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This is a great question, I am a 15/9 player, but I also tried to transition, and went to the 19/17 player, and was one of the guys that cardshop was talking about (someone who almost gets it, but not quite.) What is the next step to get to become better.

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to stlanty and emperor - don't try to improve your game by aiming for an "optimal" vp$ip. improve your game so that your vp$ip is better. that is just to say, don't try to create situations to increase the number, because this will invariably lead to mistakes (e.g., making bad coldcalls or EP limps w/ the justification that this must be the way to optimalize vpip). figure out which situations you are misplaying preflop, and the proper vp$ip will follow.

not saying that you guys are doing this, but just advising.

here are a couple situations that may be leading to your low vp$ip:

1) perhaps you don't steal from the cutoff and hijack enough. many players who are "almost there" oversteal from the button and understeal from the 2 seats right of the button. as you move up in limits, you will notice that you will be less able to steal from the button because there is a lot more opening from the cutoff and hijack.

2) you may not be defending your big blind to steal raises enough. remember that you are getting 3.5:1 on a button/LP steal, and there are some pretty crappy-looking hands with which you should be defending. (of course don't take this too far.)

what range of hands would you defend from the bb against a steal from an aggressive button?