I already explained what are poker stats, what software are most common and how to make sense of ranges and equity using Equilab. Since now I only mentioned VPIP stat, now I will try to explain and make sense of all other important poker stats. If you have no idea what I am talking about maybe you should first check my previous article about HUD stats and how to use them.

No way I can explain all the stats because there are simply too many. But nobody use all the stats and there is no need to. My main goal will be to give you all most important ones and way to understand and use them. All values I am giving for specific stats are for 6max game if not stated differently. Here we go :

number of hands – Before you check any other stats you should first look at number of hands. If you have a big sample 10k+ you statistics will be more accurate. DO NOT USE ANY STATS UNLESS YOU HAVE AT LEAST 50 HANDS.  And after 50 hands you can only check vpip and pfr and maybe have some idea about 3b. All other stats need a lot more hands to give you useful information. Otherwise you can make a wrong decision because your sample is small and misleading. I would suggest to start checking other stats when you have at least 500+ hands. Some stats like river agg and 4b need a much bigger sample. At least 2k.

Before the flop poker stats (preflop)

VPIP – Voluntary put money into pot. So every time you limp,call or raise it will go into your vpip. People who play a lot of pots have high vpip. Good regulars in a 9max game will have vpip 12-18. In a 6max game since there are less players and you are more frequently in the blinds good regulars will have vpip 20-30. So if you see a player with vpip more than 40 you can mark him as a fish. Players with very high vpip 70+ are huge fish and you should try to play against them as much as you can. In order to check all the hands in for example 20% of hands refer to my previous article and part about equilab.

PFR – pre flop raise. So every time you raise or reraise it will go in your pfr. This is second most common stat. Regulars in 9 handed game will have pfr 10-15. In 6max game it will be 19-25. So when you hear something like : ” That player is playing 40-30″. It means his VPIP is 40 and his pfr is 30. So he is playing 40% hands dealt and he is raising 30%( so he is calling 10%).

These two stats must be observed together. So player who is playing 30/3 is much different than player playing 30/25. So the first one is very passive. He is rarely raising before the flop. He is mainly calling and second one is often raising.

RFI – raise first in. So this one is similar to pfr but takes into calculation only when you are first one entering the pot. If there is already raise or limp and you decide to raise it will not go into your rfi. To make sense of rfi you should first study your own rfi from every position. And see how many hands you are opening and then see if somebody is tighter or looser than your range from that particular position

So this is default holdem manager preflop popup. Like you can see I am playing 24/19. My raise from early position(EP) is 14 from middle 19 and so on. You can use pfr like here or you can change your HUD to rfi. It will be little more accurate because you know what hands is opponent opening from that position. For reraise or raise against limp you can use other dedicated stats. It is up to your personal preferences.

3bet – first bet is blind, second one is raise and when you reraise it is called third bet(3b).  You can look at my preflop popup again and check the 3b. So my total 3b i 7.3%.  That is ok for general idea but you should also use positional 3b. Like you can see my 3b is highest from the sb and lowest from middle position. So it would be wrong if you look only at total 3b not at the specific position.

fold to 3b – this poker stat will show you how much is opener folding to reraise. Good regulars will have fold to 3b around 50%. Sometimes they will reraise again (4bet) . Bad players will often have this stat very low like 10%. So when you see a player folding that low to a reraise there is no much sense in making a 3bet bluff. On the other side if the player is folding 65+ to a 3bet your reraise bluff can be profitable.

cold 4b – when there is already raise and 3bet and player decide to reriase. If player who 4b is original raiser then it is only called 4b. This is usually very small for most players. around 1-5. And that is logical right ?If there is already raise and reraise you will not decide to cold 4b with AJ. It will most likely be something like QQ/KK/AA/AK. This can also be used positionally like most other poker stats. So some looser players can have bigger cold 4b from the BB. Probably in situations when there is button open and SB reraise.

cold call 3b – when there is already a raise and reraise and player decide to call. Good players will not have this stat very high. Most likely something like 3-7%. When you see this stat very high like 30% on a big sample this player is probably very weak. You should also be aware that he is not folding much preflop so don’t bluff reraise other players since he will come along often.

squeeze – when there is already raise and call and you decide to raise that is called a squeeze. It is different than 3b because there is now not only one player in the pot but two or more. Most of the regulars will have squeeze around 4-8.

limp – how much player is limping (only paying the blind without the raise). Good players will often have this very low or even 0. When you see player with a big limp stat you should try to isolate him with a raise especially in position.

steal – raise from CO, BUTTON or SB. So how much player is trying to steal the blinds from late positions. If player is opening wider from late positions you should defend blinds wider and vice versa.

BB fold to Steal –  how much is player folding big blind against raise from CO,BUTTON or SB. Good regulars will have this stat 45-60. If we notice a player is folding his big blind a lot 65+ then we should try to steal more against him. Other important poker stat that we should consider when we want to steal big blind is 3b from big blind. Normal 3b from big blind should be 5-12%. If we have a player with a huge 3b like 25% then we should not open hand that we are not calling or reraising against his 3b.

SB fold to Steal – same thing just for small blind. Regulars will have this stat 80-88. Normal 3b from sb against the steal is 10-15.  So when we are on the button or cut off we should check tendencies of both blinds in order to steal profitably.

AF – aggression factor. This is not only preflop poker stat since you can use total af and flop af, turn af and river af. I am personally not using this stat but many people are. It is calculated simply = (total bets + total raises)/total calls. So player with af 2 is twice more raising than calling.

After the flop poker stats (postflop)

continuation bet – Every time player is preflop raiser and continues betting. There are a lot of variations of this stat. I personaly use continuation bet on the flop/turn river in position and out of position and same things for 3b pots. So in my HUD there are 12 continuation bet stats. That is maybe little to complicated for the start. I would suggest to start with using 3 variations of continuation bet on every street. Normal flop continuation bet is around 50-60%. If some player has very low flop continuation like 30% than we should fold more against that player. Against player who has a very high flop continuation but like 75+ and low turn continuation we can call and float more especially in position.

fold to continuation bet –  You can opt to use IP ( in position) and OOP variations and different stat for every street (flop,turn,river).When we are preflop raiser and want to decide should we do a continuation bet we should look at this stat. If player is folding a lot (over 55%) than we should more often do a continuation even without a strong hand. Against players who are not folding enough we should do a continuation less often.

raise continuation bet – You can opt to use IP ( in position) and OOP variations and different stat for every street (flop,turn,river) . Raise cb more than 10% is already pretty big and we should check more often if we want to keep pot small against players who are often raising.

bet against missed continuation bet – You can opt to use IP ( in position) and OOP variations and different stat for every street (flop,turn,river)  . We should check this stat to see how much is player barreling when we check. It can be very useful both on the flop and the turn.

This is a holdem manager default pop up with my postflop stats.  There are few more stats that i did not mention but there are actually a lot more poker stats you can put in your HUD. This is only the default one. And I do not use it. I use custom one with all poker stats I find useful. You can start with the default one and when you get comfortable and understand how and when to use which stat you can build your custom one.
Anyway there are few more postflop stats that are very important in my opinion. Here they are :

Check-fold – how much is player folding when he is original raiser and skip a continuation bet. So when there is no continuation and opponent check to us maybe he is check-folding, check-calling or even check-raising. So we should not automatically bet but instead check first this stat. If a player is folding a lot over 60% we can comfortably make a stab and take a pot away. If he is defending often and have this stat very low like 30% then we should bet only when we want action.

Donk bet – how often is player betting (donking) before the preflop raiser. This is a move usually fish make. When you see a big donk bet of 30+ you should also check poker stat donk bet-fold that will show you how often is this player folding to a reraise. If it is over 50% we can bluff reraise. And if it is not we should just call ( if our hand is not strong enough for a raise).

Agg – so 100 agg is somebody who is always raising and reraising and 0 agg is player who is never beting or raising he is always checking and calling. We can use different stat for all streets. I personally don’t use flop agg I already have enough information from all other postflop poker stats and I use turn agg occasionally but river agg is one of my favourite. It can be very useful when you are not sure is your opponent bluffing. Regulars will have river agg between 25-35. Under 25 is a player who is very rarely bluffing and over 35 is player who has bluffs in his range. When you face maniac who is always splashing and bluffing they will usually have river agg over 50. You can save a lot of money by using this poker stat and having information how often is your opponent aggressive.

Conclusion

Ok so i understand this is a lot of information. You can not master all the important stats at once. If you are a total beginner I would suggest starting with only vpip and pfr in your HUD. After you get used to reading these poker stats you should add 3b and fold to 3b. When you master that try adding positional stats – raise,3b and fold to 3b separately for every position and work your way up until you master all the important ones. I know this is one of the hardest aspects of online poker and that many players struggle with poker stats but I hope I gave you some insight and good starting point in your poker journey.
Good luck 😉