How can you improve your reads?

How can you improve your reading using pokertracker? Like putting villian on a hand? How can you use it using their vpip?

The lower the person's VPIP, the higher the hand strength is going to be(probably, the CAN always throw a random ass bluff in). This really doesn't give you the exact hand a person has, but it will help you narrow his/her range. The onyl time you are really going to get an exact read would be in the case that his/her VPIP is like 2% after a couple hundred hands. In that case, if the person is calling anything, there is a good chance he has AA. There was one person that I have played with a couple times at the FT micros that consistently has a VPIP of 4%, and the only hands that he plays are AA, KK, and AKs...NOTHING ELSE!! So for anyone that is observant, they would see he was only playing those hands, but for the people who don't pay attention to their opponents would get sucked into his hands and he would end up making money just about every time he got one of those hands. Granted he was losing a lot in blinds because he was playing such a small range, but that is the only person I could really narrow it down to 1 or 2 hands preflop just by their VPIP.

In addition to VPIP, there are a lot of things you can pay attention to in order to narrow villain's range. Below are just some examples, there are alot more.

How aggressive is villain? An aggressive villain tends to not call a lot, he tends to bet or raise. If an aggressive villain stays in a hand but hasn't raised, he's probably drawing, floating, or playing a medium hand. You can't necessarily narrow a passive villain this way, they will call w the nuts as well as medium hands. A river shove from a passive villain is more likely the nuts than a bluff, but for an agg villain is more frequently a bluff (that's not saying it's the majority of the time).

How often does villain ch/r? If it's very rare and you get ch/r'd, fold.

Is villain positionally aware? If his VPIP is the same across ep, mp, and lp, he's not positionally aware, and playing weaker hands from ep (sc's for example). If his VPIP is narrow in ep and wide in lp, and he opens utg, he's playing a stronger range than someone who's VPIP is the same across positions.

How often does villain 3bet? The more frequently villain 3bets, the more likely some of his 3bets are weak.

The other thing you really need to watch for is a donkish play like limp/shoves and minraises from EP. Are the limp/shoves hands like AQ,AK or are they AA/KK. Are the minraises in EP hands like KQ,KJ,AXs or are the AA/KK/QQ? A lot of players will do the same move repeatedly.

I badly misplayed a hand recently where EP had shown a limp/shove of AA but he was only 21/4 for the game, some 36 hands so far. EP limped and I had JJ on the BTN with M=8. I didn't take time to think about the hand and shoved AI and yep EP had AA.

Honestly, in order to improve your reading in poker, you have to pay attention to the table. Don't play your cards. Even after you fold, focus on who's in the pot, how often they play the pot, how aggressively they play, find their patterns. Reading players is very crucial and can benefit you big time. These reads are important. Using these reads, you can even call down a hand with Ace high and win, or even fold high pocket pairs as high as pocket Queens during pre-flop. For proof, check out my past brag and boast.

SICK CALL AND SICK LAYDOWN

Not trying to show off but it's just a proof of why reading skills are so important in poker. Tells are overrated but reading skills are not. Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu are two masters of reading skills. In order to improve your reads, pay attention to the players and guess/predict what they can have based on their past plays, if they're bluffing or not, etc even when you're not in the hand.

reading is probebly the hardest part of poker to learn, to be able to place your opponent on a specific hand and play accordingly. if you get it right, you save yourself loads of money and make a lot of it when you know the other guy is bluffing. i think a natural talent is required in this matter to get you started. also, read a lot of poker articles. there are plenty of them out there and they give vergood advice about any aspect of the game, from beginers to experts.

I take notes on what type of hands were at showdown. Who made a play for the pot when the flop paired or when the flop showed 2-3 to a flush. Who limped in with a monster pre-flop. Who are the high-blind limpers. That helps when you are trying to profile players.

If by this you mean it's silly to think you can read villain's exact hand, agree, you need to read ranges of hands. If you mean the latter, do yourself a favor and never play cash games.

Most of the time you figure out quickly who is who but online especially ftp I have found it really doesn't matter. The donks seem to own the tables...freerolls lately no matter what you read or where the information comes from. Maybe you should ignore this one, I might be a little jaded by the donks lately...lol

I'm fine with him coming to my table