Using Player’s Strategy at Poker Online
Sep 21, 2011 Learn Poker Poker Tips
Playing online poker can be a task especially if you are new in the world of online poker. Basically there are four basic statistics that can guide you on a particular player’s style of playing. These four statistics can be used at different occasions and depending on the given situation. You will understand better once you have read them through.
Voluntarily Putting money In the Pot (VPIP)
VIPIP is the percentage of times the player is in a pot. An example of this-
50% VPIP means the player is in 50% of the pots and is a measure of the looseness of a player pre-flop. If a player calls 50% of the hands pre flop, this is an indication of how lose is he as a player.
For a full-ring table of 10 players if VPIP is within the range of 10%-20%, this is considered tight.
Another advantage of using VPIP is by comparing this to the pre flop-raise, a good estimate of how a player plays his hands pre flop can be made.
Pre flop raise PFR
PFR refers to the percentage of times the player raises pre flop. This stat can be very well compared with VPIP. VPIP counts calling and raising pre flop and hence will always be higher or equal to PFR.
If you see a huge difference between VPIP and PFR: for instance
VPIP = 20%
PFR=3%
Here you can safely assume that a player that plays passively pre flop is being dealt with.
If you see a difference of 4% or less: for instance
VPIP=20%
PFR=16%
VPIP is in a standard value range
Here you can safely assume that a tight-aggressive player- TAG is being played with. These are the players who profit maximum on stakes which are low and medium. TAG is proven to be a playing style that profits the most, and works for all stakes – low, medium and high and hence you should aim at becoming TAG yourself.
Aggression factor AF
The post-flop aggressiveness of a player is measured with the help of Aggression Factor.
AF should always be compared to VPIP. A player will not have a high AF if he is on many pots. This is so because that player would have trash many times and would not have a made hand to play with.
An example of this:
A player with 20% VPIP
5 to 10 AF
Here a player is considered aggressive and will be seen mostly making a continuation bet on you. He may also try to bluff in other places. The same player will be considered a passive player if he had 0.5 AF.
Hands
A hand refers to the number of hands you have of a particular player. To look at VPIP and PFR it is essential that you have 20 or more hands. Similarly you should have 50 hands or more to be able to look at AF. Anything less than what has been mentioned here will not be of much use.
