PFR (pre – flop raise) shows what is the percentage of hands raised by your opponent during the pre – flop. It does not include cases when somebody else raises and he calls. It does not include limp – re- raise cases either. PFR is a very important indicator to know always about it is really a good idea. Besides, except the general PFR you should also consider the PFR per position. Sometimes in late positions the opponent plays loose (for instance, he often steals the blinds) and therefore his general PFR is very high but in early positions he can play very tight and you need to consider that. In low limit games you can see another situation, where players prefer to raise exactly when they are in early positions. It is really very difficult to find a logical explanation to this but it is necessary to pay attention. Another indicator very close to PFR is Raise First and it shows the percentage of the cases when a player makes raises in case no one had entered the pot (there were no limpers and re – raises).

For a short stack player the PFR should be no more than 1 % lower than the VPIP i.e. technically, there are no calls and you enter the game with a raise. For a player with a large stack, the PFR should be about 2/3 of the VPIP. VPIP and PFR together help you to get a general idea what kind of player you’re playing against – is he a tight or a loose player, is he aggressive or a passive one. Thanks to these two indicators, you can determine the range of the hands of your opponents. This will help you to evaluate the strength of your opponents during the pre – flop as well as to evaluate the situations during the post flop.