learning the numbers comes with time and experience.

This type of player is pretty rare. He more than likely also has a low WTSD (went to showdown%). He doesn't believe in raising until he sees a flop because "you just don't know if your aces will hold up" until you do. Post flop he is one of two options. Along with a low WTSD, he will be a player that sees the flop and decides whether or not it was good or bad. If it is good, he will bet or raise, if it is bad, he will fold. This is the most likely case

He could otherwise be a complete nutjob post flop who just bets and raises everything.

^ That.

The literal answer to the questions, for me, tells me exactly what the player is doing... check out the parentheses.

24/0/8.0 means he has called/limped preflop 24% of the time. (OK, he likes to play a quarter of his hands. Now I can put him on a range.)

He has raised preflop 0% of the time. (He rarely raises preflop... the zero might be because I only have a few hands on him and haven't seen him raise yet, but I can assume he's only doing this with the very top of his range, if ever. If after 50 hands it's still 0, I can guess he might be sneaky and might not raise premium hands like KK or AK, or even aces, preflop.)

The aggression factor is calculated by how often the guy takes an aggressive action (betting or raising) versus passive (checking or calling) from the flop onwards. Here the 8 is high and means he frequently bets and raises after the flop. (This means different things depending on whether he bluffs or just gets aggro when he gets a piece of the board.)

okay thanks for the replies, so what kinda numbers am I looking at here, range wise...
1-100/1-50/1-10?

Just so I know what to look for... for example if the AF is a factor out of 100 then 8 is passive but if its out of 10 then im looking at someone who is aggro.

VPIP is displayed as a percentage. It's this ratio: (Hands Voluntarily put money in pot) / (total hands).

PFR is displayed as a percentage. It's this ratio: (Hands which he Pre-Flop Raised) / (total hands).

AF is displayed as a ratio. [(Bets)+(Raises)]/ (calls)

So, as you can see, AF is displayed much differently as the numerator has no set boundaries with regards to the denominator. Whereas the VPIP and PFR have a numerator that has to be less than or equal to the denominator.

AKA: Ranges for the 3 stats: VPIP: 0-100; PFR: 0-100; AF:0- infinity

Although the range is significantly higher for AF, a stat of 4 is still considered high. Where 1.5 is probably the norm. And less than 1 is considered low.

OHHHHHH thanks you , haha this will help a lot. Thank you again.

What sites get a lot of traffic that aren't the main ones?

Like, not Stars, Tilt, Pacifc, Party, or PKR?


I'm looking into signing up via an affiliate, but I don't want to lock down a major site if they turn out to be a naff affiliate.

if you mean you're looking for rakeback, but don't want to commit to a rakeback affiliate yet, you can play on stars.

Stars doesn't offer rakeback to anyone, and instead has a player rewards program that everyone participates in automatically.

Nah not that. I'm already on Stars.

I'm skint for the next few months so can't deposit anywhere. So I might sign up through one of them affiliates that basically stake you, then keep your rakeback.

So I really don't want to be losing my rakeback forever on one of the big boys, where all I'm doing is practicing for free essentially. But I don't want to sign up somewhere that is going to be useless for traffic or an easy game.

The ones I'm looking at are Everest, Titan, and Cake. Or maybe one of the gambling-website-come-poker-room like Ladbrokes or Bet365.

I've heard of them, but couldn't begin to tell you if they're going to be in any way comparable to the bigger names.

www.poker**************

What exactly is the "5-10 rule" ?

it's from ciaffone/reuben, saying that if you've got position with something speculative like a small pair or suited connectors and are facing a raise, it's an easy call when it's for <5% of your stack, and a fold for >10%, in between it depends. basic rule of thumb to see whether you have implied odds really.

What does merging ranges mean?

Hey,

I'm a new poker player (up until recently, I've only played casually with some friends every now and then). I've started playing on Full Tilt with play money recently just to get a lot of hands in. At what point should I consider myself ready to play with real money? After like 2 days of playing, I have about 60,000 play chips, and I make the final table in almost every 2K SNG I play in. I know these players are generally terrible, but I can't imagine that NL2 players are phenomenal either...how much longer should I keep practicing with play money?

No longer. Play money is only good for learning the software. Players are completely terrible. 2nl is also terrible, but at least twice as good as play moneys

This is kinda advanced. But some board textures dictate naturally a polarized betting range. People will bet their really strong hands or their missed hands, but usually play passively with moderate hands to see a showdown for cheap. Because of this, players may call down with relatively weak hands as a bluff catcher. If players are calling down with enough bluff catchers, we can merge the top of our range with the middle of the range and be profitable against his bluff catcher.

what does 'he was fishing' mean.

How is a "big bet" defined? I mean how many times the big blind is considered a big bet?

Also, what does "ptbb" mean? As in, "I'm beating 50nl for 9ptbb/100"

I think I've pretty much figured this out, but just to clarify.... When somebody says xxNL, the xx refers to the amount of cents that the big blind is? So $3/6NL would be 600NL, or $.01/$.02 Would be 2NL. Is this correct?

Beginners Forum Frequently Asked Questions

Interesting interpretation. Is it correct? Well, you'll get the right answer every time that way. 600NL is a game that exactly describes $3/6NL. But I'm assuming people got annoyed of typing 3/6NL and decided to come up with a new, easier notation. Online, almost every 3/6NL game has a maximum buy-in of $600. That's where they get the 600, the standard maximum buy in.


Your other question is certainly in the FAQ.

It could mean one of two things logically:

A) He was drawing, like go fish, trying to find the card he was searching for.

B) He was fishing, with rod and bait on water.

What's the difference between a good 25/50 NL regular and players like Ivey, Antonius, Durrrr, ziggmund etc? (Except for bankrollsize ofcourse)

It can also mean to beat the fishes at the tables. (win their money)

"I'm fishing at NL25" ~ means the guy is playing at NL25 and trying to get his opponent's (stats: about 40/15 or worse) money.

bankroll question.
how big should it be for 0.01C/0.02 elohel
for 0.05/0.1
for 0.02/0.05
?

Holy crap! I finally got through the whole dumb questions thread and read all the stickies and links!

Now I forgot what dumb question I was going to ask if it hadn't already been answered!

What do I do now?!

limit:

1c/2c : $12
2c/5c: $30
5c/10c: $60

NL
1c/2c: $40 (buying in for 2 dollars)
2/5c: $100
10nl: $200

these are the 'rule of thumb'. If you have a high winrate, you can survive on less. If you're not sure you're a winning player, you might want more.