I’ve played 5,200 hands on Ignition NL10. My vpip / pfr / 3bet is 14.1 / 9.4 / 3.2. OK, a bit nitty. I’m up 12.5 BB/100 before the rake, 4.7 BB/100 after the rake. I’m 50 percent certain I’m least a break-even player. I have flop aggression factor of 5.6, and I’m folding to the flop bets 80 percent of the time.

My question: Is my high flop aggression due to my low VPIP? Is my high flop-fold percentage due to my high flop aggression? Should I adjust my game? Call and/or check more often?

I've run my hands through PokerTracker, replaying the bigger losing ones, and looking at the villains’ hole cards only after the replays. I haven’t made too many mistakes in those replays, just calling some all-ins when villains had shitty starting hands like T8o and folding to all-in cold bluffs when villains hit air. I'm getting ready to adjust to live poker, where it's much easier to identify these maniacs.

Likely. My guess is you are solely focused on value range pre and postflop. It's not a terrible strategy where rake is high and people generally don't adjust well. I would suggest 3b most of your range pre and close the gap between your VPIP and PFR. You want to get your 3b% up to at least 7-8. 9 is spot on if you're playing 23/19. 3.2% is just way too exploitable.


Your high fold to flop cbet is odd. Generally xc most pairs for one street against most reasonably sized cbets is standard, imo, regardless of texture. You can also allow Vs to bluff when you are OOP by checking some TPMK type hands that can easily call 2 to 3 streets.

I realize my advice is pretty generalized based only on a small sample of 5k hands. Post some hands you have questions about, put in 15k more hands, post your stats and WR after that. GL to you.

No offense but you're prolly just a nit and that's why you're folding 80% OTF

14/9/3 is pretty nitty, even for ignition, where I advocate being a bit nitty. No one really cares about your winrate before take, but what about your winrate once you factor in all in EV? 80% fold to flop cbet is pretty high, and I’m a bit concerned about the gap between your PFR and VPIP. Your high fold flop percentage is not due to your high flop aggression. In fact, it’s the opposite: your high fold flop percentage causes your high flop aggression factor (which is the ratio of raises or bets to calls, not raises or bets to calls and folds).

If you play live poker 14/9 you better bring a book because you’ll just be folding the whole time. I do agree that Ignition is pretty good practice for live poker, because it’s filled with a lot of the same types of players. However, I would want a much bigger winrate at 10nl before switching to live.

Probably a nit? I am a nit.

You mean, you guys don't read Tolstoy's War and Peace when you play live?

The great thing about live poker is that, absent accurate VPIP, PFR, 3-B, AF, F-Flop numbers, you can lose money and tell yourself you're a good poker player who just gets unlucky.

14/9/3. This is full ring right? Please tell me this is FR.

Then perhaps this is what you should fix instead of changing your check/call strategy?

I did actually see one guy reading a book at the poker table. A big old dusty book. And another player habitually plays online chess while playing.

Poker is not dead, I tell you!

OK, guys, I did some research. My question was about my flop play, not my preflop play. I think getting my PFR closer to my VPIP is a crucial strategy, and increasing opening 3-bets wider is also a good idea. But I take back some things:

1) I'm playing nine-handed on Ignition NL10. A VPIP of 15 is tight but not nitty. A more skilled player can get a higher winrate with a laggy VPIP of 19, but I think playing above 20 nine-handed is a leak unless you are very good, and then I don't see why you should be playing micros rather than NL25 etc.

2) 3-Bet percent of 3 is low but it's not exploitable unless you are playing online under a hood. On Ignition, you can't play with a hood, and you don't play long enough on one table for people to have certainty about your three-bet percentage. Without a hood, Ignition plays more like live, where most players play 1st-level poker, and those playing 2nd- or 3rd-level can get a read on how tight you are generally, but not with any precision or certainty.

3) I'm actually not reading War and Peace live at the table but paying attention to every detail of each hand I'm not playing in. The crucial skill in live is identifying player weaknesses without a hood. I've played with players who just switched from online to live, and they are easy reads. Yes, a 6 percent 3-bet range is not easily exploitable, but it's also easy to stay away from these online nerds, and crush them occasionally with 4-bets.

4) The profits on a live table come mostly from the many calling stations, easy to identify live but very difficult on Ignition unless you keep track of the limpers - not easy when you are multi-tabling and players are leaving and coming regularly. Live, 3-betting calling stations light is a huge leak.

5) Live, after I identify who isn't a calling station, I can use my tight image to loosen up and open my 3-bets wider. But at 1/2 live, you usually have 4 calling stations, 2 tight-passives, if you're lucky a maniac, a couple of solid players and maybe one pro. For those who have a read on me live, I can use that image against them. You just can't do that on Ignition.

6) Live, I'm often not in a position to 3-bet because I'm usually sitting next to my poker friends, among the best players in the house, and if they are sitting to my left, I'm never in position to 3-bet them. When they are to the right of me, I'll 3-bet all night, using my tight image and going to the meta-game that 1-2 players have little experience with. But 3-betting pros light out of position is a huge leak too.

More thoughts soon. Before then, any more advice on my flop play?

Yes, full ring, 9 handed

My bad, I'm at 14 VPIP, so I guess a bit nitty.

I don't play 9max so can't help with your stats on the face of it, but the 5k hands concerns me. I often play 5k hands perfectly (or the best of my ability) and downswing, I often play 5k hands like crap and do really well. Frankly, it's like that all the time, so I wouldn't make any tenuous conclusions until I get to at least 50-100k (and even then 'it depends').

I know it's harder at fullring to book hands in but 5k just doesn't tell us much about your true winrate.

Excellent troll, well done

Lol