Using Poker Tracking Software To Your Advantage
Since there is no face-to-face interaction when you're playing poker online, you may think that it would be difficult getting reads on your opponents, when in reality, this couldn't be further from the truth. With the assistance of poker tracking software, you have a huge amount of information at your fingertips that will enable you to become a profitable online poker player.
When it comes to playing poker online you really want to play on a reputable poker site that supports one of the better poker tracking software like Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager. These programs can do all kinds of cool things to help with making decisions on and off the virtual felt. One of the key features that come included with them is the heads-up display (HUD), which is displayed next to each player at your poker table. This HUD displays all the vital statistics about each of your opponents at the table, including stats such as VPIP/PFR/3bet/cbet/fold to cbet, etc, which are very important stats that tell you a lot about an opponent's style of play and tendencies so you can know how to play against them.
The default preflop statistics you will want to take advantage of are VPIP/PFR. VPIP is short for % voluntarily put money in the pot pre-flop, and PFR stands for % raised pre-flop, which basically tells you how tight/loose a player is pre-flop. These preflop statistics are extremely useful; although you don't want to make the mistake of assuming a player who is loose preflop is the same postflop, even though it tends to be the case more often then not.
If you are playing a lot of tables it can be difficult observing every player at the table to know whether they're playing many hands. Instead, you can pull up the stats in your poker HUD and quickly gauge the preflop tendencies of an opponent. A player with a high VPIP of around 35% is loose, and on the flip side, a player with a low VPIP of around 10% is tight, and then of course you have players who are in between.
Some other important preflop statistics you will find in the majority of HUDs is 3bet % and fold to 3bet %. A 3bet is when a player re-raises preflop. Say for example, an early position player open raises to $13 and a player on the button re-raises to $36, the second raise would be considered a three-bet. If a player has a high 3bet %, then naturally they will be very aggressive preflop and re-raising a lot more hands before seeing a flop, so based on the stats, it would suggest this player is very likely 3betting non premium hands in addition to hands you would expect him to 3-bet with.
Fold to 3bet % is another stat you want showing up in a HUD because it's useful in knowing how often a player will fold to a 3bet. If they are folding too much then it will become profitable 3betting more because you can expect them to fold preflop and it will show an instant profit. Can you imagine trying to keep note of all these statistics without the benefit of poker tracker software that came with a HUD? It would be next to impossible.
Enough about preflop HUD statistics. The important post flop stats you want to pay close attention to are cbet %/fold to cbet %/ and turn cbet %. Since cbetting has become standard in online poker and mostly every player does it, this means they will be betting the majority of their preflop range on the flop. Considering a non paired hand is only going to hit the flop around 30% of the time, that means more often then not, they won't have a hand, even if they cbet to suggest they have one. If a player has a high PFR (eg. 22/22) and high cbet % (eg. 75%) they're basically going to have air on the flop a large percentage of the time, so based on the information you have on the opponent, you would know that it can be worthwhile playing back at their cbets a certain percentage of the time, even when you don't have a hand yourself, although it would be a wise idea to do so when you have some outs to improve to the best hand, such as AQ on a low raggy flop. Some players will be habitual cbettors but will shutdown on the turn a lot, which is a big leak in their game. These players are ideal players to float, since they will often be shutting down on the turn, giving you a chance to steal the pot away from them.
So as you can see from the examples in this article, there is so much you can gain when you analyze and use stats made available from a poker HUD in the correct way.