Poker HUDs: How to Decipher Your Opponent’s Poker Statistics
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Among the most powerful techniques to maximize your online poker returns is to run and comprehend poker tracking software.
Aside from keeping exact detailed information about your gains and losses, softwares like Poker Tracker and Hold ’em Manager will trace every action your challengers make.
Adopting the heads-up display (HUD) you can turn that data into easy-to-understand data and show them next to your opponents’ pseudonyms straightaway, directly on the table.
The info on the HUD shows you precise information about your opponents’ playstyle trends, and comprehending these numbers can make a huge contrast in your winrate.
Numbers are something that all succeeding players adopt to a degree, but very few use to their full capacity. Learn to master this highly effective tool and you’ll reap big rewards.
A quick run down of probably the most popular statistics:
How to Look At a Poker HUD: Pre-Flop Data
VPIP%
This is the average total % of times your opponent puts cash into the pot voluntarily. That could mean raising pre-flop, cold calling, completing the big blind, etc.
The bigger a player’s VPIP, the looser the player. The lower the VPIP, the tighter the player.
For six-max no-limit hold ’em most regulars drop between 19–25% VPIP. Any tighter or looser, though potentially profitable, is rarely optimal.
See the side picture for a PokerStove of 19% VPIP to get an idea of what hands that player would play.
PFR%
This is the Pre-Flop Raise stat and it’s pretty self explanatory. It’s how frequently your opponent raises just before the flop.
Most players’ PFR drop inside 4–6% of their VPIP. I.E if they play 20 VPIP their PFR is commonly around 14% -19%.
The larger the space between VPIP and PFR the more frequently a player cold calls.
For instance a player with a 35% VPIP and a 10% PFR has a 25% cold-calling range and is probably a fish.
3b%
This is how frequently your opponent re-raises before the flop.
As an example a 3% three-bettor would be AA-TT, AKs-AQS, and AQo and would have no light three-bets in its range. You can readjust from there.
This is how frequently your opponent folds to three-bets. This stat is tremendously valuable when determining which hands to three-bet and which to call with prior to the flop.
Of course someone with a high fold-to-three-bet stat is a player you can three-bet light relentlessly. Someone with a low fold-to-three-bet stat you can three-bet broader for value.
These are the most popular pre-flop numbers. While most players are aware of what each stat means, few put in the time to think how they are all connected.
For instance a player with a very near VPIP and PFR is also usually going to have a higher three-bet% since he is cold-calling less regularly.
On the other hand a player with a large gap between his VPIP and PFR is going to have a very broad cold-calling range and hence will have many weak hands in that range.
It’s not just about knowing what the data mean. You must realize how to adopt them to draw real and useful conclusions about your opponents’ games.
How to Read a Poker HUD: Post-Flop Numbers
AG
This is your opponent’s aggression factor. It tells you how aggressive he plays. Most players drop between 1–3. Everything less is very passive and anything more is very aggressive.
If a player with a 0.5 AG is playing back at you, he’s most likely not bluffing and you would need an excellent hand to carry on.
Conversely if someone with a 6 AG is playing back at you, your top pair is starting to look fairly good.
WTSD%
This is how regularly your opponent heads to showdown after seeing the flop. The majority of players fall between 20 and 32%.
Carrying a low WTSD can suggest two things: He either folds very frequently prior to showdown or he makes his opponents fold very regularly prior to showdown.
A good technique to tell is run WTSD combined with AG. If your opponent is passive and doesn’t head to showdown regularly, then he’s weak tight.
If your opponent is aggressive and has a low WTSD, he’s making people fold before showdown very regularly. If your opponent shows down 35% or more, he’s showdown happy.
Again, you need to analyze WTSD and his aggression stat to get an idea of the way he plays.
If his aggression is minimal he may not be betting with the lead regularly enough and intuitively lets his opponents showdown far more than they should.
If, nonetheless, he is aggressive yet still has a high WTSD, he likely also calls way too regularly with weak hands on the river.
Seeing a number and knowing how regularly a player heads to showdown is helpful but seeing a number and discovering why he heads to showdown as regularly as he does is priceless.
CB
How regularly your opponent continuation bets on the flop as the pre-flop raiser.
Most players continuation-bet on the flop between 55% — 88% of the time.
CB% should be evaluated coupled with the PFR stat. The lower the player’s PFR%, the bigger the player’s CB%. That’s because the less hands the player is raising pre-flop the stronger the hands. The stronger the hand pre-flop the more frequently he’ll make strong hands worth betting on the flop.
As a player’s PFR gets higher, he is mosting likely to miss the flop more frequently given that he’s raising a lot of more marginal hands before the flop. If his CB stat stays high then he is mosting likely to be c-betting air very regularly and consequently is exploitable.
2B
This is how regularly your opponent 2nd barrels as the pre-flop raiser when his flop c-bet is called.
Of course it should be adopted combined with the CB stat. If your opponent has both high flop c-bet and turn c-bet statistics then he is just likely going to be barreling his air very regularly and you should, consequently, call him down lighter.
If your opponent has a high flop c-bet and a low turn c-bet then you’ve pinpointed your opponent as a one-and-done player. These guys fire one barrel at the flop and surrender when called.
If your opponent is a one-and-done player then floating ends up being your best friend.
FC
How regularly your opponent folds to flop continuation bets.
The bigger a player’s FC, the more “fit or fold” he plays. The smaller the number, the more regularly he calls the flop with marginal hands.
Run combined with the VPIP stat you can definitely get a taste of a player’s overall game.
A player that has a large VPIP and a small FC is mosting likely to be seeing a ton of flops and a bunch of turns. And, odds are, he’s a fish you can play as such.
Or, if he’s a regular and has a low FC, you can adopt the pop-up stat and evaluate his bet-when-checked-to stat. If that is high, then you’ve found an opponent who adores to float.
F2
How regularly your opponent folds to a second barrel.
Many fish love to call pre-flop and enjoy to call the flop but won’t keep on past the turn without having a suitable hand. You can immediately tell these sorts of players if they have a low FC stat and a high F2 stat.
Of course you should punish these sorts of players by firing second barrels more regularly.
How Critical is Sample Size in Poker?
The thing about numbers is that they might be really confusing without a genuine sample size. Hold ’em is a variance packed game and in the short-term numbers can fluctuate substantially.
One of the biggest miscalculations you can make is handling a player’s online poker numbers as gospel when you have a tiny sample size — only to find in the real world they play in an entirely different fashion.
Hold back from drawing advanced verdicts about how somebody plays until you have already logged sufficient hands. What “sufficient hands” means changes from stat to stat.
While 100 hands may be sufficient to draw conclusions from the VPIP and PFR numbers, it’s not nearly enough to understand WTSD, barreling frequencies, or three-bet numbers.
Just like everything in poker, the larger the sample size the best.
Use Poker Statistics as an Instrument, Not a Bible
Numbers are a tool, not a crutch. Too much players trust only on statistics in a game. They’ll paint everyone with similar data with a wide, sweeping brush when in reality everyone plays in a different way.
You can have several various players all with data that are really identical. Yet one player might crush the game for 4BB/100, one might break even and one might beat it for 1BB/100.
If you manage all of those players the exact same, you’re making a huge miscalculation. Counting too heavily on data leaves you playing an ABC, robotic game and will stunt your improvement as a poker player.
Data are simply one tool in a profitable player’s box. They need to remain run combined with observation and non stats-based reads.
Numbers only give you an average of how your opponent plays vs all different kinds of opponents. It falls to you to understand how he plays versus you and you can solely do that by focusing and taking notes.
When you are capable to look past the basic knowledge provided in a stat and begin to draw real settlements regarding your opponent’s play, considering his statistics overall and how each links to the others, you’ll begin to overtake your internal ABC poker bot and you will begin to play much better poker.
If you can possibly do that — while watching and taking non-stat notes on your opponents — you’re likely going to be a force to be considered.
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