How to use V$IPand AF

Can anyone give me some good advice on how to use AF and V$IP to my advantage with Pokertracker? If there are any articles that would be great as well. Thanks.

VP$IP or voluntarily put $ in the pot is a measure of a player's loose or tight play.
VP$IP is a percentage of the time a player puts money into a pot to see a flop, as long as you aren't the Big Blind(that is considered involuntary, unless you call a raise).
Someone with a VP$IP of <=20% is considered a tight player.
If the percentage raises >30% or so the player is probably playing too loose to be correct.

Here is a good little chart:
VP$IP < 24% Tight
24% < VP$IP < 28% Neutral
28% < VP$IP < 33% Slightly Loose
VP$IP > 33% Loose

The AF is the Agression Factor, which measures how aggressive/passive the player is, which then describes his/her betting tendencies after the flop.
Here is another chart:
AF < 1 Passive
1 < AF < 1.5 Neutral
1.5 < AF Aggressive
So the lower the AF, the more that you can try to buy him out of a pot, but if they show any aggression, you might be up against a big hand and may need to get away.

Hope that helps, if you need more explanation, let me know. I am sure I can find some good articles on this more, but I will have to search

Here are a couple threads for you to read a little more into, more to come:

What Stats To Display In HUD: This gives you a breif overview of some good stats to have your PokerTracker or Holdem Manager HUD set to, and what they can tell you about the table play.

Analyze Your Tournament Play: This will kind of help you go through after some of the tournaments and see how well you played, how much you made. You can search through and find where some of your leaks are.

Thanks a lot. That's exactly what I was looking for. Very good explanation.

Good explanation, however, I wouldn't call less than 24% tight. I would call less than 15 to 17% tight. I start targeting players running in the 30% range this is acutally pretty loose.

Below is an idea of the players range. From left to right, top to bottom 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%

Attached Images

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Thanks a lot. One more question about agression, should I put post flop AF or total AF in my HUD to determine how agressive the oppenent is?

Well, both are useful, however, I tend to look at the total AF number more, usually if the total AF number is high then it's a given he will be aggressive post flop.

postflop aggression tends to matter much more. i'd stick with that stat because its whats important when it comes to looking at predictability in ways the villain will approach many streets.

You must consider the number of player. A short handed table is going to have a higher VPIP then a full ring. During a SnG VPiP varies throughout the game, that is why alot of players use one HUD for early game phase then swith to a short handed HUD once the table is down to 6 players or so.

Which stats should I change in the HUD when it gets down to six players or so?

When it's down to six players or so, you shouldn't be using the hud. Stack sizes and position mean everything at this point!!!

You don't actually change the stats you configure the hud show the SAME stats (if you wish), but only those played during short handed play. If you have Poker Tracker you do this through the Configure option.

I forgot to post this.


Player Ranges: This relates to the number of players currently at the table. People play differently when there are more or less players involved, and the Player Ranges settings allow your stats to reflect this.

If you have no ranges set, all hands will be used; but if you define one or more ranges then only hands played where there were a certain number of players involved will be used.

For example; if you set a range Min:2 - Max:2 then if you are playing heads-up, only stats from hands where your opponent was playing heads-up will be used. If you set another range Min:3 - Max:6 and your table has between 3 and 6 players currently active then their stats will reflect all their previous hands where between 3 and 6 players were involved, but not their heads-up or full-ring hands. If you have a third range Min:7 - Max:10 and your table has, say, 7 players then their stats will show only data from tables with 7 or more players. If someone leaves the table to leave 6 players, then it will change to show everyone's stats from hands with between 3 and 6 players.

To define a range, click on the Add button. This dialog box will pop up.

In the above example, you would enter 2 in both fields and click OK; then Add another range and enter 3 for Min and 6 for Max; then Add a third range and enter 7 and 10.

Your ranges must be exclusive - i.e. they cannot overlap, so 2-2; 3-7; 6-10 would not work as you would expect. Any number of players not covered explicitly by a range will show stats from all a player's hands.

Click on the Edit or Delete buttons to edit or delete player ranges.

I agree and disagree. Yes stack size is important, but people play differently when there are less plays remaining.

When I do this, is it from the PT main screen, or from the PT icon at the top of the table, where you can select "treat as 6 max"?

Never mind, I understand from the range post. Thanks again.

exactly, that's why the hud stats are useless at this point.

I am still struggling to get Poker Tracker to work. Bought it last week and still have not got it running properly.

I haven't used PokerTracker in a while, but with Holdem Manager, you can set it to change to a different HUD on it's own as soon as it comes down to 6-handed, and also at HU. I will post with some screenshots if someone wants me to later, might even post my HUD layout if you're lucky, lol

I didn't want to start a new thread about pokertracker so I thought I'd ask here. Is there a way to show my opponents stats from previous SNG's along with the current tournament, just like when you have a new session in a ring game with people you have played against before (hopefully that makes sense).