Unlock the secrets of VPIP in poker with Ashley Adams' definitive guide, designed for both novices and seasoned players.
Ashley Adams, renowned poker expert unpacks the complexities of VPIP (Voluntarily Put $ in Pot).
Drawing from years of experience, he offers insights, strategies, and actionable tips, ensuring readers elevate their gameplay through a thorough understanding of this essential poker metric.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Let’s dive in!
Poker players have been categorizing their opponents since poker was first played. Opponents have been defined as loose, tight, passive, and aggressive. Players have been called “Rocks”, “Nits”, “Callings Stations”, and “Maniacs”.
Historically, players did this by observing opponents and taking notes on their play.
Their judgements were subjective, and used to devise appropriate strategies to exploit the tendencies of their opponents.
Today, with online play, and the ability to record and store the playing history of players, it is possible to create objective betting profiles of our opponents, based on the bets they have made during their observed betting history.
VPIP and PFR are two statistics derived from a player’s betting history.
They can be used to do concretely and objectively, what good players have always been doing subjectively: putting opponents into certain player categories.
VPIP stands for Voluntarily Puts Money In Pot. (Yes, it should be VPMP, but it isn’t. It’s VPIP.) It is the percentage of the time a player voluntarily enters the pot, not counting the hands when they must do so compulsorily - by being the blind. A VPIP of 10 means a player enters 10% of the hands they’re dealt, not counting the blinds.
A VPIP of 40 means a player enters 40% of the hand they’re dealt, not counting the blinds.
PFR stands for Pre-Flop Raise. It is the percentage of the time someone comes into the pre-flop hand with a raise. The PFR will always be less than or equal to the VPIP, as you can’t enter a hand with a raise more often than you enter the hand by voluntarily putting money into the pot.
For example
If someone has a PFR of 8, that means that they enter the hand with a raise 8% of the time. If they raise pre-flop a third of the time they would have a PFR of 33.
Where Do You See These Numbers?
VPIP and PFR are used in HUDs (Heads Up Displays). They are also used in poker discussions when referring to opponents in a hand.
They are often used in conjunction with each other, though they are useful in getting a picture of an opponent when used separately as well.
It’s useful to think about opponents broadly, based on these numbers. Below is a simple definition of typical VPIPs, and the type of players they tend to represent.
| VPIP | Type of Player |
| 0% to 10% | Extremely tight player; a nit or rock |
| 10% to 20% | Generally tight player who tends to play more strategically; TAG players would fall within this category |
| 20% to 30% | Average to moderately loose player |
| 30% to 40% | Very loose player |
| 40% or higher | Wildly loose player or maniac; new, awful, inexperienced players would be in this range |
To get a real profile of a player, it’s best to combine VPIP with PFR.
Here are some typical combinations and their player type.
| VPIP/PFR | Player Type |
| 27/4 | Loose-passive |
| 29/6 | Loose-passive |
| 23/5 | Loose-passive |
| 24/2 | Loose-passive |
| 60/41 | Loose-aggressive |
| 47/36 | Loose-aggressive |
| 39/25 | Loose-aggressive |
| 25/20 | Loose-aggressive |
| 9/5 | Tight-passive |
| 8/3 | Tight-passive |
| 10/6 | Tight-passive |
| 5/4 | Tight-passive |
| 18/13 | Tight-aggressive |
| 15/11 | Tight-aggressive |
| 12/10 | Tight-aggressive |
| 16/12 | Tight-aggressive |
These numbers only help you if you use them. Generally, there are three ways that you can use these numbers to your advantage.
1. Use them to identify good games
Game selection is one of the most important skills needed by a winning player.
A winning player wants to be in games with lots of bad players - specifically, lots of loose and passive players. By looking for the high VPIP and low PFR numbers of fish, you can quickly spot games that will tend to be profitable for the good player.
2. Use them to identify bad players - and then exploit the bad players weaknesses
Your most profitable opponents are the loose-passive players - those who enter many hands but seldom raise or 3-bet.
These are the fish that you should be looking for. High VPIPs and low PFRs are the perfect combinations. They’ll limp in, call your raises, and rarely put any pressure on you with any raises.
Look for them. And enter games in which they are playing.
Recognize that you need to tailor your play to fit their weakness, of course. You’re not going to bluff them. You’re not going to fool them with cleverness. You are going to win their money by playing your strong hands strongly.
For example
If you see an opponent with a very high VPIP, over 30 for example, and a very low PFR, below 10 for example, you are typically against a fish - someone who really doesn’t understand poker strategy at all.
You will make most of your money not battling the best players, but by taking money from these loose-passive players.
On the other hand, you can also make money by exploiting the playing characteristics of other players.
You can win money by making the occasional well-timed bluff against a tight aggressive player - with a VPIP of 18 and a PFR of 13 for example. You’ll see those numbers and know that it is generally a mistake to limp into hands they are playing - as they will rarely let opponents compete against them with making them pay.
You’ll also tend to get out of the way of a player with a 13/6 or 8/3 - as you’ll know they are generally rocks, and wouldn’t be raising without the nuts or something damn close to it.
(For more information about adjusting your play to suit different types of opponents please see the guide on poker tells).
3. VPIP/PFR is also useful as a learning tool when studying your own game
You can sort out your own play, for a session, a period of time, or even for different games on different sites, reviewing your own VPIP and PFR.
Do you see any correlation between higher or lower VPIP and PFR and better or worse results? Of course, you have to be concerned with sample size. Anything under 100 hands doesn’t really tell you much about your play (or the play of your opponent for that matter).
It’s just not long enough to be particularly meaningful.
But if you notice that over 1000 hands at $2/5, you lost $3,687 and your VPIP/PFR was 10/3, while at $1/2 your numbers were $1,700 to the good with VPIP/PFR of 18/12, you might think about not being such a nit at the bigger game!
VPIP/PFR is not a substitute for your own observations about a player. They are aggregate data - nothing more. As such, they sometimes may give you a false impression of an opponent’s true proclivities.
For example, an opponent with a 14/11 may in fact be a tight aggressive player.
But that number, as an average over a long number of hands, may, in fact, be a reflection of historic play more than recent play.
Perhaps they were a very loose player who has become extremely tight. Perhaps they were a nit who is now opening up their game.
You’d have to drill down further and isolate shorter periods of time to see if there have been changes in their play worth noting. You should also use your observation of their recent play to shape your opinion of their game based on their VPIP/PFR.
Similarly, VPIP/PFR averages the play from all positions at the table.
It doesn’t break it out by seat.
An opponent who is extremely loose and aggressive from late position but also extremely tight from early and mid position might have the same VPIP/PFR as someone who plays every position the same, with no positional differentiation. (A good HUD can provide this information by seating position as well.)
You will need to drill down further to get the information you’d need to see how positionally differentiated a player is.
The VPIP/PFR is a starting point for understanding your opponent; not your final conclusion.
The key is to recognize that reading someone’s VPIP/PFR, though a useful tool, is no substitute for making subjective judgments about an opponent’s style of play. You still need to do that.
Conclusion
VPIP in poker and PFR are tools that can turn subjective observations into objective statistics. They can help you quickly distinguish the loose-aggressive players from the nits, and the maniacs from the TAGS.
As such, they can give you a picture of the betting tendencies of your opponents, and yourself.
But they are only tools. It’s up to the good player to use them wisely, combined with additional poker knowledge, which you can uncover in my other guides in the Academy.
Level 0 
0 Coins 
Bonuses 
Casinos 
Games 
Academy 
News 
Shop 
NEW Q&A 
Sweepstakes 
8 min
Thank you for voting.
Level 9
Suspended