Texas Hold'Em - How to Use Hold'Em Manager
Once your game is good enough, it is recommended to install extra software to track your wins/loses. Hold 'Em Manager will track how much you win and lose, at what stakes, etc. You can use it to find parts of your game that are weak. It also has a Heads Up Display put right onto the poker table. This will show how aggressive players are, as well as how many times they play hands, how much they've raised, etc. It will help your game immensely.
There are instructions for installing it on the website.
OK so you've downloaded and installed Hold Em Manager. Once you starting playing at a table, the HUD should pop up. I was pretty overwhelmed by it the first time. There are tons of numbers, and most of them don't make sense. I'll break them down here for the default settings
First Line:
VPIP - This is how often a player volunteers to put money in the pot and is a good measure of looseness. For six max less than 10 is very nitty, 20 means they get away with stuff occasionally and is fairly normal, 30 means something like they will play any connector suited or not, and anything over 40 means more than half of their hands are trash.
PFR - Percentage of time they raise pre-flop when they decide to play a hand. This number should be compared to the VPIP to get useful information. If someone has a PFR of 20 but a VPIP of 60 most of the pots they enter they don't raise, and a raise probably indicates something that's not total trash. If someone has a PFR of 20 but a VPIP of 20 that means they always raise and are conscious of aggression and probably position. If (PFR/VPIP) is 1/4 they're very passive and almost always limp. 1/2 usually means they limp with their worst hands and raise with their best hands. 3/4 is pretty normal and means they raise most of the time, but will limp behind sometimes hoping that low pocket pairs or connectors hit hard before they start jamming money in. 4/4 means they always raise and you can't get useful information from their holdings based on their raises preflop.
Attempted to Steal -- Percentage of times this player raised when the action folded to him when he was in the cutoff or on the button. This should be quite high -- at least 70%. If you see something like 30% the player only raises with good hands and is ignorant of how profitable stealing is, maybe he's decided that it's the micros and everyone will call anyway so why bother but that's a stupid thing to get stuck in your head -- if they call anyway a cbet on the flop will still take it so often that you really need to be stealing frequently. If you're in the blinds this stat can help tell you whether you should fold/call/reraise vs. button action.
3 Bets Preflop % -- if someone raises ahead of this player, what percentage of the time does he reraise? 4% means he's only doing it with premium hands for value. 8% means he sometimes will reraise for isolation or because he wants to punish a loose raiser and is fairly normal with thinking players. 12% takes the same ideas as in 8% and pushes them further. 20% is quite high, and a player who reraises that much is depending on people to play poorly postflop against his show of strength to make a profit.
Second Line:
AF - Aggression factor is a ratio of aggressive POSTFLOP moves to passive ones. So (bet% + raise%) / (check% + call%). 1 is very very passive, they won't bet without a set or better most of the time, and even then they're probably scared that you'll run away if they fart so they might not bet anyway. 2 is still fairly passive, but at least they'll protect against draws and bet at loose players who'll call anyway. 3 is quite aggressive, they'll be making plenty of Cbets with nothing, checkraising dry flops to scare away foes Cbets, etc. 4 is very aggressive but still on the edge of reason. Anything over four either means they've gotten lucky on every single flop while you've been watching them or they have to win every pot and will bet to do so.
Cbet Flop -- Percentage of time they'll bet the flop if they were the aggressor preflop. 30% is very low and means they only really cbet when they hit a pair or have an overpair that's still good. 60% means that about half of the time they whiffed, but honestly you probably did too, so you want to Cbet at least 60% of the time. 80% is quite high and usually means they Cbet religiously on all but the grossest of flops -- if a player with a Cbet stat like that doesn't Cbet on a flop he obviously should (contains an A or K or AA-TT) watch out -- but there's nothing wrong with having a Cbet percentage like this yourself.
Folds to Flop Cbet -- Does he understand that people will cbet with nothing? If this is at 100% he doesn't, and he'll only play against aggression when he's flopped the nuts and you should be pounding on the bet button on every flop where you raised pre. Around 60% is fairly normal here. 30% or less means they read somewhere that Cbets are bluffs and don't respect them as a matter of principle or a matter of stupidity, or else just that he likes to play chicken on the turn.
Total Hands - This is very important, since it makes the rest of the stats relevant. You need this stat so you don't go bonkers when you see someone has a VPIP of 100% -- if he's only played four hands so far settle down and continue to play normally. Most stats don't start to matter until at 50-100 hands.
Be specific when you consult stats! Let's say someone raises, you call, the flop come A59, you hold A8, and he bets at you again. You see that he has a VPIP of 60% and re-raise him, and he shoves over you and you call because he's bluffing his VPIP is like a zillion, you may have just made a bad decision. What was his PFR? If he has 60% VPIP but 4% PFR that means he only raises with the cream of the crop and is probably has you dominated with AK-AJ. On the other side of the coin, if someone has 15 for VPIP and raises early, the flop comes low and action is reasonable until the river when he starts freaking out you don't have an autofold.
What's his AF? If it's high he might be the sort of guy who can't stand to give up a pot once he's in it -- he doesn't care if his AQ whiffed the flop, he has a VPIP of 12 and thinks every pot belongs to him. Does his Showdown Percentage confirm our suspicions that he can't find the fold button? If the AF is low and he's abnormally raising then, he probably has a premium hand, but if it's high and the SD% is high and you have an overpair with something like 99 you might want to look him up. Anyway, why would you look at preflop stats when you're thinking about postflop action? Of course, your preflop info is hardly irrelevant, but look at the most relevant stat FIRST, then turn to other stats to help define his range.
Once your game is good enough, it is recommended to install extra software to track your wins/loses. Hold 'Em Manager will track how much you win and lose, at what stakes, etc. You can use it to find parts of your game that are weak. It also has a Heads Up Display put right onto the poker table. This will show how aggressive players are, as well as how many times they play hands, how much they've raised, etc. It will help your game immensely.
There are instructions for installing it on the website.
OK so you've downloaded and installed Hold Em Manager. Once you starting playing at a table, the HUD should pop up. I was pretty overwhelmed by it the first time. There are tons of numbers, and most of them don't make sense. I'll break them down here for the default settings
First Line:
VPIP - This is how often a player volunteers to put money in the pot and is a good measure of looseness. For six max less than 10 is very nitty, 20 means they get away with stuff occasionally and is fairly normal, 30 means something like they will play any connector suited or not, and anything over 40 means more than half of their hands are trash.
PFR - Percentage of time they raise pre-flop when they decide to play a hand. This number should be compared to the VPIP to get useful information. If someone has a PFR of 20 but a VPIP of 60 most of the pots they enter they don't raise, and a raise probably indicates something that's not total trash. If someone has a PFR of 20 but a VPIP of 20 that means they always raise and are conscious of aggression and probably position. If (PFR/VPIP) is 1/4 they're very passive and almost always limp. 1/2 usually means they limp with their worst hands and raise with their best hands. 3/4 is pretty normal and means they raise most of the time, but will limp behind sometimes hoping that low pocket pairs or connectors hit hard before they start jamming money in. 4/4 means they always raise and you can't get useful information from their holdings based on their raises preflop.
Attempted to Steal -- Percentage of times this player raised when the action folded to him when he was in the cutoff or on the button. This should be quite high -- at least 70%. If you see something like 30% the player only raises with good hands and is ignorant of how profitable stealing is, maybe he's decided that it's the micros and everyone will call anyway so why bother but that's a stupid thing to get stuck in your head -- if they call anyway a cbet on the flop will still take it so often that you really need to be stealing frequently. If you're in the blinds this stat can help tell you whether you should fold/call/reraise vs. button action.
3 Bets Preflop % -- if someone raises ahead of this player, what percentage of the time does he reraise? 4% means he's only doing it with premium hands for value. 8% means he sometimes will reraise for isolation or because he wants to punish a loose raiser and is fairly normal with thinking players. 12% takes the same ideas as in 8% and pushes them further. 20% is quite high, and a player who reraises that much is depending on people to play poorly postflop against his show of strength to make a profit.
Second Line:
AF - Aggression factor is a ratio of aggressive POSTFLOP moves to passive ones. So (bet% + raise%) / (check% + call%). 1 is very very passive, they won't bet without a set or better most of the time, and even then they're probably scared that you'll run away if they fart so they might not bet anyway. 2 is still fairly passive, but at least they'll protect against draws and bet at loose players who'll call anyway. 3 is quite aggressive, they'll be making plenty of Cbets with nothing, checkraising dry flops to scare away foes Cbets, etc. 4 is very aggressive but still on the edge of reason. Anything over four either means they've gotten lucky on every single flop while you've been watching them or they have to win every pot and will bet to do so.
Cbet Flop -- Percentage of time they'll bet the flop if they were the aggressor preflop. 30% is very low and means they only really cbet when they hit a pair or have an overpair that's still good. 60% means that about half of the time they whiffed, but honestly you probably did too, so you want to Cbet at least 60% of the time. 80% is quite high and usually means they Cbet religiously on all but the grossest of flops -- if a player with a Cbet stat like that doesn't Cbet on a flop he obviously should (contains an A or K or AA-TT) watch out -- but there's nothing wrong with having a Cbet percentage like this yourself.
Folds to Flop Cbet -- Does he understand that people will cbet with nothing? If this is at 100% he doesn't, and he'll only play against aggression when he's flopped the nuts and you should be pounding on the bet button on every flop where you raised pre. Around 60% is fairly normal here. 30% or less means they read somewhere that Cbets are bluffs and don't respect them as a matter of principle or a matter of stupidity, or else just that he likes to play chicken on the turn.
Total Hands - This is very important, since it makes the rest of the stats relevant. You need this stat so you don't go bonkers when you see someone has a VPIP of 100% -- if he's only played four hands so far settle down and continue to play normally. Most stats don't start to matter until at 50-100 hands.
Be specific when you consult stats! Let's say someone raises, you call, the flop come A59, you hold A8, and he bets at you again. You see that he has a VPIP of 60% and re-raise him, and he shoves over you and you call because he's bluffing his VPIP is like a zillion, you may have just made a bad decision. What was his PFR? If he has 60% VPIP but 4% PFR that means he only raises with the cream of the crop and is probably has you dominated with AK-AJ. On the other side of the coin, if someone has 15 for VPIP and raises early, the flop comes low and action is reasonable until the river when he starts freaking out you don't have an autofold.
What's his AF? If it's high he might be the sort of guy who can't stand to give up a pot once he's in it -- he doesn't care if his AQ whiffed the flop, he has a VPIP of 12 and thinks every pot belongs to him. Does his Showdown Percentage confirm our suspicions that he can't find the fold button? If the AF is low and he's abnormally raising then, he probably has a premium hand, but if it's high and the SD% is high and you have an overpair with something like 99 you might want to look him up. Anyway, why would you look at preflop stats when you're thinking about postflop action? Of course, your preflop info is hardly irrelevant, but look at the most relevant stat FIRST, then turn to other stats to help define his range.
