What are VPIP and PFR and how do they affect your game?

1. Tableau Range Poker Mtt
2. Poker Table Range
3. Tableau Range Poker Cash Game
4. Poker Hand Range Table
5. Poker Tableau Range Definition
6. Poker Tableau Range Levels

Replay Poker is an adult site intended for players aged 18 or over. We do not offer real money gambling or an opportunity to win real money or prizes. Practice or success does not imply future success at real money gambling. Hero’s equity versus Villain’s 3-betting range emphasizes this point: Hero’s range holds a 56.84% to 43.16% edge on this flop Just as Hero ranges his opponent, he should expect Villain to be ranging him. Since Hero has both a range and nut advantage on this texture, Villain’s betting range should be narrow. #14 Ratinha, 03 Jun 09 04:11 I used only the feeling from the ICM trainer and a little experience and get to the money in about 80%-90% of the $1 turbo sngs at party poker, finishing 1st or 2nd most of the time. To help you improve your poker range building technique I created this mini-series where we dissect a hand together – going street-by-street and action-by-action to assign precise ranges. This is the process I use when studying poker off-table and exactly how my brain processes information in real-timeand you will get stronger with it the.

VPIP and PFR are two basic but powerful poker statistics. Combined, they give you a clear picture of how your opponents are playing and ways to exploit their mistakes.

VPIP: Voluntarily Put In Pot

VPIP tracks the percentage of hands in which a particular player voluntarily puts money into the pot preflop. VPIP increases when a player could fold but instead commits money to the pot preflop. This includes limping (merely calling the big blind), calling, and raising.

Posting the small and big blinds does not influence the VPIP statistic. These actions are involuntary and therefore give no useful information on player tendencies.

PFR: Preflop Raise

PFR tracks the percentage of hands in which a particular player makes a preflop raise when having the opportunity to fold or call instead. This includes reraises.

The relationship between VPIP and PFR

VPIP is always higher than PFR. All preflop raises increase VPIP, but not all actions that influence VPIP will affect PFR. For example, limping preflop will increase VPIP but not PFR.

New players usually call too much preflop. Calling far more often than raising causes your VPIP to rise higher than your PFR, creating a gap between the two stats. This is a warning sign that you are moving away from the aggressive strategy essential to winning at poker. Winning players have a tight gap between their VPIP and their PFR.

A quick rule of the thumb is that the higher the PFR, the more aggressive a player is. The bigger the gap between VPIP and PFR, the more passive a player is.

Identifying player types using VPIP/PFR

VPIP and PFR are the key indicators of how your opponents understand the game of poker and of their overall strategy. Within 10 hands, Poker Copilot will give you a rough outline of an opponent’s play style. 100 hands are enough for a good idea of whom you are playing against, and 1000 hands give you a very clear picture of a player’s preflop strategy.

These are examples of six-handed poker VPIP/PFRs and the player types associated with each statistical breakdown.

Very high VPIP and low PFR: 75/10, 52/5, 60/15

A player with a high VPIP and low PFR is one you want at your table. These opponents play far too many hands, and they usually play them very passively. Players who have a very high VPIP and low PFR call far too much preflop. When they do raise, they are weighted towards value. These are passive players, and are known as “whales.”

High VPIP and low PFR: 40/15, 35/12, 30/5

These statistics, like the above, are also associated with losing players. These players prefer to call too frequently and raise too infrequently, but not to the extent of the whale.

Remember that passive play preflop is often an indicator of passive play post-flop.

Normal VPIP and low PFR: 18/1, 22/3

These statistics are associated with very tight players, known as “rocks.” They wait patiently for aces and kings, and only like to raise with their best hands. These players may, however, enjoy trapping and playing tricky, and will sometimes employ a limp/reraise strategy.

Bear in mind that their raises are almost always weighted towards very strong value hands.

Low VPIP/PFR: 10/8, 14/12

Players with a low VPIP and PFR but with a tight gap between their stats are what poker players call “nits.” They play a very tight range of hands, and usually play their range advantage aggressively post-flop.

Reg (professional) VPIP and PFR: 15/14, 19/17, 22/18, 28/23

Regs are almost always winning or break-even players. These players have small gaps between their VPIP and PFR. Regs can range from very tight to very loose. At one end of the spectrum, a player with 15/14 statistics will be an overly tight regular. At 28/23, the player may be playing too loose and aggressively.

Solid regulars generally have a VPIP/PFR between 19/17 and 25/23. As you move up in stakes, the rake (the amount taken from each pot by the poker room) decreases as a percentage of the pot and players are able to use wider ranges. Winning regulars often have statistics closer to 28/20 or 27/19 at the higher stakes.

Really, there is no incentive to playing more pots against good regulars. In poker, you should be trying to play as many pots as possible with losing players, known as “fish.” VPIP and PFR indicate who these fish may be, and ways to target them.

VPIP and PFR for Six-Max vs. Full Ring

The VPIP/PFR of a winning player at a six-handed table is different from that at a full ring, nine-handed table. The additional players in full ring necessitate a tighter playing style. This is because you are opening from the first positions into more players, and are therefore more likely to run into a hand that can call or reraise you.

Tableau Range Poker Mtt

When players open from early positions, they often have stronger holdings, which means other players are less likely to call or reraise them. This combination causes lower VPIP/PFR statistics for full ring games.

Winning regulars generally have a VPIP/PFR of between 11/8 and 16/14 in full ring games. The higher the skill level, the wider they can be, and some regulars are able to profitably play statistics like 22/20 at full ring.

Tournament VPIP/PFR

VPIP/PFR in tournaments depends on the structure and the stage of the tournament.

Poker Table Range

Multi-table tournaments (MTTs) can have thousands of players and generally start out with large stacks compared to the blinds. This leads to play that can be even tighter than full ring poker. In the early stages of tournaments, expect to see good regulars with stats that would be considered nitty even in full ring.

In the later stages of the tournament, however, as the blinds increase and stack sizes are smaller in comparison, you will see looser statistics. The shorter stack sizes necessitate a more aggressive style of play.

Aggression is also influenced by the “ante.” Usually, in the later stages of tournaments an ante will be in play. The ante functions like a smaller version of the small blind that each player must post before each hand. This causes play to loosen up considerably. You will find that strong players will have a much looser VPIP/PFR the later the tournament runs.

Turbos and hyperturbos are shorter, faster-paced tournaments. They have rapidly increasing blinds, which means that an aggressive, loose style of play is required. In these tournaments, VPIP/PFR will be much higher.

VPIP and PFR are the most important poker statistics

Long-term winning players will almost always fall within VPIP/PFR ranges for their chosen game type. Those who are outside these ranges can be easily identified and exploited. Understanding and utilizing VPIP and PFR is the first step towards greatly improving your own game.

I didn’t consider implementing poker ranges in my first few years of playing poker. One of the problems I used to experience at the tables was what to do with hands that weren’t so obviously strong (AA, AK – raise, raise, raise!) or so obviously weak (27o, J4o – ditch ‘em faster than green grass through a goose). Hands like K9o and 86s always gave me pause when it was folded to me. “Should I open… limp… or just fold?” I’d have to ask myself these questions all the time.

The answer to this problem was to create my own poker ranges. Bringing my off-the-felt analysis to on-the-felt play simplifies the game and ensures I’m making good opening hand decisions.

Finding ranges made by others online can help as a start, but they need to be tweaked and analyzed to fit your games and stakes. You can incorporate your own play style and the population tendencies at your stakes, with your own experiences and hand histories to help guide you in creating them.

The Poker Ranges You’ll Need

Here are the ranges that you’ll have to devise for the current stakes and games you play:

• Opening Ranges – Know what hands you’ll open in various positions (cash and MTT/SNG) as well as at different levels of the MTT/SNG (Early Stages, Mid-Stages, Late Stages).
• 3betting Ranges – You need to know which opponents you’ll 3bet and what you’ll 3bet with, both for value and as semi-bluffs.
• 4betting and 3bet Defending Ranges – Same considerations as your 3bet range.

The Importance of Building Ranges

There are three main reasons why we’d want to build ranges:

1. Simplification – by creating ranges that we drill into our heads, we’ve simplified our game. We’ve put these common spots into our unconscious competence, so we can act without thinking. We’re letting our subconscious mind direct our plays, so our conscious mind has more resources to devote to analyzing more difficult, less common situations. This has the added benefit of allowing for more multi-tabling, which in turn will increase your hourly.
2. Comfort – with your subconscious making decisions for you, you’ll be more comfortable and feel less stress at the tables. You’ll be more likely to avoid tilt and can continue playing longer sessions. Stress at the tables can lead to poor decisions, and making your subconscious work for you will be a great stress reliever.
3. Bringing off-the-felt analysis to on-the-felt play – by spending time off-the-felt, creating a thoughtful range that takes into account your position, blind structure and opponent type, you’ll be able to bring your stress-free analysis of the game onto the felt. How many times have you reviewed a hand history and thought, ‘Why did I fold TT? It’s obvious he’s opening 30%+, and TT dominates him!’ When you’re working on your game off-the-felt, you’re doing so without the stress of in-game play, which allows for more clear and level headed thought. You can spot patterns and weaknesses easier off the felt. Creating your ranges then using them in-game is a way to bring your level-headed, stress-free thoughts from off-the-felt analysis to on-the-felt play.

How to Create Your Poker Ranges

Start by building your own hand table in Excel (or just download this one that I built) like the following example (6-max Mid-level Open Ranges of a micro stakes SNG):

Different colors divide ranges into sub-ranges. For example with Opening Ranges:

Tableau Range Poker Cash Game

• Use one color for your default opening range (dark blue in the example above)
• Utilize another color (green) for an expanded range when there are fish in the blinds
• Use another color (yellow) for an even more expanded range when there are nits in the blinds
• You can use as many colors as you want to differentiate ranges. You can even toss in some bluffs vs regs (red) if you feel it necessary.

Don’t try to memorize the ranges you build. Constant use will help to naturally ingrain them in your Unconscious Competence. Just print, laminate and have at the ready as you play online, and eventually you’ll end up memorizing them (or make flash cards to ensure they get in that noggin quicker).

Consider your opponent’s ranges

When creating your Opening Ranges, you’ll have to have a good idea of what your opponents will likely call or re-raise with. For 3betting Ranges, you’ll have to be aware of what your opponents are likely opening with and what they’ll continue with. And for your 4betting and 3bet Defending Ranges, you’ll have to have a good sense of what your opponents 3bet with and what they’re likely to continue in the hand with. This exercise takes plenty of experience at your stakes. You’ll want to devote a week to creating your ranges, putting them to the test in your sessions and assessing the effectiveness of your ranges through hand history reviews. Then go back and adjust your ranges based on what you’ve found.

Using well thought out, strategic ranges like this won’t turn you into a robot; it will enable you to have an effective game plan to use vs. your opponent’s ranges. You will be bringing your off-the-felt intellect, problem solving skills and controlled emotions to your on-the-felt play.

How do I know my ranges are good?

You can do a few different things to test the precision of your ranges at your stakes and game type:

1. Use Flopzilla

This program gauges the effectiveness of each hand in your range vs. an expected opponent’s range. For example, how well does ATs on the BTN fair vs. a BB cold call range of 30%? “Oh, it has 62% equity? Yep, it’s an open.”

2. Review the Profitability of Specific Hands

Don’t know if A9s should be in your Cut-off open range? Run a filter in your poker tracking software for this hand (I use PokerTracker 4), and specifically when you Raised First-In with it in the CO. Review at least 20 hands in your history and ask yourself if this is an overall profitable hand to open with. Did you lose or win an unexpected amount with it? Do you often wind up with a kicker issue when called, or terrible equity when you call an opponent’s 3bet? Do the players at your stakes call with hands much weaker, allowing you to extract value from them post-flop?

3. Get Help from a Study Group or Forum

Poker Hand Range Table

Post your ranges in the appropriate threads and solicit feedback. This is a more subjective way to check your ranges, but it could give you insights into aspects of your range that you never considered.

4. Get Feedback on Your Poker Ranges

Your coach (or respected friends) will have plenty of thoughts on how your ranges would fare vs. your opponents, so use his feedback to adjust your ranges, test them on-the-felt, and make adjustments as necessary.

After going through these four modes of feedback, put them into play. Once you’re confident in your ranges, laminate them and use them all the time. *Remember: When you move up in stakes, move to a new site or game format you’ll need to adjust your ranges.

Poker Tableau Range Definition

It’s a time consuming process if you do it correctly, but well worth it. Try to enjoy the process, because as your skills increase and you progress through the levels, you’ll be revising your ranges over and over to account for the population tendencies of your new stakes. I hope this first time creating ranges leads to two, three, four, even five or more times for you!

Please share with me your own poker ranges by emailing them to sky@smartpokerstudy.com. I’d love to review them for you and offer you some feedback.

Until next time, study smart, play hard and make your next session the best one yet!

Poker Tableau Range Levels

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