Learning about the Stats

VPIP/PFR are the most useful to start off with in my opinion, as knowing your opponents preflop ranges helps a lot with postflop decisions.

Fold to Flop Cbet can be pretty useful to a beginner. Remember that it is important to know what flops will hit your opponents range well or weakly as well. An opponent with a tight preflop range might fold to 50%* (*just an example number) of cbets overall, but on a flop like AKJ they will be folding much less than 50% of their range.

Don't rely too heavily on the stats. Especially when you have less than 20 hands on an opponent. Even 100 hands is not a big sample. It can be very useful to tell when someone is totally out of line though. If someone has VPIP 65 and PFR 60 over even just twenty hands, you can be fairly confident that they are a fish and are raising weak hands.

At first, your own HEM sample is the best sample to use when studying or getting sense about stats.

You can start by posting your own stats here. You will receive feedback from players and you can start asking questions along the way. Also, it is a good way for us to know about your current knowledge about the game.

Learning about opponent stats and their exploitability could wait. Btw, what stakes are you playing at?

I am playing Zoom on NL2 and NL5. I am following all the learning material provided here as I go, just getting a few players who I am starting to build up a number of hands against so thought it might be worth learning about the stats so I can take advantage of their previous plays.

Im not sure how to post my own stats (or where) but I am willing to do it if i find out how.

Which HUD do you use?

I use holdemmanager 2 and I use a personalised (as suggested by someone on the forums) for MSS.

name/tothands/flop fold to cb
vpip/pfr/3bet/fold to 3bet
sb fold to steal/ bb fold to steal/ sb fold vs resteal
flop af/turn af/river af

Hi Spikelema,
Good question!

Check out this article:

Evaluation and Exploitation of Stats

It should give you the basic information you need.

If you are not so experienced in poker, getting into stats in a big way might not mean as much as it could.

Play from a starting hands chart for a bit, following the guidelines for post-flop play for a bit so that you get a feel for the game.

Then the stats info will make much more sense.

Make sure you spend some study time and review time each day too.

♦ Study an article, and review any hand evaluations received from pref session
♦ Play some poker, looking for situations covered in the article and mark the hands in HM2 -- also mark any hands where you don't have a clear understanding of what to do.
♦ Review your hands, posting the ones you marked in the hand evaluation forums.
♦ Go to Step 1

Best of Luck!
--VS

Originally posted by Spikelema
New question from me ♦

If I am interested in learning about the "statistics" of poker. EV, VPIP, etc. What is the best place to start?

I would like to be able to start using the data I am gathering with HM2 to actually help read my opponent rather than just see if I am winning or losing.

I am NOT experienced in poker.

Thanks in Advance

In addition to above, Check out the video's by BogdanPS. He reviews stats and Data Bases in his vid series

Thanks guys

I'm not sure if you play cash games, but Leakbuster was super helpful for me, as far as understanding winning players stat ranges, and understand what the stats mean, and how to adjust, etc.