What VPIP and PFR actually measure
VPIP stands for voluntarily put money in pot. It is the percentage of hands where a player chooses to put chips in before the flop, so it measures how many pots they enter. Posting a blind does not count, because that is not a choice.
PFR is preflop raise, the percentage of hands they raise. It can never exceed VPIP, since raising is one of the ways you enter a pot. Which means the two numbers always describe the same range from two angles, and the interesting part is the space between them.
The gap is the number that tells you how someone plays
Subtract PFR from VPIP and you get the share of hands a player enters without the betting lead, by limping or calling. That single number carries more information than VPIP on its own.
- A gap of 3 to 5 is the shape of a solid regular. They raise nearly everything they play, so their calling range is small and well defined.
- A gap above 12 is the classic recreational shape. They come in constantly without raising, which caps their range and makes them readable after the flop. Our guide to open limping covers why that leaks money.
Try it on the chart above. Set 45 and 8, the profile everyone calls a fish, and look at how much gold there is. That gold band is the part you make money from, and it is exactly what an isolation raise attacks.
Reference numbers by format
These bands are the widely published references for full stacks. Treat them as orientation, not targets, because the right numbers depend on your table.
- 6-max cash: most winning regulars sit around 22 to 26 VPIP and 18 to 22 PFR.
- Full ring cash: tighter, roughly 14 to 16 VPIP and 11 to 14 PFR, because there are more players left to act.
- Recreational players: anywhere from 35 to 60 VPIP with a PFR in single digits.
Position moves these a lot. The same player opens far wider on the button than under the gun, so a single VPIP figure is an average across every seat. Our positions guide explains why the spread is so large, and the range visualizer shows real opening ranges seat by seat.
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What this chart can and cannot tell you
The honest limits matter here, because a tool that overclaims gets ignored by the players who would benefit most.
It orders hands by all-in strength against random opposition, which is the convention behind every published “top 20% of hands” figure and the same ordering we use in our range percentages guide. That gives you the right width and roughly the right shape.
But a real player's range is built for playability, not raw strength. A solid regular playing 20% drops the weak offsuit aces this ordering includes and keeps small pairs and suited connectors instead. Same size, different hands. So use the grid to judge how wide someone is, not to put them on an exact holding.
One more limit worth stating plainly: VPIP is an average across every seat. A 22 VPIP regular is nowhere near 22% from any single position, since they open around 17% under the gun and over 40% on the button. This chart shows the average, not the seat you are facing them in.
Common questions
What do VPIP and PFR mean in poker? VPIP is the percentage of hands where a player voluntarily puts money in the pot, so it measures how many pots they enter. PFR is the percentage of hands they raise before the flop. PFR can never be higher than VPIP, because raising is one way of entering a pot. The difference between the two is the share of hands they enter by calling or limping.
What is a good VPIP and PFR? For 6-max cash games, most solid regulars sit around 22 to 26 VPIP and 18 to 22 PFR, with a gap of about 3 to 5 between them. Full ring is tighter, roughly 14 to 16 VPIP and 11 to 14 PFR. A large gap matters more than the raw numbers: it means a player enters lots of pots without the betting lead.
What hands does a 45/8 player actually play? A 45/8 player enters about 594 of the 1,326 possible starting hands, but only raises the strongest 98 or so. Everything else, roughly 496 combinations, comes in by calling or limping. That is the classic loose passive shape: they see a lot of flops with weak holdings and rarely take the lead, which is why value betting works so well against them.
Why is the gap between VPIP and PFR important? The gap is the portion of hands played without raising. A gap of 3 to 5 means a player raises nearly everything they play, so their calling range is tiny and well defined. A gap above 12 means they limp or call constantly, which caps their range and makes them predictable after the flop. The gap tells you more about how someone plays than VPIP alone.
Does this chart show the exact hands an opponent holds? No, and no tool can. It shows how wide their range is and roughly where it sits, using the standard strength ordering behind every published top-X-percent figure. Real ranges have the same width but a different shape, because good players drop weak offsuit aces and keep small pairs and suited connectors instead. Read it as the size of the range, not as a hand list.
Where to go next
If the shorthand in the notation boxes is unfamiliar, our hand notation guide decodes it. If you want to understand why a percentage counts combinations rather than squares on the grid, the range percentages guide works through the arithmetic. And to build and save your own ranges by position rather than reading a statistic, use the range visualizer.
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