A quick intro to Pokertracker and Pokerace

[Cian]

Using Pokertracker is like bringing a pen and paper to a live game and writing down every single detail that takes place. Imagine how much the old pro's would have valued this kind of information!

Playing online means that you can have all this information and use it to play better poker. Every hand of online poker you play is recorded as a hand history. Pokertracker takes all your hand histories and turns it into an extensive database and represents the information through useful statistics.

PokerAce is a complimentary tool for Pokertracker that takes Pokertracker data and places it on the actual table. So if you've played 150 hands against a guy who just joined your table, you are shown the stats for that player based on those 150 hands. This gives you a strong advantage as you can imagine.

While Pokertracker can show a wide range of information, I am just going to list the three main types to illustrate how important using Pokertracker is.

VPIP%
This stands for Voluntarily put into pot. Blinds are a forced bet...anything else you wager is voluntary. So VPIP represents how often players are putting money into the pot rather than folding. The higher a players VPIP, the looser they are. If their VPIP is quite high, you know them to be a bad, loose calling station. This means you want to get in more pots with this player, and make them pay for their draws because they are more likely to call you down. At the same time, if a player has a low VPIP you know them to be tight. So you have a better chance of stealing their blinds, while you know to be extra cautious when they are giving you action.

PFR%
This stands for Preflop Raise %. It represents how often a player raises preflop. If a player has a high PFR, their range of hands that they would raise with is bigger, meaning that you can give them less credit for premium hands when they do raise. As an example, if you are on the big blind with AQ and a guy who has a PFR of 20% bets into you, you can be confident you have the better hand. Whereas if he has a PFR of 4%, he is likely to have a strong hand because he raises so seldomly. In this way you can make good decisions on how to play your hands.

Aggression Factor
This is fairly self explanatory. It measures how aggressive a player is. The more aggressive the player is, the more they are going to be betting and raising draws, or placing continuation bets. An aggressive player is more likely to use position against you, whereas a passive player will not be so quick to put you on the spot. Aggressive players can be given less credibility for made hands when betting than a passive player.

We give away 2 copies of Pokertracker every week in our weekly Tuesday games. Pokerace is available here

[Mouthy]

Does anyone use pokertracker exclusively for tournament play and is it worth buying it just for this it. Obviously you won't be sitting with the same players on a regular basis as you would for ring games and for the same length of time but can you still get the same info??

[Cian]

All info is based on the hands that you have played with those opponents, ie, you cant get info on hands that they have played not against you. But if you are playing the same tournaments regularly enough you will probably see the same guys. The thing is Pokertracker/Pokerace remind you who you have and havent played against which wouldnt happen a lot of the time without using the programmes

[jimmii]

What sort of numbers are considered "ideal" with Pokertracker?

[Cian]

Originally Posted by jimmii

What sort of numbers are considered "ideal" with Pokertracker?

As in, for yourself?

[jimmii]

I don't use it but I remember seeing a thread somewhere about people discussing what they felt where ideal numbers.

[Cian]

It depends on what games you are playing, and what way you prefer to play. For example, playing at a 6-max table would mean you can have a higher VPIP because the field is smaller. And if your table is tight, you can have a higher PFR because you get good value out of stealing blinds etc.

Generally speaking, a VPIP above 30% would be heading towards loose play. And a PFR above 20% would mean you are raising quite often (ie, 1/5th of your hands are raising hands).

Aggression factor would be down to your style of play, whether you like to be aggressive with draws etc.

[jimmii]

How is VPIP% measured? Is that they are putting money in voluntarily 30% of the time? That seems huge!

[Cian]

Yeah it means any time you are not a blind, you are calling (or raising) 30% of the time.

[jimmii]

Does calling the BB from the SB count as half or something? or does it just add up the same. I didn't think it worked with tournament play? I guess with tournaments everything changes so much that its not really as relelvant as it is in cash games. Would give a good impression of other players though I guess.

[NickyOD]

Originally Posted by jimmii

How is VPIP% measured? Is that they are putting money in voluntarily 30% of the time? That seems huge!

If your VPIP for 6 handed is less than 32% you are palying too tight.

[Tucks]

Originally Posted by NickyOD

If your VPIP for 6 handed is less than 32% you are palying too tight.

Yeah Nicky? Mine is only like 25 or somethin. Obviously I cud do with loosenin up a bit...Some major leaks in my game too Ive been tweakin thanks to pokertracker.

[grantzra]

Isnt that kind of depending on what level you play?
I have VPIP on 25 aswell, and PFR 15 but thats low stakes and people seem very loose here, still too tight?

[NickyOD]

Originally Posted by Tucks

Yeah Nicky? Mine is only like 25 or somethin. Obviously I cud do with loosenin up a bit...Some major leaks in my game too Ive been tweakin thanks to pokertracker.

Sorry scratch that. 30 is a bit loose. I'm about 24-25. apologies.

[Tucks]

D'oh!!! Thats not encouraging since I have the same vpip as u n I'm still not makin any serious money!!

[NickyOD]

Originally Posted by Tucks

D'oh!!! Thats not encouraging since I have the same vpip as u n I'm still not makin any serious money!!

TAke some of the stats from the "more detail" section in PT and post them in the thread. What is your wins at Showdown percentage, aggression factor etc etc.