PreFlop Indicators - VP$IP and PreFlop Raise%
A player's VP$IP percentage is one of best indicators as to what type of player he is. By interpreting this number you can get a good idea of how tight or loose he is, and what types of cards he is likely to play. To get an idea of what groups of hands correspond to what %, refer to this table:
GroupHands/Number of Combinations % seen
Big Pocket Pairs AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT 6+6+6+6+6=30 2.26
Big Cards AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, AT 16+16+16+16+16=80 6.03
Other Broadway Cards (suited) KJs, KTs, QJs, QTs, JTs 4+4+4+4+4=20 1.51
Other Broadway Cards (unsuited) KJ, KT, QJ, QT, JT 12+12+12+12+12=60 4.52
Mid Pocket Pairs 99, 88, 77, 66 6+6+6+6=24 1.81
A-x suited A9s, A8s, A7s, A6s, A5s, A4s, A3s, A2s 4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4=32 2.41
Suited Connectors T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s 4+4+4+4+4=20 1.51
Low Pocket Pairs 55, 44, 33, 22 6+6+6+6=24 1.81
A-x (offsuit) A9, A8, A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2 12+12+12+12+12+12+12+12=96 7.24
Small Blind Calls (N/A) 10.0
Lets see how to use the above table to analyze a tight player that shows a VP$IP number of 18%, and a PreFlop Raise of 3.5%. To make 18% for VP$IP, this player is probably playing Big Pocket Pairs, Big Cards, Other Broadway Cards (suited), and half of the Other Broadway Cards (unsuited). If you add the percentages together, you get 2.26+6.03+1.51+2.26=12.06. Assuming this player calls about half of the small blinds, that adds another 5%. We arrive at 17.06% which is very close to his VP$IP of 18%. His PreFlop Raise of 3.5% indicates that he is probably only raising Big Pocket Pairs, and AK.
Now let's analyze a loose player that shows a VP$IP of 50% and PreFlop Raise of 15%. To get a VP$IP of 50%, this player must be playing every hand listed in the table, and calling every small blind. This still only adds up to about 38%, so he is probably playing some unsuited connectors and K-x hands as well. This type of player can be holding almost any 2 cards - a losing formula. A PreFlop Raise of 10% means he is likely raising with Big Pocket Pairs, Big Cards, all Broadway Cards, and some Mid Pocket Pairs.
The following chart shows how tight and loose typical players are at a typical High Limit game:
To read this chart, pick a VP$IP number on the x-axis, such as 0.30. The data point has a y-value of 0.55. This means that 55% of players have a lower VP$IP (are tighter), and 45% have a higher VP$IP (are looser). If you pick a VP$IP of 0.18, you'll see that only 12% of players are tighter than this. I like to use 0.18 as my "Loose" threshold, and 0.33 as my tight threshold in Options. This means players that are in the tightest 12% of all players will show up as red, and the loosest 36% will show up as green.
This chart was based on real data from our database, over a sample of 10,096 players that have played 200 hands or more. It includes games from $5/10 to $30/60 on tables with 7 or more players.
PostFlop Aggression
Aggression is defined as (Bet% + Raise%)/Call%. PostFlop aggression combines the aggression ratings for the Flop, Turn and River. It is computed by (Bet% + Raise% for Flop+Turn+River) divided by ( Call% for Flop+Turn+River). The following chart shows how aggressive typical players are at a low limit table:
According to this chart, PostFlop Aggresion of 1.3 is the cut off point. 50% of players are more aggressive than this, and 50% are less aggressive. I like to consider players above 2.0 to be clear-cut aggressive and players below 1.0 to be clear-cut passive. Remember - aggressive players are much more likely to be bluffing or semi-bluffing when betting and raising.
