Aggression rating

[cold_cash]

Okay, so I suck with numbers. This isn't exactly front page news around here, but I figured it was worth repeating.

Anyway, here's my question.

In PokerTracker and PokerAce, each player has an aggression rating. All of them are different. Of course there is an 'ideal' or 'preferred' range for those of us checking our own stats.

My question is how does a players looseness or tightness effect that number, and what does it mean to me?

For example, let's say Player A has a VPIP of 25% and a total aggression rating of 1.5, and Player B has a VPIP of 65% and a total aggression rating of 1.5.

Now obviously we see the same number (1.5) and think these players may be similarly aggressive, but that's not the case.

Your job is to tell me why.

[McGahee]

Well, the looser you are the worst cards you play the worst flops you get and the harder it is to be aggressive with marginal hands. But you knew this already. Are you asking for like an equivalency scale?

[cold_cash]

I've heard people say things like "Well, he's loose so he's playing more hands, thus he has more chances to bet and raise that the tight guy".

And, "Well his aggression rating can be misleading because he's so tight/loose."

Etc..

I'm just trying to figure out how that all fits together, and how I might use that information.

Aggresion factor is equal to (Raise% + Bet%)/(Call%) which is essentially (Aggressiveness)/(Looseness). So, a loose player would need to be much more aggresive in order to have the same Aggresion factor as a tight one. If we assume that the guy with 65% VPIP plays much looser post-flop, he will be calling a lot post-flop, and then that is why he would also need to be more aggresive to get the same rating.

[milesdyson]

AF = (raise% + bet%)/(call%)

tighter players generally play better hands. a very, very tight player (say he only plays AA, KK, QQ, and AK) should be extremely aggressive since his hand is worth raising and betting at basically every point in a hand.

however players who play T4o, 63o, and 96o should really have a hard time betting and raising these hands postflop. so the looser you are, the less inclind you should be to bet and raise postflop.

there is another factor - the very loose preflop players are the ones likely to call too often with very poor hands postflop. tight players can generally find folds. this is more of a subjective observation, but i believe it's true.

so when you see a very loose preflop player -

1. he does not play good hands, thus he should not be betting and raising much postflop.
2. he probably also has a tendency to call too often.

both of these factors will decrease a players aggression factor, so when you see a very loose player with a high aggression factor, it is not the same as seeing a tight player with that same aggression factor.

basically

[cold_cash]

So then Player B is much more aggressive than Player A?

[milesdyson]

yes if player B is the very loose player and player A is the very tight player and they both have the same AF.

[cold_cash]

Mucho appreciado.

Nomadtla and I revised a Harv72b idea and came up with this.

Take a VPiP - say 20. And what you consider the borderline AF between passive and aggressive for that VPiP - say 2.

This becomes your standard. Everything is now relative to this. If you think 1.5 should be standard for 20 VPiP - fine.

But whatever you consider standard - multiply the two numbers together.

ie. 20 Vpip x 2 AF = 40

This is your standard number - X.

Relative aggression = X/VPiP.

So based on X being 40.

Player A = 40/25 = 1.6
His AF is 1.5 so he is slightly passive.

Player B = 40/65 = .615
His AF is 1.5 so he is very aggressive.

The other way to do it is:

VPiP x AF and compare to X.

Where X = 40

Player A: 25*1.5 = 37.5 } 37.5<X = slightly passive
Player B: 65*1.5 = 97.5 } 97.5>X = very aggressive


For you X may be 30. As I said it's all relative.
But this is a quick way to work it out at the table. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[tiltaholic]

post by Catt