It's a little of both.

I'm using PokerAce HUD so it displays their ptracker stats on the poker table where I can easily see them. This let's me see how loose or tight each player is.


VPIP is voluntarily put money in the pot. It's basically how many hands they play. 18 would be pretty tight. Assuming 6-max, 27% and below is decently tight and above it is starting to get loose.

PFR is how often they raise the pot before the flop. This is a basic indication of how aggressive they are. 12% is about average for 6max tables. Anything over 20% is out of line.

So for example, say a guy raises:
1) If his PFR is say 4%, well then you know it's probably a big pair like AA/KK/AK/QQ
2) If his PFR is say 19%, well then he's probably raising with much less like AJ/88/etc.

In the above situation, if I had say AQ, I'd maybe fold in hand 1 but reraise in hand 2.

I've found that my reads are better when I don't use the HUD (GameTime), so recently I stoped to use it in real time. I only use it after the seesion to analyse the style of the regulars.

As for getting a read, you just look for repeating patterns. If someone calls preflop raise with J7s and then calls 2 barrels with a middle pair, I put a note on him 'Callling station'. If someone folds his BB to my raises too often and folds to CB too often, I put a note 'Weak-tight'. So basically anyplay that is out of balance.

There are also style specific play, as I have PFR at about 25%, if someone starts to 3bet me quite often, I mark him as an ok player, probably TAG, as he was able to realise that I play quite loose.

There are lots of such smallthings that one can notice in real time, if you make an analysis after the game you can pick up even more clues on the regulars. Pattern recongnition: the most important skill in poker (and in life.).