A very general question about how to visualize a villains' preflop cold call range based on a couple of basic stats. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume he's very vanilla, very straightforward, and essentially doesn't bluff.

If a villain has a VPIP of 30%, a PFR of 10%, and 3BET of 5% (JJ+, AQ+, KQ), then we can assume when he's given the opportunity to flat, he's calling with aaallllll those hands in blue, correct? (See screenshot.)

If so, I'd think we his cold call stat would be ~25%. I've found, however, that the actual CC% in my hud is almost never close to the difference between his VPIP and 3Bet %'s. Maybe I'm not understanding what the cold calling stats (in either PT4 & HM2) refer too? Thanks.

VPIP means voluntarily put into pot, this includes any times villain puts money in the pot pot by betting (i.e. raising) or calling (post blinds isn't voluntary so this doesn't count).

A cold call is when someone in the hand has previously raised and someone who hasn't been in the hand so far decides to call.

So UTG opens 3x, BTN calls this is a cold call

However you tend to hear the term cold call when you're talking about 3bet pots

CO opens 3x, BTN raises to 9bb, SB Folds, BB cold calls

So there is no reason why cold call % shoudl be the same as vpip - 3bet that's something you've misunderstood.

As I have said in my first post this is incorrect but I thought I should add that if villain was calling with 25% of his range and 3betting JJ+, AQ+, KQ the range you have given is reasonable but very unlikely spot on. People construct ranges in completely different ways and ranges vary massively in different spots even if they % is the same and the more you play the more you will get to see villains range through actually seeing the hands they play and you'll get better at building ranges for regs in spots.

I guess I was just looking at PT4 and HM2 where the cold call stat differentiates between single and 3bet pots. But see how cc'ing can sometimes refer to both. I think I was confused about how VPIP & CC related to one another. Thanks.

Right, totally. I know things aren't so simple and that villains differ widely, so you really can't play off of a chart like the one above. But I'm trying to get a general sense as to how to visualize cold calling ranges based on those very basic stats (like VPIP) that everyone seems use in their HUD.

So from what you said it sounds like since VPIP includes literally everytime someone contributes to the pot, it's probably not very good for figuring out a villain's CC range.

I'm wondering how to think about the very common situation where I raise PF, am called, and am on the flop heads up. Without any reads, do you tend to look at any one single stat to get a very general sense of what the villain might hold considering he didn't 3bet and just called instead? (Again, I do know it's going to be situation-dependant and position will matter.)

You meant the difference between VPIP and PFR, not 3-bet, I presume.

Unfortunately, VPIP% minus PFR% still won't equal Cold Call%, since it's possible to be an open-raiser or an open-limper, but you can't open with a cold-call. Whilst you have the opportunity to VPIP in every hand, and you have the opportunity to raise (PFR) in almost every hand (unless someone shoves with a bigger stack than you, or if you get a walk), but You only have the opportunity to cold-call once somebody has already raised.
It's literally impossible to cold-call UTG, but it's obviously possible to VPIP or PFR (or both) in that position.

"Cold-call" just means calling a raise (or a 3-bet, if you haven't already put any money in the pot).
Additionally, note that some players can have a very high VPIP by limping in. If they limp-call an iso raise, their VPIP goes up, but their cold-call percentage does not, since they aren't calling the iso-raise cold. (They've already put money in the pot).

An additional point that you probably already know, is that just because someone has an overall cold-call of X%, it doesn't mean they call with that same X% range in every spot. For example, I have a very low cold-call% in MP-SB, but a very high cold-call % in the BB. My overall cold-call number might be about average, but it's not similar to the gap between my VPIP or PFR, nor does the average/overall cold-call number tell you anything about what my flatting range is on the button, or BB specifically.

If cold-call% meant the same as VPIP-PFR, there would be no need to have a cold-call stat, as I think most people can subtract 15 from 20.
If you really want to range pre-flop callers based on their stats, use a HUD pop up (see next post) that shows cold-calling percentages by position. If someone is calling over 15% on the button, for example, you'll know he has loads of hands that should have been 3-bets or folds.

P.S. For some reason, Pokertracker's main positional stats don't seem to regard calls in the SB or BB as "cold calls" (presumably because the makers of that program decided that the forced blinds meant the calls weren't "cold". I think that's pretty stupid, but meh).

P.P.S.

Cold-call by position is featured in the default HEM pop-up (that should show up when you hover your mouse over someone's VPIP). Unfortunately, you need a very large sample size before positional stats are in any way useful (unless someone is way out of line), but you can get an idea of their calling ranges by looking at the highlighted part of the pop-up:



You'd need to compare those numbers with VPIP and PFR and 3-bet to get the ranges narrowed right down, but at least you should be able to spot the set-miners and the players that call way too much.

They aren't cold because they already have money in the pot so it affects odds on calling. It makes sense and there are stats which show you what you're talking about so the information is still available.

If you're paying attention to the hands that you are playing you tend to get reasonable notes on villain before the stats show you anything massive. As great as HUDs are nothing beats paying attention and making notes, something I don't do nearly enough. HUDs are bigger picture things which require quite a few hands to be meaningful unless someone is doing something massively wrong. I.e. someone who is 90/60 after 20 hands is probably playing far too loose but a 14/11 and a 27/25 could be the exact same player.

Example, Today I opened like AQs UTG MP flats BB calls. Some flop Axx I bet two streets and check river MP calls twice, BB folds on the flop. The board is such that I don't think I can get 3 streets of value vs a MP flatting range. MP checks back and has A3o and I win the hand.

I had only played say 30 hands against villain and his vpip/pfr didn't look out of line but that one hand leads me to believe that villain isn't too aware of position, doesn't like folding TP even when he's obviously beat and overvalues Ax type hands preflop. They aren't rock solid reads by any means but it's slowly letting me build a better picture of how villain plays and how I can adjust as a result. For example I would bet a lot thinner on the river against this player now with things like top pair and I would be bluffing less when villain has called previous streets.

Gotcha. Actually, I was originally thinking that cold calling a single raise would, in fact, be the difference between VPIP and 3Betting ... because if you're not re-raising a preflop raise and you're not 3betting, then you must be calling. But I get what you're saying.

Right, and my cold call range is rather different depending on position as well, but as MMSS says below, it seems like it requires a TON of hands before positional stats can really mean very much.

Could you explain this? How would this spot-set-miners?

I definitely am guilty of the same. And I suppose that since it's much easier to not take thoughtful notes, and it's tempting to think that stats are going to tell you something larger than a few random hands you saw at the showdown, I (and I bet many of us fall into the trap of not taking notes.

Anyhow, so the premise of the question still remains: Is there anything a hud (that doesn't take a million hands to accumulate) that can tell you something about someone's cold calling range? Let's take the common scenario or you raising in either EP or MP, somone calls in LP, and you're headsup on the flop. What, if anything, are you looking for if you don't have specific reads.

If someone's cold-call% in a particular position is only about 4%, their range will - in most cases - mostly be pocket pairs. TT-22 is 4% of hands. They could also get that 4% by flatting something like TT-55, AQs, AJs and AQo, which is a pretty strong range, and fairly easy to visualize (If they call on K73, they have a set or a middle pocket pair, if they call on Axx, they have top pair or a set).
It's only if someone is cold-calling 10%+ that you can put a bunch of Broadways, aces and suited connectors in their range. If the number is more like 20% (like when they are in the BB), there's all kinds of junk in their range.

FWIW, I almost never look at cold-call stats, partly because I don't have a large enough sample size (playing micro zoom), partly because I've learned from experience what kind of stuff the "typical" player in pool flats with, and partly because I take notes and use colour-codes to tell me if someone is stationy or aggro, or a nut-miner etc.