Optimal Stats for Full Table
Playing many hands is very important before you begin to analyze any of the following stats. Some
stats begin to converge fairly quickly (VPIP may be somewhat representative after 1000 hands) while
other stats take a very long time to be meaningful (50K - 100K minimum to begin to look at your winrate).
Often your style has changed by the time a stat converges to a meaningful number. If you feel as
though you must post a Poker Tracker stat post, it is strongly recommended that you have at least a 10K
hand sample size. Until you reach 10K hands, your stats will often vary too much to put much weight
on them. Use the following guide to track your progress and stat fluctuations relative to the typical
ranges of these stats. The following ranges are provided for 10 player ring games at the micro level,
but will remain fairly consistent as you move up.
VPIP: voluntarily put $ in pot (%). There is no sweet spot for this number, but the typical
range is between 15 and 20. A few posters manage with sub-15 VPIP's and a few posters manage with VPIP's
in the low 20's. As you move up, this number will often drop a point or two. Your VPIP will not be
uniform across all positions. You should generally be tighter in early position than in late position.
PFR: preflop raise (%). The typical range is 8-10. A few posters exceed 10, but many posters
begin their first 10K hands at or below 8. Some suggest that PFR should be half your VPIP, but that's an
effectual coincidence and should not be your goal. If you only have a VPIP of 14 or 15, you will still
often have the same PFR of 8-9 as someone with a higher VPIP. Your PFR will often be higher in LP than
in EP.
VPIP from SB: typical range 30-38. This stat varies greatly by your table selection. If you
typically play at passive games, you can expect this to be on the higher end. If you are in aggressive
games, it will be lower. If its much lower than 30, you are missing out on a few profitable situations
for the half-price. If its much higher than 40, you are probably playing too much and underestimating
the difficulties of playing out of position postflop. Consult a starting hand chart for more
information.
Saw flop all hands: This is an effect stat of your VPIP's and your table selection. It is
often about 5% higher than your VPIP. Discussion at 2+2 primarily involves the VPIP stat rather than
this one.
Steal defense: At the micro limits, this situation occurs very rarely and you will generally
not have a significant sample size even after playing 20K hands. It is much better to focus on specific
hands for defending situations as its often highly opponent dependent.
Attempt to steal: This situation occurs a bit more frequently than steal defense, but still it
will not be too common until you hit the higher end of the micro limits. This number will often be in
the mid-upper 30's, but will vary depending on your table selection and overall aggressiveness.
WSD: went to showdown. This number typical falls into the 28-32 range, but varies by your
style. It is helpful in identifying potentially major leaks and too high a number often represents
overly loose play on the big streets. Too low a number often represents a "fit or fold"
mentality where you give up on too many profitable situations by ignoring the pot size.
WSF: won $ when saw flop. By coincidence, this number also falls into the 28-32 range. It is
mostly an effect stat. If it is very high (35+) you may be running well. A number below 28 may indicate
a problem with protecting your vulnerable hands or folding too many winners. Like many stats, a specific
number does not indicate a specific problem, only that there may be one and you should be posting hands
where you had difficult postflop decisions.
W$SD: won $ at showdown. Varies between 50-58. Below 50 often indicates that you are seeing
too many showdowns while a number which is too high may indicate that you are folding too many winners.
In limit Hold'em, a pot is often quite large on the end, thus you often need to be quite sure that you
don't have the best hand to make folding on the end correct.
FRB: folded to river bet. Varies between 40-55. This stat is pointless to analyze by itself.
In combination with WSD or W$SD, it may indicate a problem of folding too much on the end (or not
enough). As long as its not incredibly low or high, there are better ways to spend your time.
AF: aggression factor. This is an arbitrary number representing the relative frequency of
which you are the aggressor on each street. The numbers vary greatly by your style and posting specific
hands is generally better to determine if your aggressiveness is appropriate. VPIP/PFR account for your
preflop aggression, so generally ignore AF - PF. Your postflop aggression will typically be around 2 - 3
on each postflop street. The flop is often higher than the turn and river, often exceeding 3.0. A micro
posters overall AF (not including PF) will typically be in the 2.0 - 3.0 range. Some posters report
success with overall AF's over 3, but nearly none have AF's under 2. This is not a stat worth
overanalyzing unless it is woefully low or maniacally high.
when folds (%): This is not a stat worth overanalyzing as its speaks nothing of the
appropriateness of your actions. Typical numbers may look something like this, but the range of
"appropriate" numbers could be quite wide. (no fold: 12 _ PF: 75 _ flop: 8 _ turn: 3 _ river:
2).
check-raises: This is often in the 1% to 2% range of all possible actions. It is not worth
analyzing this stat to decide if you are "check raising enough". Post hands to do that.
Win-rate: The number everyone is concerned about and the number we can do nothing about. Be
happy with anything above 0 BB / 100 hands. The measure used is big bets per 100 hands. This accounts
for multi-tabling and limit differences whereas $/hr gives you no real indication of success. Don't fret
with something below 0 BB/100 if you have a small sample size. Variance and downswings happen and they
can be quite large (200+ BB losses) and extend over a long period of time (10K+ hands). Your winrate
will decrease as you move up in limits. Since its asked all the time, a 3 BB/100 winrate at .50/1.00
(online) is often regarded as great. 6 BB/100 is probably unsustainable. Once you reach 2/4 (online), 2
BB/100 is great for the long term and 4 BB/100 may be unsustainable. Also, you will be a loser from the
blinds. The blind commitment is too great to overcome by solid play.
Standard Deviation / 100: This varies by your style, but 14-18 seems to be the typical range.
Summary: Remember, these stats speak nothing of the appropriateness of your actions, but
primarily indicate the frequency of your actions (VPIP, PFR, etc). The 2+2 'style' generally leads
towards a happy range for most of these numbers, but having good stats and good results are very
different things. Stats are useful in identifying the existence of major leaks, but often leave you in a
guessing game in determining where those leaks may reside. You will have to post hands or read materials
to fix your leaks.
Optimal Stats for Short Table
With the ever increasing popularity of 6 max play in these parts comes an
increasing number of questions about the proper stats to have for 6 max play. btspider already wrote an
excellent full ring stats guide in the FAQ (which answers 90% of all full ring stats posts here, btw),
but there isn't one that covers the differences for 6 max play. For my Pooh-Bah post, I figured I'd
write a complimentary guide that will hopefully live up to the high standard he set.
The problem with stats is that having stats in line with typical values does not
necessarily imply good play, nor does having stats out of line with typical values necessarily imply bad
play. However, seeing that your stats are out of line can give you a quick diagnosis and a place to
start looking for holes. Hopefully the information I've compiled and put in here will be used as a
beginning, not an end, for improving play.
VPIP and PFR: These are easily the stats about which the most questions are
asked, and the answer is fairly imprecise. Following this
starting hand chart (which is pretty close to "Prefloper" recommendations) will
get you to about 23-25/14-16 or so, and that's pretty reasonable. If that feels too loose and too
aggressive, you could consider tightening up somewhat until you get more comfortable, but if you're
playing any tighter than 22/12, you're probably passing up on too many profitable opportunities. Some of
the most experienced posters in HUSH play as aggressively as 30/20. This is pretty much the recommended
maximum, and this is not recommended for players who are just getting started in 6 max play, or
especially for those still fairly new to Hold'em in general. The last thing to keep in mind is that you
don't want to be playing 30/12 or 21/20. Your VPIP and PFR should increase (or decrease) cooperatively.
Given the same set of opponents, you should be playing exactly the same preflop as
you would if it was folded to MP2 in a full ring game. If you find there are differences between the
two, you may want to consider adjusting your play as appropriate so that the two match. While
differences in your reads of the players at the two different games may dictate somewhat different
plays, it's not anything fundamentally different between the two versions of the same game we know and
love.
VPIP from SB: This stat varies from about 25% to about 40%, with 35% being
a pretty happy medium. The tighter numbers often come from people playing in 5/10 6 max with a 2/5 blind
structure. Naturally, you should play tighter in that case, and tightest of all in a 1/3 structure at
3/6. For 6 max play, you're going to have fewer opportunities where there enough limpers to make
completing 72s a good idea (fewer limpers = lower implied odds), but you can complete some traditionally
dubious hands for high card strength against one really bad limper.
Folded SB to steal: Typical values for this are around 85%, give or take
5%. When you're defending your SB against a steal, you almost always want to 3bet to take the initiative
back, and to hopefully fold the BB rather than offer him 5:1 on the call. The set of hands you'd raise
preflop is, understandably, the set from which you'd usually select hands for 3betting in SB defense.
Given that typical PFR values will be 10-20%, having your fold SB to steal roughly equal to 100% - your
PFR% is pretty reasonable. Again, if you play in a game where the SB is not equal to half of the BB,
then this number should decrease somewhat. You have relatively less to defend.
Folded BB to steal: The decision about whether or not to defend your BB
depends on a
lot of factors, primarily what range of hands the thief is raising (does he even steal, or is this
raise legitimate?), your read on the thief's postflop play, and how comfortable you are with defending.
Having this be at 70% is not a bad place to start out your 6 max play, but getting it down to 60% or so
would probably be better. You can play a lot of hands getting good pot odds, especially since the thief's
hand range will be large. If the SB comes along and offers you 5:1, you can really open up. Some
veterans have this stat below 50%, but, again, that's not recommended for players new to 6 max play who
might be less familiar with defending their blinds. A lot of the difference between your VPIP and your
PFR comes from defending your BB - you won't be limping much.
Attempt to steal blinds: Following the above chart will get you to about
30% or so, which, again, is pretty reasonable. As you get more comfortable and get better reads on your
opponents, you can increase that somewhat (or decrease, if appropriate). Much above 40%, however, and
even the worst players will start to catch on to what your doing.
Aggression factors: Postflop aggression factors for 6 max play will tend to
be higher than for full ring play, but not too much higher. They should also generally decrease by
street. Flop aggression will typically be between 2.5 and 3.5. Any higher than 3.5 and you're probably
overplaying (looking for autobetting after PFR in bad situations is a good place to start if this
describes you) and/or playing fit or fold. River will typically be between 1.5 and 2.5. Much higher than
that, and you're probably folding too many winners. I've seen some posters with stats that look like
3.5/2.5/1.6, and other similarly successful posters with stats that look more like 2.9/2.7/2.5. It's not
entirely clear which style is more profitable due to sample size issues, but both can be quite
profitable. I guess you guys can debate the merits of each style in this thread if you have an opinion,
or especially some data. I'd be especially curious to hear from people who've played both styles: not
only to hear which they prefer, but also what they did to their postflop play that resulted in the
transition.
This stat, though, is one to be particularly careful with. Don't increase or
decrease your aggression for stats' sake. Look at hands and learn when to choose your spots.
Went to showdown: Marginal hands will tend to have more value when there
are fewer players involved. Expect to show down more hands. A value of about 32 is probably about as low
as is reasonable, and 40%-ish is about the ceiling. Typical values are 35-38%. As you add hands, this
may decrease slightly, but if you're only adding hands that you end up folding before showdown, it's
time to rethink about adding those hands. Also, if you play aggressively enough (and/or against tight
enough opponents) that many hands don't make it to showdown, this will tend to decrease.
Won $ at showdown: This stat should be pretty much in line with typical
full ring stats: 50-60%. Your marginal hands that you end up showing down will have more value, but
they're still marginal. If this number is too high, you may be running hot or not showing down enough
marginal hands. If it's too low, you may be guilty of calling down with jack high and need to review
which hands are marginal, and which are still trash, even at 6 max.
Position Stats tab: Primarily make sure that you're getting looser and more
aggressive preflop as you move from UTG to the button. The actual numbers are not particularly important
if your main stats are in line, but that general trend should certainly be there.
Authors: btspider (full tables) and MrWookie (short tables), source: 2+2 forum |
