What does VPIP In Poker terminologies mean? Well, this article will help you understand that clearly. A unique tool that will help you understand how your opponents play. A key information that is seminal for a round to win. But it is not the all-powerful trident of Neptune, it has its flaws as well. Stick around and you will know what.
What Is VPIP In Poker?
VPIP, or ‘Voluntary Put money in Pot’ is one of the key terms of poker that you need to know about. However, it is also one of the most complex terminologies out there. As a result, newer poker enthusiasts might have some problems understanding the term. Do not worry, as we are here to help you out with that effort.
Technically speaking, VPIP is a percentage that demonstrates how often players voluntarily put money in the pot. This percentage only factors in when a player is not in the blinds. For example, if you played 100 hands in a single session. You voluntarily decide to put in your money 30 times. Therefore, your VPIP will be 30% for the session.
This helps us understand the player’s style of using numbers. Generally, a person with VPIP above 40% is somebody who enjoys playing a lot of smaller hands. It also shows their attitude towards fold pre-flop.
Why Is It Valuable?
VPIP helps in understanding a few things about the user’s play style. But how is it useful? How can we use the knowledge of VPIP in poker to decode some of the key pieces of information? The simple answer is that it will help us isolate the player when he has no good hand and get a heads-up of what is coming. Therefore, it is a key tool in the arsenal of professional poker players.
The person with a high VPIP will keep on playing, while some people will fold after making a considerable amount of profit. This is a piece of key information that can greatly help a professional player. He or she gets an idea of how and when to choke out their opponent.
However, VPIP is still a hint towards the right direction. It can be useful to a great extent but do not follow it blindly. Try to rely on other clues like the PFR to read your players more closely.
Variations Of VPIP
VPIP made its way to poker only after Poker went digital. Therefore, it is primarily a tool that online poker players employ. However, it also has some place in Live games. In this section, we will learn what role VPIP plays in an online game as well as an offline one.
VPIP In Online Game
Software like the Poker Tracker or the Holdem Manager can help you track your opponent’s VPIP. These applications work as Chrome attachments that will provide you with a Head Up Display or HUD on websites like Pokerstars. The HUD provides several critical stats. Secondly, if you play the game on Pokercode by the GGPoker, you will get access to a first-party poker HUD. Both the HUDs work very similarly and help people to understand their opponent’s gameplay style.
VPIP in Live Game
In theory, it is impossible to keep track of VPIP in a Live game scenario. In fact, people who tried doing this suffered major setbacks. For a player to successfully maintain VPIP, he or she has to keep manual tabs on all the hands played. Therefore, this is not a feasible option.
But that does not mean we cannot use some basic techniques to know our opponents. It is not an easy task to keep tabs, but we can keep track of the number of times a player puts money in the pot. Therefore, this can greatly help an individual to read his or her opponent.
If an opponent is seen calling a lot of pre-flops and raises rarely, we have a high VPIP player at our hands. Secondly, if we see somebody who raises rarely and seems to take his or her time, we have a player with a low VPIP. Therefore, we can adjust our strategies accordingly. If you adjust correctly, you can definitely win a massive pot.
Things To Remember
As we have said before, VPIP must be used as a reference and not as a blueprint for playing Poker. Even though VPIP is a reliable reference, it is not foolproof.
In fact, there are several factors that you need to remember whenever you are using VPIP in Poker.
- VPIP helps people understand how a player plays. But it is not indicative of the cards he is holding. Therefore, do not follow VPIP blindly. A person with high VPIP might actually not have good cards and is just bluffing.
- The margin of VPIP giving bad intel is quite high. Players can really hit a wall if they start blindly relying on the VPIP information.
- VPIP is not at all a great sign or marker for smaller games or rounds. How will you understand VPIP if a player is playing three hands? Therefore, this is a limiting characteristic of VPIP that you need to factor in.
VPIP Vs. PFR
VPIP is an amazing marker that poker stars might use to get references. However, it is not the only one. In fact, there is an equally helpful marker known as the PFR. PFR measures how much a player raises preflop when he or she is given the opportunity.
VPIP tries to study a broad spectrum of habits and characteristics of a player. Meanwhile, PFR only looks for aggressive actions in the form of preflop. When you are studying PFR, you need to remember that VPIP will always be higher than or equal to the general PFR.
Conclusion
With that, we have realized what VPIP means in poker terminologies. Even though the terminology is proven to be useful, it is not a flexible tool. Studying VPIP is only possible in online matches using external tools and attachments. Keep following us for more such content and articles.
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Samik has been a literature student all along and uses his fluidity to write about multi-niche topics. Aspiring to be a professional writer, he tries to analyze his topic from a critical standpoint but still adds a hint of personal perspective to the end product. Being a person having a general inclination toward global politics and documentary filmmaking, he also wishes to write and document more about numerous conflicts that are brewing in the different corners of the globe.
