Statistical Software (HUDs): Interpretation and Practical Use – Part 1

This is the continuation of the article Statistical Software (HUDs): Interpretation and Practical Use – Part 1. We are discussing the statistical indices used in online poker.

AF

“Aggression Factor”

This is an indicator of an opponent's aggressiveness post-flop. It is the ratio of times a villain is aggressive to times he is passive. The basic calculation is (raise% + bet%)/(call%) post-flop. It is important to look at this in the context of VPIP and other statistics to understand what it means. One of the limitations of AF is that it does not include the Fold percentage, meaning two players with the same AF could have very different raising ranges.
*When we say, “he was 54/44/4”, that last number is the AF.

AF is often used in conjunction with WtSD, W$SD and W$FSM (which will be explained below), because they give a better idea of what type of player you are facing.

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W$WSF (%)

“Won money when seeing the flop”

This statistic shows the percentage of times a player wins the pot when he sees a flop (with or without a showdown). It helps show you how aggressively he plays post-flop.

WtSD (%)

“Went to Showdown”

This statistic shows the percentage of times an opponent goes to showdown when he sees the flop. The higher this number, the more likely the villain is a caller, in poker slang, a “calling station”.

In other words, it is advisable to make many value bets and avoid bluffing against him. This is because he will almost always pay you, the higher this number, the lower your fold equity (chance of him folding). And vice versa, that is, the lower the number, the more you can bluff, the higher your fold equity and the fewer value bets you should make.

W$SD (%)

“Won money in showdown”

This statistic shows the percentage of times that Villain wins at Showdown. This number gives you an approximate statistic of Villain's post-flop skill. The higher the number, the more likely it is that Villain only brings good hands to Showdown.

BB/100

“Big Blinds/100hands”

This statistic shows whether your opponent is winning or losing in the sessions he or she has played with you. It is popularly known as winrate, the average number of Big Blinds won (or lost) every 100 hands.

Hands

This number obviously shows how many hands you have played with the opponent in question. It should be the first statistic you consider, because it shows how much value you can give to the other statistics. We can estimate that VPIP and PFR become significant after about 50 hands, and AF can be taken into account after about 200-500 hands, depending on how loose the player is. Other indices like W$SD and W$WSF require thousands of hands to be accurate, and so should be used with caution.

FlopAF/TurnAF/RiverAF

This number shows how aggressive a player is on each street (flop, turn, river). It helps you define what type of player you are playing against. For example, an opponent with a high FlopAF is making a lot of continuation bets (C-bets).

A villain with a low FlopAF and high TurnAF is likely to be a floater (a float is a play, usually made on the flop, in which the player simply calls, with the intention of bluffing on the turn). Floater players generally have a high number of Call PFR and a high number of Call Cbet%.

Last but not least, the villain with low FlopAF, low TurnAF and high RiverAF is probably a fish. Weak players like to see every street and call value bets like no one else.

AttSB (%)

“Attempt to Steal Blinds”

This statistic is very useful. It shows whether the opponent knows anything about positions or not. Of course, it needs to be analyzed together with the PFR. For example, if the AttSB is higher than the PFR, then the villain knows the importance of position and you can start to respect his preflop raises from UTG and, obviously, less respect for raises from the CO and BTN. A villain with a high AttSB number is open-raising the CO and BTN with a very wide range of hands, that is, he is a good candidate for you to 3bet (re-raise) on.

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Cbet (%)

“Continuation Bet”

As the name suggests, this statistic shows the percentage of times that the villain rebets when he raised preflop. If a given villain has a high number of Cbets, it is very likely that he is bluffing a lot. Remember that 66% of the time the opponent did not hit anything decent on the flop.

Values between 50 and 75% are considered “standard” – he is betting when he hits and sometimes as a bluff. Below 50% means that you should respect the c-bets made. Above 75% is the opposite, and it is very likely that he is bluffing a lot on the flop.

Fold SB/BB to steal (%)

This stat shows the percentage of times a player folds to a raise when in the blinds. This stat is also very useful because it tells you whether a potential blind steal is viable. A villain with a low Fold SB/BB to Steal will be defending his blinds regularly. Consequently, if villain has a high Fold SB/BB to Steal percentage, then you can steal quite often.

Fold/Call/Raise cbet

These three statistics show you how villain reacts to a Cbet. The most important thing to consider when applying a cbet (as a bluff) is the “Fold to Cbet”, which shows how often villain folds in these situations.

Cold Call

This statistic shows how often villain calls a raise without having put any $ in the pot yet. It's safe to say that anything above 5 indicates that villain is probably calling preflop with weak hands. You should be less willing to steal the blinds if a player has a high cold call to your left.

That's it folks, a summary of these important statistical indexes. Learn how to use them and you'll see the technical difference in your game!