What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

I recently posted asking if Pokertracker was useful, the answer I got was a unanimous yes. I downloaded the software and I have been using for the past week. I'm learning more about it everyday but I wanted to know what stats you guys feel are the most important to look at while playing or even afterwards.

I have heard a lot of people discuss the VP/IP of an opponent. What are guidelines for using that stat to determine the playing style of your opponent? What range of vp/ip describes what range of players? Any information would be helpful. Thanks.

-Shady Poker

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

The sticky FAQ in the Microlimit forum has some info on typical stat ranges for winning players. You might be able to get some good info out of it by figuring out what your opponents are doing wrong based on how much they deviate from the "normal" stats. Also, for 2/4 and 3/6, there is a post called "I hate tiger woods" or something like that. It has info on the stats of several winning players at those limits. Your stats won't be statistically significant for a while, but you can get an idea of some of them after a few thousand hands. For your opponents, you won't have this many hands very often, but you can make reasonable judgements if you keep in mind the sample size. Someone who is 44/2 after 50 hands is obviously a bad player regardless of sample size.

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

If a player was 44/2, what exactly does that mean in lamens terms?

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

44=VP$IP - voluntarily put $ in pot (preflop) - a measure of loose/tightness, expressed as a percentage. 44 means this player is voluntarily entering the pot with 44% of all hands. the reliability of this stat depends on how many hands it is based on.

2=PFR - Pre Flop Raise - what percentage of the time does this player raise or reraise preflop, expressed as a percentage. a measure of passive/aggressiveness. again, the reliability of this stat depends on how many hands it is based on.

a 44/2 is entering many pots (loose) and raising few hands (passive).

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

[ QUOTE ]
44=VP$IP - voluntarily put $ in pot (preflop) - a measure of loose/tightness, expressed as a percentage. 44 means this player is voluntarily entering the pot with 44% of all hands. the reliability of this stat depends on how many hands it is based on.

2=PFR - Pre Flop Raise - what percentage of the time does this player raise or reraise preflop, expressed as a percentage. a measure of passive/aggressiveness. again, the reliability of this stat depends on how many hands it is based on.

a 44/2 is entering many pots (loose) and raising few hands (passive).

[/ QUOTE ]


Thanks for this. This tells me the type of vp/ip for a loose passive player, what would you say is a general vp/ip for a tight passive, tight aggressive and loose aggressive player etc?

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

the problem with giving you set ranges for loosepassive, etc. is that it completely depends on the game. shorthanded games are completely different from full games, and the player profiles change accordingly. in aggressive games a moderately aggressive player might be considered passive. there are many variables. what limits are you playing?

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

I bounce around a lot but recently I've been playing a lot of:

2/4nl full tables
3/6nl short handed
5/10 limit full tables

Please tell me general values for these limits if possible.

Thanks a lot.

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

NL isnt my thing, i dont think id feel comfortable giving you ranges for those games. also, NL is a game where an ovewhelming majority of the money is won postflop, so the preflop numbers arent as indicative of skill.

5-10 full ring limit, you are looking at:

VPIP under 15 is tight, 15-25 is optimal depending on game conditions, 25-35 is loose, and greater than 35 full ring is horribly loose.

PFR 0-4 is passive, 4-12 is optimal depending on game conditions, greater than 18 is maniacal.

these are very general and you should think about the reasoning behind them instead of blindly assuming my numbers are correct for your games.

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

I've found that PT is most useful when studying individual hands your opponents play - in bulk.

VPIP becomes statistically valid after a relatively few number of hands. Since it's also an indicator for either tight play or very loose play, it's probably the most important stat. However, remember that VPIP doesn't necessarily indicate any particular level of skill of a player post-flop. I've seen players who play every hand and play them reasonably well post-flop, and players who only play the top 10 hands, but play them badly.

I find WtSD, W%SD, PFR, Total Aggression, Check-raise%, and Cold-calling% most useful while playing - without reads. A fairly good picture of this player can be obtained with these stats.

Replay a chunk of one of your frequent opponents' hands (probably another tight/aggressive player), and take some rudimentary notes about each hand. Classify them by hand types (2pair, straights, high-card, etc.) and suprisingly soon patterns will appear in their play.

Re: What information is most important from Pokertracker?
 

http://www.andymcnish.btinternet.co.uk/newauto.htm

These show NL categories and PTBB/100 for full ring - there is also link to some 6 max categorisations

but they are based on SSNL ($50 tables) and I wouldn't know how they relate to higher stake NL play