As I alluded to in my previous ‘Wax On, Wax Off’ articles, a separate series was needed to effectively cover poker tracking software. No doubt most people reading this are aware of the software but are unlikely to get the most of it.

Introduction

The two main choices are Poker Tracker and Hold'em Manager. They both do exactly the same thing and there is little difference between them other than cosmetics. Two main functions are performed by the software:

1. An accurate record of your sessions is kept in a database.

2. Information is also built up on your opponents in your database which is displayed live on screen in the form of a HUD (Heads-Up Display)

In essence, the more you play, especially against the same opponents, the more information you have on how your play is responded to by them, and also how they play in certain situations. Let’s look at each of the two main functions in turn.

Session Records

As with any form of gambling, maintaining accurate record of bets and profit/loss is key to long term success. Using tracking software enables you to easily see how many hands you have played at any given level, what your win rate is, and how long you have played for amongst others. However, the main benefit of the database is the ability to provide in depth session reviews. You can check up on how many pots you play, whether you enter them by calling or raising, and how you got on in each circumstance. We will come back to session reviews in its own section later on.

HUD

Firstly, we need to know what the numbers displayed actually relate to, so here is a basic glossary of the stats and what they actually mean:

VP$IP - Voluntarily Put $ Into Pot. The % of hands that the player puts money into the pot.

PFR- PreFlop Raise. The % of the time that the player raises preflop

Call PFR - Call PreFlop Raise. % that player calls a PFR.

AF - Aggression Factor. The ratio between raise/bet and check call that a player has.

AFq - Aggression Frequency. % of the time the player takes an aggressive action.

BB/100 - BigBets per 100 hands. The most common point for analysis of a players win-rate.

3Bet - % of the time the player 3-bets preflop

Fold to 3Bet - % of the time the player folds to a 3Bet

W$WSF - Won $ When Saw Flop expressed as a %

WTSD - Went to Showdown as a %

W$SD - Won $ at showdown as a %

Att To Steal - % of the time the player attempts to steal the blinds when folded round to him. Note, previous limpers mean that your raise is not classed as an attempt to steal.

Fold BB/SB to steal - Expressed as %

C-bet - Continuation Bet. % that the last player to take aggressive action (PFR or 3-bet) bets again on the flop.

DonkBet - % of the time the player bets into an unraised pot on the flop or when the player bets into a pot out of position when not having been the aggressor.

These are the basic stats that people will use to analysis an opponent and how they play so that their range can be tightened allowing us to play optimally against them. Other stats may be introduced at later points in this article, but I will cover them then. It is also important to realise that the type of game we are playing affects the stats that we should be looking for and also that stats work together in combination, and can rarely be used independently of each other. Let’s start with the Holy Trinity.

VP$IP/PFR/AF

These three stats are used as the building block for creating our analysis of the villain/ They also relate to each other. PFR can't be higher that VP$IP, however, and is often substantially lower. This is a great indicator of a passive opponent, and obviously the higher the numbers, the looser an opponent is. So very quickly just by sitting at the table we can get a quick idea of our opponents’ profiles (loose, passive, etc) and start to think about what ranges of hands we want to play against them. With the very passive opponents, you probably want to be looking at their limp-fold and limp-reraise stats on a popup, to help narrow ranges when you do get action on your raises. Furthermore, when playing in position, pay attention to the donk-bet and fold to c-bet stats.

I hope from looking at just these two basic stats you get an idea of how different stats relate to each other and we can start to build up our reads on the villains, and also gain an understanding that we are using combinations of stats pre and post-flop to back each other up and help narrow down our opponents’ ranges and turn their cards face-up.

‘Aggression Factor’ is a stat that often people look at for reads on how aggressive a person is. To my mind it’s slightly outdated and unnecessary for unlocking your opponents’ play methods, but as a lot of people use it and misunderstand it I will mention it.

As highlighted in the glossary at the top, it’s a ratio. This means that it is a factor of VP$IP. If someone has a high VP$IP they will have to be quite aggressive in order to maintain a high AF simply because of the number of pots they are involved in. For example, you have two villains with stats of 24/20/3 and 75/30/1.5. Who is more aggressive? The guy with the lower aggression factor is actually going to be a lot more aggressive than the higher AF villain. As such, AF has declined in popularity somewhat, with people focusing on AFq instead or just using other stat combos for their reads.

Now that we’ve accrued a basic knowledge of what stats are available and what they mean, tomorrow we’ll look into using those stats to develop reads on our opponents.

Read Part Two...

Other 'Wax On, Wax Off' articles:

Stages of Poker Evolution - Part One
Stages of Poker Evolution - Part Two