% of between 18-25%. If you see someone playing 80% of hands, instantly mark him down as one of your poker buddies as he will hemorrhage money to you in no time!
VPR% - Raise pre - flop Percentage. This tells you how many hands he is raising when he enters a pot. The average winning player has a VPR% of between 14-21%. If you see someone with a pre - flop raising percentage of 1%, be very wary as he will usually have a very strong hand. On the other hand if someone has a VPR% of 40%, you can exploit this as you know he can not have the goods all the time punish him by re-raising pre - flop.
Aggression Factor - This is calculated (Bet + Raise) / Call, checking or folding has no effect. This is not a percentage but a factor and the higher the factor the more aggressive an opponent is, the lower the figure the more passive a player is. This is a vitally important statistic. For example, take a bad player who has a very high VPIP% but a very low aggression factor of say1.0. He will not fold any pair to you so when you are betting your top pair hands trying to extract value from him, he suddenly pushes all in on the turn. As this is really out of character for him, this means only one thing, he has a hand that beats your top pair holdings, so you can easily fold here in the knowledge that you will get him next time!
Aggression Frequency % - This is defined by (bets + raises) / (bets + raises + calls + folds). That is, the total number of times the player bet or raised a bet, divided by the total number of all his potential actions. Aggression percentage can be anything from 0-100 and is based on an aggressive action on each street. So if I bet the turn and the river but check the flop I would have 66% Aggression % because I made 2 out of 3 aggressive actions. Therefore if I checked each street I would have an aggression frequency of 0%. This statistic is showing how often a player will take an aggressive action "when faced with any decision
Continuation bet % - Bet the flop after being the Pre Flop Raiser Pre - flop. At the lower stakes it can be profitable to bet 100% of the time, however as you move up the levels you will have to be more selective against who you continue to continuation bet as the better regulars will take advantage and exploit you by bluff raising you.
Fold to continuation bet % - How often they fold the flop when faced with a continuation bet. This stat can be particularly helpful as it can pinpoint players who will not fold to a continuation bet and therefore you are throwing money away by doing so unless you know he will fold to a double barrel (which of course there is a stat for that too!).
Raise continuation bet %- How often they raise someone when faced with a continuation bet on the flop. This statistic is helpful for knowing when to continuation bet and not to continuation bet certain flops. An opponent with a high Raise continuation bet % will consistently punish you if you continuation bet too much
Check raise % - Total Check Raise %. This stat can be used in conjunction with the previous stat and the two together acts as a good indicator of an opponent who either likes to make plays or tell the opposite, a player who is straight forward to play against. A very useful indicator.
3 Bet % - Big Blind is bet 1, raise is bet 2 and the next bet is a 3-Bet. This most commonly refers to pre- flop play where games have gotten more aggressive and if you do not have a good handle on how to play 3 bet pots could lead to some disastrous consequences. You should have a 3 bet % of between 5 and 10 %. Generally you should loosen your 3 bet range when in position and have a tighter range when 3betting from the blinds.
Fold to 3-Bet% - How often a player folds to a 3-Bet. This is a very important statistic. There are some players who will folds to 3bet% 90%+ of the time. You can 3bet them all day until they finally decide to re - adjust and then when they do they end up shoving over the top with AJ and you snap call down with AK. However with opponents who only fold to 3bets about 50% of the time, it is wiser to tighten your 3betting range against them and ensure when you do 3bet, you do so with hands that will dominate their 3 Bet calling range, hands like KQ+, TT+, AJ+.
Went to Showdown % - How often someone goes to showdown. Again this is a useful stat to figure out if your opponent has a tendency to call 3 streets too much. Therefore you can value bet three streets with your marginal hands. On the other hand, if his Went to Showdown % is very low, this could be a good opponent to bluff of a hand.
As you can see from the above statistics on offer that tracking software is a very powerful tool and there are literally hundreds of statistics that you can filter on/display to aid you in your game and help you make the best informed decisions at all times.
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