I’m going to help you learn to use a heads up display with my stripped-down, simplified KISS HUD for online poker.

It's called the KISS HUD because I'm a huge fan of the KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid! This 10-element HUD makes it easy to avoid overwhelm while learning to use a HUD to exploit your opponents.

The 10 Elements of the KISS HUD

Listen to Podcast Episode #291 about using the KISS HUD:

I love HUD's. I tell everyone that they must get PokerTracker 4 and use a HUD to help gain additional information on their opponents. Information is power, and HUD users have more information than non-HUD users do.

Of course, I recommend my Smart HUD for PT4 (comes with a 1.5 hour instructional webinar) above all others. But for beginning HUD users, it can be a bit daunting with the 18 elements in the HUD and the 7 custom popups. Trying to learn to use a robust HUD like this often leads overwhelm.

I believe in the old adage, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” I'm not going to give you this HUD to download and import into PT4. Instead, in an effort to teach you how to fish, I've created a video showing you how to create the KISS HUD for yourself in under 5 minutes.

Follow along in PokerTracker 4 and create your own KISS HUD with this video:

Now that you've created your own HUD, let's dive into how you can use it to exploit your opponents.

The KISS HUD readout for “Tight Terry”

1st Line:  Note Editor / # of Hands

2nd Line:  VPIP / PFR

3rd Line: 3bet / Fold to 3bet

4th Line: Cbet F / Cbet T

5th Line: Fold to F Cbet / Fold to T Cbet

VPIP (13%)

Voluntarily Put $ in the Pot lets you know how active an opponent is. This guy is pretty tight because 13% as a total is only 1/8 hands played. So, he’s likely a TAG or Nit. This information is useful, but it needs to be coupled with PFR for maximum effectiveness.

PFR (12%)

Pre-flop Raise is an indication of how aggressive an opponent is because it accounts for every type of preflop raise; open-raises and isolation raises, 3bets and 4bets or higher. At 12% total, that’s an average range of 77+, A2s+, AJo+, KQ, KJs, QJs and JTs.

Combo Stat #1: VPIP-PFR Gap

Tight Terry is a 13/12 player. The 1% gap between VPIP and PFR tells us that he hardly ever calls preflop. So, what hands does an infrequent caller call with? Pocket pairs for set mining and the strongest broadway hands. So, if he calls your cbet on a QJ2 board, it’s more likely he's holding some broadway hands (he's quickly folding 44 and 55). If he calls on a 236 flop, then he likely has a set, an over pair with 88 or a draw with 44 in his range.

3bet (6%)

3bet’s happen more now than ever before, so this is a very useful stat. Anything greater than 6% and you’ve got a 3bet bluffer on your hands. Most players don’t 3bet the same ranges from every position. Tight Terry, at 6% total, probably 3bets more frequently from the BTN and one or both of the blinds as resteal 3bets. So be on the lookout for that before you raise preflop if he’s still in the pot.

Combo Stat #2: VPIP-PFR Gap and 3bet

Given that Tight Terry calls with broadway hands, but is capable of 3betting frequently, we can remove JJ+ (maybe TT) from his calling range. We can also remove AK, AQs and probably AQo as well because he's likely 3betting those.

Fold to 3bet (57%)

Folding at 57% means he defends at 43%, which makes sense given such a small PFR %.  He doesn’t raise that often, so when he does, he doesn’t give up too easily. I prefer to see Fold to 3bet at 60% or greater for more successful 3bet bluffs.

Cbet Flop (83%)

Cbet flop tells you exactly what to expect from the player on the flop before you call their preflop raise. At 83%, you can expect Tight Terry to cbet the flop, so he bluffs a lot of flops.

Cbet Turn (22%)

Wow! Tight Terry is a mega “turn honest” player. His cbet drops from 83% on the flop to 22%, which means he only double-barrels with the best hands, probably TP+.

Combo Stat #3: Cbet Flop & Turn

These two taken together are an awesome combo that helps you exploit most cbettors. Because Tight Terry is so “turn honest”, you must call every flop cbet he makes when you suspect weakness. As soon as he checks the turn, you fire a bet to take the pot away. He’s making it super easy to bluff him when he’s the preflop raiser.

Fold to Flop Cbet (100%)

If I hover my cursor over the 100%, I can see it’s 3/3 instances. Tight Terry is extremely “flop honest” versus cbets so I must cbet 100% against this player.

Fold to Turn Cbet (-)

Since Tight Terry has folded to flop cbets 100% so far, I haven’t seen him face any turn cbets yet. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t have a plan for cbetting the turn against him. Because he makes his decision on the flop, he’ll only get to the turn with a made hand like TP+. So, I probably shouldn’t double-barrel bluff him. If he calls my flop cbet, the best play is to check the turn in hopes the river can improve my hand.

Note Editor

This is a great addition to any HUD. But, you’ll have to force yourself to add player notes and look at them occasionally as you play. But, it does have a useful auto-generated notes feature that lists the hands you’ve seen at showdown and how they played them.

Number of Hands Abbreviated (745)

The more hands you have on a player, the more reliable the stats are.  At just 20 hands you should be able to classify most opponent’s player type. Anything over 100 is good and you can start using post-flop stats here. And 500+ should give you great reads on almost every stat except river stats.

Here's my challenge to you: Create your own KISS HUD today and use it in tonight’s session. Seriously, I’m teaching you how to fish! Watch the video above and just follow along and within 5 minutes, your new KISS HUD will be ready for use. It’s quick, easy and useful.

Learn Your HUD One Statistic at a Time

Even though the KISS HUD only contains the most important statistics, it might be overwhelming for players new to HUD Use.

If you know your HUD isn't the useful, exploitative tool it should be, this next part is for you.

Here are 6 Steps to learning the KISS HUD (or any poker HUD for that matter). You're going to do the following one stat per session to avoid overwhelm. If you follow these steps, you’ll be a master of your HUD very quickly and you’ll avoid overwhelm along the way.

Listen to Podcast Episode #293 called “Learn Your HUD Statistics One at a Time”:

Step 1: Choose ONE Stat to Focus on Today

I know you want to use the Call PF 2bet stat, the 3bet stat and the Flop Cbet stat all in the same hand. But, if you’re new to HUD usage, that kind of goal will overwhelm you.

You’ve got to take the “one until done” approach. Every day, focus on ONE statistic during your study session, hand reading exercises and your play session. This intense focus on one stat will help to ingrain its use into your skills better than trying to use multiple stats each day.

So for the rest of this post, let's work with the idea that today you've chosen to improve your use of the 3bet Preflop statistic.

Step 2: Learn the Definition and the Formula

For PokerTracker 4 users, this is easy. At the top of the PokerTracker 4 window you're gonna see a menu option called “Configure”. Click on that and then select the second option called “Statistics”. Now another window will open that contains every statistic within PokerTracker 4. For each stat it gives you the definition and the formula.

You can scroll through the stats to find the one you’re focused on, or type into the search box a part of the stat.

When you click on the statistic, you’ll be able to read the stat’s definition on the right. The definition for 3bet Preflop is, “Percentage of the time that a player 3Bet preflop given that he had a chance to do so.” This description is going to be very important in helping you learn new statistics.

Directly below the definition is the Formula. The formula will help you understand the stat a little better. For 3bet Preflop, the formula is:

Preflop 3bet = (# of 3bets Preflop) / (Number of Times Player Could 3bet Preflop).

So, if somebody’s 3bet Preflop is only 1% out of 100 opportunities, that means they’ve only 3bet once in 100 times. Quite a tight 3bettor, wouldn’t you say?

You must write down the description and the formula in your poker journal. This way you can refer to it before your session during your warm-up and then during your session to help refresh your understanding of the stat.

Step 3: Google or YouTube Search

The definition and the formula help you understand what the stat means. But they don’t tell you how to interpret or use the stat to make +EV decisions.

To learn how to use the stats, run a Google or YouTube to find some content to study.

Any statistical search will yield tons of articles and videos to study. Find one from your favorite creator and consume it. Hopefully the video or article tells you high and low percentages and how you can exploit either.

Make sure to take notes in your poker journal so that you can refer to them during your pre-session warm-up and then during the session to refresh yourself.

Step 4: Consider High versus Low Percentages

Exploit at the extremes

The closer a statistic is to zero or 100%, the easier it is to exploit it.

My color coded stat ranges for 3bet Preflop.

Let's take 3bet Preflop:

• If somebody 3bets at less than 1%, you know that they only do it with AA and KK. Pretty easy to fold most hands against this player, right?
• Conversely, if somebody 3bets at 22%, you know they love to 3bet bluff and their range is full of weaker pairs, Broadways, suited Aces and other random crap that they just feel like 3bet bluffing with. Against this player, you have more opportunities to profitably call or 4bet.

For the stat you've chosen to focus on each day, try to come up with percentages for low, middle and high ranges.

If the content you studied didn't give you these ranges (via #3 above), just noodle on it yourself. Think about what range of percentages could equate to low, high or just right in the middle. “Just right” means a range of percentages that are hard to exploit.

Step 5: Make the Statistic More Useful and Noticeable

Watch this video to learn how to do this in PokerTracker 4:

Make your chosen statistic more noticeable by enlarging the font size and put a different background color in place.

To make it more useful, place it in your HUD by position, by relative position or by street.

With a 3bet Preflop stat focus, you can include it by position from the EP through the BB:

The total 3bet font is enlarged with a salmon background. It's also placed by position in its own column on the far right.

The reason for having it by position is that players often 3bet differently based on their position. There are some players who love 3bet bluffing from the CO and BTN, but only 3bet for value from the blinds. There are other players who love 3bet bluffing from the SB because it's the worst position and it looks super strong.

Step 6: Experiment with the Statistic

This experimentation takes place during your play session.

Every time a player makes a play related to the stat, look at the related percentage. Try to make a read on their range based on the percentage and devise a way to exploit your read.

If you're focused on the 3bet Preflop stat, force yourself to look at every 3bettor’s stat as soon as they make it. Then, try to put them on a range based on the 3bet % it shows. Maybe you open-raised from the CO and the BTN 3bet you. Their 3bet on the BTN is only 2%. What hands are they 3betting with? How should you respond based on how your hand stacks up against this range?

What if their stat is at 12%? Well, that’s way higher so you’ll probably respond differently than versus the 2% 3bettor.

Practice this regardless of your involvement in the hand. If you fold UTG, the SB opens and the BB 3bets with a 7% range, what does that mean? What would you do if you were the SB? What if you had AA? How about if you had ATs?

Hopefully some of these 3betting hands will get to showdown so you can confirm your reads.

This repeated practice of looking at a stat, making a read and deciding how you would respond will train yourself to use the 3bet Preflop stat every time.

Plan Ahead

Another thing you can do is view the 3bet percentages by position of the players remaining in the hand. Let’s you’re dealt A9s in the CO. You normally raise this hand. But before you do, take the time to look at the 3bet percentage by position for each of the remaining players. Ask yourself if they’re likely to 3bet bluff you. Devise a plan in case they do.

Do this before you pull the trigger on your CO open-raise.

I guarantee that if you look at a stat, make a read and devise an exploit each time, you’ll become a HUD master in no time.

Here’s my challenge to you:  Starting today and every day over the next 2 weeks, select one stat to focus on per day. Follow the 6 steps here to learn and experiment with the stat. Repeat for as many days as necessary until you become fully capable and confident in viewing the percentage, making a read and making an exploitative play.

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Exploit at the Extremes – the easy way to learn how to exploit using HUD statistics with color coded ranges

When you’re learning how to exploit players using their HUD statistics, I want you to experiment when their stats are at the extremes. So, you’re looking for percentages very close to 0% or 100%. The more extreme the stat, the easier it is for any exploit to succeed.

For example, you'll see below that the low range for VPIP is from 0-12%. So if you want to experiment with exploiting using VPIP for the first time, target those at 5-6% instead of those at 12%.

Conversely, looking at the high range of 25% or more, experiment with exploiting players at 50% or more instead of those at 25%.

For each of the statistical ranges below, I’ll give you one exploit you can use for the low range (color coded with red) and another for the high range (color coded green). For those in the middle (yellow), that’s harder to read and it’s a sign of a balanced player, so look for other extreme stats to exploit.

Listen to Podcast Episode #294 called “Exploit at the Extremes”:

VPIP

• 0-12 – This indicates very tight players who only play the strongest hands. Steal their blinds a lot and if they seem weak post-flop, steal pots with donk bets, floats and probes.
• 12-25
• 25-100 – The closer it is to 100%, and anything over 40%, is playing way too many hands. Target them and play tighter ranges than they do, giving you a preflop mathematical edge.

PFR

• 0-8 – Very nitty players when raising, so believe their 2bets and 3bets preflop. Also expect them to cbet frequently because they raise preflop infrequently with only strong hands.
• 8-20
• 20-100 – Way too aggressive with too many hands. Fight back with 3bets if they can find a fold. You can also call them with position and let them spew chips at you post-flop with your smaller range and mathematical advantage.

Learn how to put color ranges in place for these 10 statistics:

3bet

• 0-3 – Always look at this stat by position, not as a total. The closer it is to 0%, like 1-2%, the more likely they only 3bet with QQ+. Avoid most confrontations versus these ultra-tight 3bets.
• 3-6
• 6-100 – You’ve found a 3bet bluffer, especially at 10%+ in their position. Expect a 3bet before you open-raise and make a plan. If they can 3bet then fold, make 4bet bluffs but size them to 22-25bb’s to hit their pain threshold.

2bet/Fold to 3bet

• 0-50 – Expect them to NOT fold, so 3bet with hands at the top of their 2bet/Call 3bet range. This gives you a mathematical advantage on the flop, which you expect to see because they don’t like folding.
• 50-75
• 75-100 – Bluff them a lot especially when they’re in a position where PFR is 20%+. A wide 2bet range and frequent folding = easy 3bet bluffing profits.

Cbet

• 0-40 – Most ranges hit TP+ and OESD+ only 35% of the time. So, cbetting at 40% or less means an honest player who only cbets with pairs and good draws. Play accordingly.
• 40-60
• 60-100 – The closer their cbet is to 100%, the more bluffing they do. Call them IP on the flop then when they check the turn, fire to steal the pot. You can also raise and check-raise these players on boards that favor your range or might scare them into folding. If you make a bluff raise, be sure to hit their pain threshold by going up to 2.5x-3x their cbet.

Fold to Cbet

• 0-40 – At this low of a percentage, expect them to call. So, rarely bluff but bet bigger for value when you’re ahead of their calling range.
• 40-60
• 60-100 – The closer to 100%, and over 70% is great, they’re “honest” versus cbets and fold too much. Target them by raising their blinds preflop then firing most flops when they check to you. If they call your cbet, watch out because they hit a piece of the board (or they hate your constant cbetting and are fighting back).

Learn how Flopzilla can help you understand HUD statistics…

Here’s my challenge to you: Watch the color coding instructional video above and follow along with PokerTracker 4 and your own HUD. Get all of these color coded ranges in place so you can start exploiting at the extremes tonight!

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

The All-in-One Preflop Popup

To help you exploit your opponents as quickly and easily as possible, I created an All-in-One Preflop Popup and how you can use it to exploit your opponent’s preflop tendencies. This popup contains only the 14 most useful preflop statistics. Plus, they're grouped together in a way that helps you quickly analyze and exploit your opponent’s preflop tendencies

Listen to Podcast Episode #295 called “Using My All-in-One Preflop Popup for Better Exploits”:

The PokerTracker 4 Default Popups

PokerTracker 4 has built-in default pop-ups for you to use called “Tools”, “Flop”, “Turn” and “River”. They have loads of stats broken up by position or street or relative position. But, they’re not laid out in a user-friendly way and are just too cumbersome and complicated:

Why Use Popups?

You might ask, “Why should I use popups? Aren’t the HUD stats on the screen good enough?”

Yes, they’re “good enough” but “good enough” isn’t “Great!” The stats in your HUD are total percentages and they show you average numbers across all positions and situations. Popups allow you to view statistics by position, by relative position (IP or OOP) and by street. Popup stats are more relevant and useful because they hone in on one specific situation, giving you better insight into your opponent’s tendencies.

Example: Using the 3bet Preflop Statistic

Let’s say you’re facing LAG Larry and you have 2,000 hands on him. That’s more than enough to make a good read on Larry’s tendencies. In your popup, Larry’s total Preflop 3bet = 7%. Seems like a player capable of bluff 3betting, right? But that 7% isn’t the entire story.

Here are Larry’s 3bet-related stats by position within the All-in-One Preflop Popup:

By position, Larry’s 3bet stats are 12% in the SB, 4% in the BB, 11% in the MP, 4% in the CO and 5% on the BTN. It appears he likes to use the SB and the MP for his bluffs at 12% and 11% respectively. This means you can fight back more frequently against Larry’s 3bets in those two positions than from the other positions.

Something else very indicative of Larry's tendencies are his Call Preflop 2bet stats in these two positions. Larry’s total Call Preflop 2bet statistic is 14%. But, in the SB and the MP it’s only 5%. So, think about this… Larry doesn’t call often in the SB or the MP, but he 3bets most frequently from here. Larry treats these two positions as his defacto 3bet bluffing opportunities. We only learned this about Larry because we used the All-in-One Preflop Popup to find specific, positional tendencies to exploit.

How do we exploit this knowledge of Larry?

1. Expect a 3bet when he’s in the MP or the SB.
2. Call with hands ahead of his bluff 3betting range or 4bet for value.
3. 4bet bluff when you think he can find a fold.
4. Use sizing tells. Maybe you know he 3bet bluffs only 8bb but when going for value, he uses 9-10bb 3bets. Pair this with his positional tendencies and you can pick off his bluffs and fold easily when necessary.

The All-in-One Preflop Popup

The All-in-One Preflop Popup is separated into 4 different sections with all the stats displayed as a total and by position. The first column has the total % for each statistic, then the next 6 columns are for each position SB through the BTN.

VPIP and PFR Section

This section contains the two most useful stats, VPIP and PFR. Seeing this by position is super helpful.

LAG Larry:

• As a total, he’s a 22/17 player, so slightly LAG
• In the CO he’s 16/12, so solid TAG
• In the BB he’s 28/3, pretty loose-passive

This knowledge is going to help you exploit Larry based on his position.

Helping you create your own preflop popup in record time!

2bet and 3bet Section

The next section contains 2bet and 3bet-related stats:

These are grouped together to help you find quick 2bet and 3bet exploits to use against players like LAG Larry (as the example above discussed his tendencies to 3bet bluff in the MP and SB).

Steal Section

This section is useful for cash game players and tournament players:

These are super useful stats to help you steal or defend against steals more profitably.

Let’s look at Larry’s Attempt to Steal Statistic. Because he’s loose-aggressive, you might assume that he’s stealing a lot in every position. But, in the CO it’s only 15%. On the BTN it’s 34% and it’s 26% in the SB. So, Larry’s actually pretty tight in the CO when it comes to stealing pots. And in the SB, he probably realizes that BB players call too much, so he restricts his stealing range so he doesn’t have to see too many flops OOP.

Limp Section

A huge part of profitable poker is attacking the weakest players a the table, and a sure sign of weakness is frequent limping:

LAG Larry hasn’t limped at all in 937 opportunities. He never open-limps nor limps behind. So, if you ever see LAG Larry limp, what does it mean? I can almost guarantee it would be AA or KK with the plan of limp raising.

Here’s my challenge to you: Create this All-in-One Preflop Popup for yourself right now and use it in your next 5 sessions. Play just 1 or 2 tables and any time somebody enters the pot, open the popup, find the related statistic and try to get a read on what they’re up to. Do this whether you're involved in the hand or not. By constantly referring to this popup over your next 5 sessions, you’ll train its use into your skillset and it will eventually become 2nd nature to use it to exploit players. Good luck and have fun exploiting!

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

The All-in-One Post-flop Popup

TAG Teresa's post-flop popup readout

The 10 Statistics in the Post-flop All-in-One Popup:

• Fold to Cbet
• Call Cbet
• Float Bet, Donk Bet, Probe Bet
• Cbet
• Fold Cbet to a Raise
• Fold to Probe, Fold to Donk, Fold to Float

This popup doesn't contain any Total Statistical %'s. All the stats are broken down relative position; In Position (IP) and Out of Position (OOP).

Listen to Podcast Episode #297 called “Exploiting with My All-in-One Post-Flop Popup”:

Example: Teresa's Fold to Flop Cbet IP versus OOP

Seeing this as an IP stat versus OOP gives you more relevant and useful information.

As a total in her KISS HUD, she folds versus cbets on the flop only 21% of the time. That's very low so it's obvious that she hates folding on the flop. Helpful to know.

However, what's even more helpful is seeing her Fold to Flop Cbet by relative position. When she's OOP, she's folding 36% of the time, or 4/11 times. But when IP, she's folding 0% versus cbets and that's 0/8 times.

Given these numbers, we have an even better read on how she responds to cbets so we can make more successful exploits against her.

Teresa hates folding when IP versus flop cbets.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't cbet bluff her on the flop. This is because the next statistic over in the popup is her Fold to Turn Cbet. When she's IP, she folds versus the double barrel at 100% (3/3 opportunities).

So she calls every flop cbet when IP and contributes money to the pot. But she folds 100% on the turn. Awesome!!!

Double barrel bluffing against Teresa is just like printing money when she has position on you.

This same tendency holds true when she's OOP. She Folds versus Flop Cbets at 36%, but on the turn she folds 50%. It is only 1/2 opportunities, but the pattern remains. She contributes money on flops then gives up frequently on the turn.

So what are you gonna do against Teresa? You're going to almost always double barrel bluff her. If she calls or raises you on the turn, you know she's got the goods, and it's an easy fold. You're printing money by double barrel bluffing against Teresa.

Cbetting and Facing Cbets Sections

The other thing that I love about this popup is it's divided into 2 sections:

• Top half: stats related to you making cbets.
• Bottom half: stats related to you facing cbets.

The reason the top portion is related to you making cbets is because this MUST be the post-flop situation you find yourself in most of the time. Raising and re-raising preflop are profitable ways to enter the pot, and this means you have the opportunity to make cbets.

Entering pots as the preflop caller is generally a losing play and it also means you'll be facing post-flop cbets.

So, if you find yourself constantly looking at the bottom portion of the All-in-One Post-flop Popup, it means you're calling too often preflop.

Learn how to create the All-in-One Post-flop Popup in PT4:

Exploiting with the All-in-One Post-flop Popup

Exploiting the Call Cbet Statistic

You might have noticed that the popup has Fold to Cbet and Call Cbet stats, but Raise Cbet is left out. I purposely left it off because it's a quick math calculation to find Raise Cbet. Basically, the Fold to Cbet, Call Cbet and Raise Cbet always add up to 100%. So, when Teresa is IP, she folds 0% and calls 75%. That means she raises 25% of the time. And anything over 20% means she uses this play as an occasional bluff.

But when she's OOP, her Fold to Cbet is 36% and he Call Cbet is 64%. That already totals to 100%, which means you haven't seen her raise from OOP yet. How can you exploit this? Well, if you ever double barrel against her and she check-raises you, you know she has the nuts. Easy fold.

Exploiting the Float and Probe Statistics

When she's IP, Teresa can make a Float Bet. Floating is betting from IP when the cbettor shows weakness by checking. You can think of floating %'s just like cbetting %'s. Anything over 60% is pretty high and means they use the float bet as a bluff.

Teresa's Flop Float is 56% and 67% on the turn. She likes to bluff when the cbettor checks to her, so expect this. You can check to her and assume she'll bet most of the time, and you can respond with a check-raise or a check-call as you see fit based on your hand and her range.

This same idea works for a player's Probe Bet %. Teresa probes on the turn and River 45% and 40% of the time. Probing is betting from OOP when the cbettor checks-behind on the prior Street. And, once again, you can look at these percentages kinda like cbet stats. So at 45%, it's semi-honest, so she probably Probes with the best draws and pairs or better.

Critical Idea: Any time you see an opponent make a float bet or probe bet that goes to showdown, take a player note on the strength of hand they held and the bet size they used.

Some players go 1/2 pot for every bluff but 2/3 pot for every value bet. When you spot this and take a note, you can use this information to exploit them in the future.

Exploiting the Donk Statistic

For the Donk bet, this is a bet made OOP into the preflop raiser. Anything greater than 10%, and definitely greater than 20% indicates a bluff donk bettor. Teresa's Donk Bet stats are 8% on the flop, 6% on the turn, and 0% on the river. She's very honest when it comes to Donk betting, so give her credit when she does so.

But again, take note of the hand strength and bet size of every donk bet that gets to showdown. Use this info to exploit them in the future.

Exploiting the Cbet Statistic

It's critical that you plan for post-flop play before you call a raise preflop. Do this by always looking at your opponent's Cbet stats before you call preflop.

Let's say you're in the BB and are about to call Teresa's BTN open-raise. Before you make that call, you look at your post-flop popup and see that she cbets when IP 70% of the time. She also double barrels 55% of the time when she's in position, but she cbets the river 0% of the time. Wow, what great information.

She bluffs a lot on the flop, less frequently on the turn and never on the river. This is super helpful information to know before you call her preflop.

Check this out as well. Teresa's OOP Flop Cbet is a tiny 22%. She's a super flop honest cbettor! This means that we can very confidently assume she has a pair or better when she cbets from OOP. This is great for us because if we have a value hand, maybe we flop set, we can raise big for value. Hopefully she has a top pair hand and won't be able to find a fold. Or, if we don't flop a pair nor a draw, we have an easy fold versus her flop cbet from OOP.

The interesting thing here is that her turn double barrel and river triple barrel when out of position are both 100%. So she makes her decision on the flop and she only cbets strong hands. When she gets to the turn or river as the cbettor, she's supremely confident in her hand and fires multiple streets. This will really help you know what to expect and help you to plan the rest of the hand.

Exploiting the Fold Cbet to a Raise Statistic

Because she cbets so frequently from IP, she folds to raises a decent amount of time at 25%. But when she's OOP she has never folded versus a raise. Remember, cbetting at 22% means it's just pair or better hands, so why would she ever fold to a raise?

Because she never folds to a raise when cbetting from OOP, go for max value when she cbets and don't bluff raise her. If you flop a 2p hand or better, raise her 3 or 4 times her bet.

Exploiting the Fold to Probe, Fold to Float and Fold to Donk Bet Statistics

You can look at all of these statistics kinda like a Fold to Cbet statistics. Anything over 50% is good and the closer it is to 100%, the better.

Teresa folds a decent amount of time to Probes, at 50% on the turn and 67% on the river. So you should be try probe betting when she checks the prior street.

We only see her Fold to Float on the flop at 43%. This isn't all that high, so be more prone to Float for value instead of bluffing.

Her Fold to Donk Bet is low at 33% on the flop, but high on the river at 100%. But, seeing as how people rarely face donk bets, it's hard to be very confident in these %'s until you have 1,000 hands or more on her.

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  Watch the video above about creating this All-in-One Post-flop Popup in PokerTracker 4. Spend the next 20 minutes right now creating this pop up for yourself and attach it to your KISS HUD. And then over the next week, utilize this popup at every opportunity. Try various exploits like I've mentioned here, and even come up with your own that I didn't bring up. The more you practice looking at the popup stats and experimenting with exploits, the better you'll get at using it to earn more chips.

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Support the Show

Ashley Procter, Greg Samons, Patrick Henrichs, Sean Acey, Raik Bruhn, Woody Adams, Rob Large, Jaz Benitez, Brad Wright, Lee Fraser and Rich Dietz picked up PokerTracker 4 (get it here to support the show), the best poker tracking software.  I love it and use it everyday!  In appreciation, I sent each of them a copy of my Smart HUD for PT4.  With an ever-growing database of hands to study and all the helpful features, PT4 is the go-to software for serious poker players.

Matt Bodie, Adam Linkenauger, Daniel Saether, John McGrane, Michel Moreau, Angelica Cogliano, Gerry Bedford, Heiner Elser, Stanley Lewkowicz, Mike Boyd, Mohit Jain, Jack Stephens, Left Field and John Peebles bought the Smart HUD with a 1.5 hour webinar for PokerTracker 4.  It’s the best online poker HUD in the business with every critical stat in the HUD and the 7 custom popups. This is what every online player needs to maximally exploit opponents.

Glenn Vassett, Lee Moore and James Thomas purchased the Finding and Plugging Leaks with PT4 Webinar (10% off). They understand the importance of diving into PT4, examining your leaks and working to plug them in order to play more profitable poker.

Bitcoin is the easiest way to deposit and withdraw on any poker site and Coinbase makes buying and selling bitcoin super easy. Thanks to Allen H for using my Coinbase Friend Referral link (click the blue picture to the left). For his purchase, we each received a bonus $10 in bitcoin. Thanks for the support!

Nathan Y. and Brent W. are now playing at Americas Cardroom with me! They used offer code SPSPOD when they created their accounts to get 27% rakeback.

Eduardo Dubon picked up the Poker Mathematics Webinar ($5 off). This was held in conjunction with Mark Warner of ExceptionalPoker.com. We taught you all you need to know about preflop math, post-flop math and Expected Value.

The Poker Study Boot Camp Course was purchased by a seriously kaizen-minded poker peep named Charles Martin. He's got his work cut out for him with this 29-day course, so good luck!