So you've been using poker tracking software and its accompanying poker HUD for a while now.  Do you fully grasp what each stat is within your HUD and how to use them for maximum benefit and profits at the tables?

This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to understanding the various stats within your poker tracking software and your poker HUD.  This first stat is one of the most useful and easier to understand stats: VPIP or Voluntarily Put $ in the Pot.

VPIP Essentials

Here's a bullet list of the important aspects to VPIP that every serious online poker player needs to know.

• VPIP is the most powerful stat there is as it’s calculated in every hand played and it's a great indication of how active a player is and what range of hands they play in various positions.
• Key is ‘voluntarily’ put money in.
• This stat needs to be in your poker HUD as you should be using it in every hand you play against each of your opponents.
• It's calculated as:

• VPIP is how often, on average and across all positions, a player chooses to play a hand. The higher the %, the more hands played, the fishier the player.  30% means they play 30% of the hands dealt to them.
• If your VPIP is too low, you become predictably nitty; and playing too many hands gives you very weak ranges on each street in relation to your opponent’s range.
• To decrease your VPIP, play less OOP and don’t limp any hands. Call less from the blinds as well.  Playing tighter ranges also simplifies post-flop play.
• To increase your VPIP, play more often IP and add suited connectors, suited A’s and decent suited K’s, along with small pocket pairs.
• Nit at 10% VPIP:

• Fish at 50% VPIP:

• Sample Size is important and the more hands you have on an opponent the more reliable this stat is, and the better you can estimate his range of hands in each position.  30 hands gives a rough idea of an opponent’s range; 100 hands gives a good idea; 300+ hands gives a very reliable idea of the range he plays.
• VPIP %’s correlate to the range an opponent plays, so you need to know your ranges and the Poker Range Chromatic will help with that.
• Knowing that an opponent's VPIP tells you the range of hands he plays, you can choose a range of hands to combat this player and to win $ off of him. Use VPIP to find the fish and try to get into more pots with them with a better range and in position.
• Against Fish (high VPIP) bluff less post-flop and value bet more.
• Against Nits you'll want to generally value bet less and look for more bluff opportunities.
• You should keep VPIP in a pop-up by position as well as this can let you know if your opponent is positionally aware or not. If an opponent’s VPIP % is static through every position then he’s easier to play against as he’ll be more predictable (ex 16-19% in EP, MP, CO and BTN; then you know he plays each hand – AA, AK, JJ, QTs, 55, etc. – the same from every position).  Here's an example of VPIP by position in my RFI pop-up (VPIP on the first line):

VPIP Tutorial in PokerTracker 4

I use PokerTracker 4, and highly recommend it.  Please check out this post where I discuss and show you (via video) some of the PT4 basic features.

In the video below, I show you specifically how you can filter your hands for VPIP and how you can review your hands by position or hand strength in order to assess your VPIP'ing skills.

VPIP Analysis – In-Game HUD Usage

Not only is understanding your own VPIP % important, but you need to understand what this number means for each of your opponents at your table.  What types of info can you glean from each opponent's HUD?  Is there an optimal seat at the table?  Who are you most likely to steal blinds from or steal from on the flop?

Please check out the next HUD Stat post on PFR (pre-flop raise).

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them for me below and I'll be sure to get back to you.

Make your next session the best one yet!

A special thanks to poker coaches Assassinato and SplitSuit for the valuable info they've given regarding VPIP.  Also, thanks to PokerTracker 4 for the great training and Leak Tracker videos and all the other coaches I've learned from via articles, books and training videos.