The Illusion of Style

A few people have asked me what my VPIP and PFR are recently which are poker tracker acronyms for Voluntarily Put in Pot and Pre Flop Raise. I could never answer this question accurately before because I didn't input any hands into poker tracker on a consistent enough basis. However, over the past few months I have accumulated enough hands in my database to give an accurate answer.

My VPIP over the last 70,000 hands at 6 handed tables is 20.02 and my PFR is 10.92.

Poker tracker has me listed as a Semi-Loose-Aggressive/Aggressive player. I would call myself a Semi-Tight-Aggressive/Aggressive player. These stats are roughly middle of the road when compared to who I consider to be the best players(win the most) I play with. There are some tighter and some who are looser.

My Aggressiveness is just over 3 which again is roughly average for all the best players and my W$SD(Won $ at Showdown) is 57% which is well above average. This is probably the best statistic for analyzing other players you play with rather than PFR and VPIP. As soon as this statistic falls below 50%, players are making too many mistakes. There is not one single top player in my database who is below 50%.

I'd say optimal stats are anywhere between 8% PFR and 17% PFR, 16% VPIP and 25% VPIP and 3 Aggression and 5 Aggression for 6 handed. In other words a vast variety of styles all have equal merit in the hands of a skilled proponent of that style. Or alternatively, all styles can make 7 figure sums per year =).

So which style is best? Well that's my point, no style is best. The best player I know (multi million dollar roll) has stats similar to mine but on the slightly looser end of Semi-Tight-Aggressive and other players with similar rolls are on the Loose-Very Aggressive end of things. So what are the important parts of the game to analyze and work on if completely different styles can have equal merit and PFR/VPIP don't give you enough of an idea if you are playing good or bad?

The stuff that separates the best from the rest regardless of style are Discipline(covers stuff like Tilt, Bankroll management, Patience, Game Selection), Hand Reading(Analysis), Player Reading(Memorizing players styles and their tendacies) and I would include here Turn play and to a lesser extent River play(more mistakes are made in No Limit on the turn than anywhere else). Most players who make it to the higher levels in No Limit generally have a good grasp of flop play. A lot give up a good chunk of their EV on the Turn and River to the better players at these levels.

In other words don't worry so much about your looseness or tightness and worry more about the stuff I just mentioned. That stuff is vastly more important than your PFR or VPIP, trust me.

Some general advice for Tight to Semi Tight players :-
Get better at picking off bluffs with your weaker holdings on the turn and mostly on the river.

Make sure you have a decent Bluff Re-Raising % pre flop(at least 10% of your re-raises pre flop should not be with premium hands) or you will give up some clear extra EV.

Loosen up considerably when there are bad players in the game, your VPIP should go up considerably in these games as well as your PFR vs the bad players to isolate (hopefully with position).

Pay careful attention to players and especially their re-raising frequency. If any player starts messing with you in a consistent way you must stand up to it and fight fire with fire. If you don't, the Looser style will be making money from you in the long term and that is of course unacceptable =)

Be able to adjust your game. Just because you are on the tighter end of the scale it doesn't mean you shouldn't experiment, especially when playing short handed. I hate the phrase but this is what changing gears refers too =) Be very careful not to get caught in a particular pattern or ABC style game. It is important to consistently analyze and adjust your play even though you would remain profitable if you didn't. Do not be a lazy tight player or you will be giving up way too much profit in the long run.

Some general advice for Loose players :-
Minimize tilt as much as possible. You already have huge variance so don't make it worse with your emotional tilty hero plays =)

Hand Reading ability is probably going to be your biggest asset, so work on this facet of your game as much as possible as you will have a lot more marginal decisions than your tighter counterpart.

Make a lot more value calls and value bets than you might be already. The relative strength of your hands are much greater than a tighter players. For instance it is going to be a profitable play for you to bet big with a weak two pair on the river in some situations where a tighter players weak two pair would be too unprofitable to bet big.

Have access to a much larger bankroll than you may think you need as your variance will be considerably larger than a tighter players. 20 times the buyin is clearly not enough for the looser players to rely on.

Your loose style will always give the illusion that you are making more per hour than you actually are to everyone else at the table because on average you will have bigger winning days than your tighter counterpart but obviously also bigger losing days. Take advantage of your big winning days by staying at the tables longer than normal to take advantage of your deep stack.

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At the highest levels, games get short handed a lot more so loose players will have a clear natural advantage over a tight player. There is no reason why you can't train yourself to adjust your game considerably in these situations though. No reason at all. I am very comfortable in short handed situations and my natural game gets adjusted a lot. I filtered my stats to show all games between 2 and 3 players and my PFR went up to 24% and my VPIP to 34%.

However, if you get to the elite levels of poker, 50-100NL and beyond there is only going to be one style that will work and that is going to be loose as most games at these levels are all very short handed. If this is where you want to end up then your end goal is going to be to master a loose style of play. I know from my own point of view that I have loosened up considerably over the past 3 years and will continue to do so as I play higher and higher limits.