If you look through the PokerSavvy software shop, you will find some poker software that is able to record statistics of your and your opponents' play. If you are a serious player and play at a site that is supported by this software, you are silly not to use it. In this article I would like to show you some examples of how to use the information about your opponents and turn tough decisions into easy ones.

The first thing that other players' stats can do for you is help you select your tables. A simple stat that is called "$ won" provides you a decent indication if players are good or bad. Pick the table with the biggest losers. If you have a winning player at the table, make tight folds against him. Play lots of pots with the losers.

Very important stats are those that define the play of your opponents and that can actually be helpful for your play decisions. I will discuss the main three:

Voluntarily Put Money in the Pot % (VPIP%).
The lower this number, the tighter the player. With 10% VPIP you have a player that will play his pairs and his big aces and little else. If you have a couple of those players behind you, you can pick up their blinds all day long with just about any two cards. A 40% loose player also plays stuff like unsuited connectors and a lot of (maybe all?) suited hands.

Preflop Raise% (PFR%).
The lower the number, the more respect a raise should be given.

With a free tool like PokerStove you can quickly display the top X% hands, which gives you a decent idea of the hands an opponent is playing/raising.

Aggressivity Factor (AF).
The number of bets and raises divided by the number of calls (checks and folds are not regarded as passive nor as aggressive). The lower the number, the more respect you should give to their bets. An AF < 0.7-1.0 indicates a passive player. If the AF > 1.5-2.0 we´re up against an aggressive player. If you want, the AF can be cut down to streets and can tell you about a players betting patterns. E.g. an AF of 6.0 on the flop and 0.7 on the turn indicates that the player takes one shot at the pot and then shuts down if he encounters resistance. This knowledge can win you a lot of pots.

If you flop a monster: look up your opponents stats. If he is very aggressive, you could leave part of the betting to him. But if you´re up against a passive player, make sure you help build the pot from the start. Your opponent can´t do that by himself.

If your opponent is betting into you and his AF is low, you could fold a good hand, because you´re probably up against a better hand. If an aggressive player bets into you, you might look him up with a mediocre hand.

Consider the following players (VPIP% / PFR% / AF):
Player 1: 10 / 2 / 0.8
Player 2: 25 / 12 / 1.5
Player 3: 45 / 25 / 3.0

Player number one is a rock. He only plays and raises his best hands. Get out of the way if he bets. Player number 2 is a "standard" tight-aggressive player. Player number three has a Loose-Aggressive style. Stacks will swing with a couple of those at the table. Avoid having them on your left!

Let´s look at a couple of every day No-Limit Hold´Em hands. Assume you have picked up a good hand like AQ or TT and somebody raises preflop. What do you do? The answer is: look up his stats.

Suppose you are up against player number 1. Against him you should fold AQ without hesitation. You are almost certainly dominated. Even if you flop an Ace or Queen, there is a reasonable chance that it is still the second best hand and you are on your way to losing a big pot.
With TT against player 1 the choice is easy: call. You can´t allow yourself to reraise, too often you will find yourself re-reraised and you have wasted a chance to see the flop.

Against player 2 you are certainly going to play your AQ. Whether you flat call or reraise is a matter of your own preferences. With the pair of tens I would strongly recommend you reraise. Normally you won´t flop a set and the postflop play will be tough, especially if no/few overcards hit. Avoid these problems and reraise. Often you will win the hand right away.

Against player 3 you love to play AQ or TT with a lot of money in the pot. A clear reraise.

Suppose you have raised preflop with Queens, the flop appears J54 with a 2-flush and your continuation bet doesn't pick up the pot. It is time again to look up some stats. If you are up against a player with a low VPIP% (e.g. player 1 with his 10%), you can be (virtually) certain that he does not have a draw. He doesn't play suited cards and either has you beat with a set or he wants to find out if his smaller pair is good. The dumbest thing you can do now is build a big pot. If your opponent is still around on the turn, consider check-call or even check-fold with your overpair on the river. However, if you´re up against a player who plays a large range of hands (more than 20%), you will have to play your big pair more aggressively. He could have a draw or he could have a hand like AJ. So bet.

These are just a couple of examples, but I think they show pretty clear what you can do with the stats that are displayed at your table. As you might have read between the lines, passive and very tight players are the easiest to play against. Table overlay stats help you identify those players. Adjust your play accordingly and you will find that your results improve. Good luck!

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