How can I improve myself on reading opponents?

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How can I improve myself on reading opponents?

I'm currently 5NL player and I have trouble with making reads on my opponents. Even though I use HUD i still have trouble with that. Please recommend me some educational materials that will help me with that.

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RaoulFlush 4 years, 3 months ago

Nit sure if i get your question right...
Do you need help with interpreting stats in the hud? Not quite sure jf i get you right...
I would usually categorize players related to their standard stats Vpip/pfr/3bet and their cbettendencies.
Most software offers colorcoding for players.
So i usually choose between more nit or reg and then something like “fishes”.
I then use the notefunction with some simple infos like “dont bluff!” or “dont cbet too light as he XR often”.
Most stats in various HUDs are kind of useless if we dont have like 20k+ hands played with this player (which should be rare). So i would try to keep my “reads” simple and otherwise try to follow a good gameplan that works vs your pool

RaoulFlush 4 years, 3 months ago

Depends a bit if you play 6max or fullring.
For 6max it could be like this:
Nit 19/15/5 or even lower
Regular: 20/18/7 up to 25/23/10
Maybe sort of lag like 30/25/12 (these guys can still be winning players)
If numbers are far away from these ranges, its usually a weaker player and there is everything possible, even like 90/1/1
About cbet tendencies it gets a little more difficult as these numbers interact with the PFR-stat.
You can also use agg% or AF.
I use agg% for flop/turn/river as this stat includes all possible actions (call/raise/fold/bet) regardless of beeing the aggressor or not.
So everything below 30 is passive
30-35 is more regular and everything above 35 is aggressive.
With these infos combined we could categorize players as tight/aggressiv, loose/passive and so on.
But to really get a specific read i recommend to take concrete notes on players that we can generalize.
Like “floats multiple streets with A high” or so. Because concrete reads like this are pretty valuable.

BigBlackMichu 4 years, 3 months ago

(I play 6max) Thank you very much, apart from that can you recommend any videos here on the site which will help me learn more about interpreting stats etc.?

Gino Song 4 years, 3 months ago

Start with only incorporating HUD stats you understand, starting with the basic VPIP/PFR/3bet. You will learn as you play more since you have HUD on yourself as well, and you will see the relative numbers and be able to compare the ranges that correspond with your stats with others.

To improve faster, read the stat manual from whatever HUD you are using. They will give you more precise math explanations of what each stat is.

Back when I used HUD, I only had these stats:

VPIP
PFR
3bet
Aggression
Showdown

These were all general stats that can be interpreted at a glance without too much analysis. After getting more advanced, you want to have tabs that open up for the stats that do more advanced stuff, such as:

VPIP - exact cold calling precentage from each position
PFR - exact raising precentages for each position
3bet - position again
Aggression - by street, cbet %, c/r
Showdown - WTSD WWSF

HUD is very complicated and can benefit you greatly or burn you if you run 20 numbers on your screen with no context. An efficient way is to use a coloring system for each type of player and assign some HUD stats. For example, someone with VPIP over 40 set to yellow so that when you glance at the table, you know how to identify the loose player quickly. Assign tight players to another color and do this for each stat. So if you are multitabling and see a player with an entire HUD color red because you have assigned red to super tight-aggressive players with 20/16/5/3/55 stats, you don't waste time reading numbers since your brain will pick up the visual queue faster. Then if you see a player with full yellow 40/5/1/1/40, you immediately know its a fish.

Uppie_ 4 years, 3 months ago

Flopzilla is a great tool to help reading villain range and how it connects with certain flops. Try to come up with what you think ranges are in every spot pre flop.
What, Range do you think reg's flat you with when you raise UTG, MP, CO, BTN etc,
then go from there on certain flops. Eliminate hands that are clear folds, then go to the turn, eliminate more hands that fold to a double barrel. Same for the river.

Look at what range of hands in each spot are raising hands, calling hands, and good hands to bluff with.

Solvers are good tools as well and will show you how ranges narrow down street by street.

You can use your hud data to put these ranges together and see what % people fold to cbets to help you narrow ranges by streets as well, its not perfect but will give you an idea of what hands make sense.

Then you need to use other HUD stats to try to get a feel for the villain, like aggression factor to help determine if the players raises are value heavy or draw heavy. Again, not perfect but will give you the basics.

Also it just takes time and seeing a lot of hands and then reviewing your database after when your not in the moment.

Good video's on here as well about how to construct pre flop ranges under NLH course as well that would really help as well.

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