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I downloaded the two programes you mentioned and am slighly overwhelmed, though it looks like there is some great information there. My favorite feature so far is the pop ups that show mucked hands. I'm ALWAYS digging through the history to see these hands, so that feature alone is worth the purchase. However, as far as the statistics on the players go, do you have any insights on what the most important ones are and how to read them?


I'm glad you like these programs. I agree, the hole card thing is just awesome.

These are the key stats I consider:

Preflop VP%IP and Preflop Raise percentages give you an idea of whether you need to respect this player's raise. Note that a player can be a loose player but a very tight raiser, playing 70% of his hands but only risking a raise with AA or KK. These stats tell you that. You can easily fold to these guys when they raise.

Also preflop, in a steal situation I look at the defenders FBBTS, and FSBTS (folded BB to steal, folded SB to steal). I don't have this on the PA HUD overlay, but it is in the list of stats that pop up when I click a player. There is no sense running a steal with K5o against players who will never fold their blinds. On the other hand, if you've got a good seat with bad players to your right and two tight players to your left, sometimes you'll have a situation where when you have the button the blinds are folding 80+% to a steal. I will literally raise first in on the button with any two cards in that situation.

Postflop, I look at Postfolp Aggression to determine how likely the raise or check-raise means anything. Players with PFA above 1.5 will check-raise draws, and you need to discount their aggression a bit. When a weak, passive player with an aggression factor of 0.3 check-raises the turn, he's got himself a hand.

Other key postflop stats are Went to Showdown and Won $ at Showdown. If a player's Went to Showdown is high (above 45% say), and his Won at Showdown is low, like 40%, this means he is showing down too many weak hands. Against this player you value bet relentlessly, because he'll pay off with weak hands. Don't check behind on the river. If the stats are way off the other way, like 20%/70%, then he's folding too much, and you can run a semi-bluff with a big draw and push him off a hand, bet scary turn cards, etc. You exploit his weakness by making him fold when he shouldn't.

In general, the stats help you find where your opponent's game is away from optimal, then play in such a way that allows them to make serious mistakes that they are already predisposed to making. You don't try to make calling stations fold by bluffing. If anything, when they do it you are moving their game toward the optimum. You want to encourage people to continue to play away from optimum and even increase the chances for doing it. Against a habitual bluffer, just keep check/calling him and let him bluff his chips off to you. Against a rock, you occasionally check-raise bluff the turn to exploit the fact he folds *too much*. The stats tell you where their game is suboptimal.

Those 5 are the key stats: VP$IP, PFR, PFA, WTSD, W$SD. Also, for the postflop aggression, click the "More Details" button on the General tab and make sure you are NOT including preflop play in the postflop aggression statistics.

I guess I have one more key stat, which is particularly useful in NL games. It is the "Folded to Continuation Bet" stat. When you raise a limper preflop with AK, it is nice to know how often he folds to a "continuation bet", a bet on the flop when you miss. I keep FTCB on the overlay because occasionally you'll see someone way out of whack, like 85% and you can pick up lots of pots against them by just betting the flop.

I also display the number of hands I have on each player. Folded to Steal and Folded to Continuation Bet are statistics that don't converge until you have several hundred hands on a person, while things like VPIP, PFR and PFA are usually fairly reliable by 100 hands.

I have my PA HUD setup to give me street-by-street stats on players when I click on them. I can email you my PA HUD setup if you want so you can see how it works. Or I can send you a screenshot if you want (or post it if others are interested).

Hope this helps. Get a hold of me or reply here if you have more questions.

Jim