Flopzilla Tutorial

Flopzilla is an excellent tool for improving your game off the tables, here is a simple guide on how to use it with a hand example taken from the 2+2 forum.

You can download the software from this link: http://www.flopzilla.com/download.html


Hand reference: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/87/high-stakes-mtt/flat-w-jj-facing-3-barrel-1396884/

In case you are interested, some stats on the villain are:
20% VPIP, 12% PFR.
16% PFR (Preflop Raise) from EP (Early Position) over 441 Hands: 
82% CB (Continuation Bet) and 50 CBT (Continuation Bet Turn) and 50% BR (Bet River)

My standard line would be to 3 Bet this pre flop (for value) or at least check raise the flop...in this example the player just called.

Hand 1/1
• Hand History
• Replayer

IPoker, $100 Buy-in (200/400 blinds, 50 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 7 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite. View Hand #21411221

MP2: 9,031 (22.6 bb)
MP3: 7,264 (18.2 bb)
CO: 14,485 (36.2 bb)
BTN: 18,265 (45.7 bb)
Hero (SB): 20,590 (51.5 bb)
BB: 15,954 (39.9 bb)
MP1: 32,685 (81.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J J
MP1 raises to 1,000, 4 folds, Hero calls 800, BB calls 600

Flop: (3,350) 5 4 T (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP1 bets 1,600, Hero calls 1,600, BB folds

Turn: (6,550) T (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets 1,600, Hero calls 1,600

River: (9,750) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets 5,600, [color="grey"]Hero ??

Using Flopzilla (Flop):

OK Start Flopzilla and first enter:

• Your opponents range (16% in the left box marked "A")
• The flop (10D 5C 4H in the middle box marked "B") and 
• Your hole cards (JH JD in the right box marked "C"), 

as highlighted in the image below:

Click images to enlarge:

Quick Tips:

• Select or deselect any specific hands you think the Villain may have to make up his range (e.g. ace rags or suited connectors, etc.) in the "Starting Hands" box
• You can save hand ranges (e.g. a villain's button opening range) in the "My Ranges" section on the far left
• Drag the red dot with left mouse click (in the bottom left) to remove stronger hands from the villain's range

OK in the bottom right box that says "equity range: xxx%" and "equity hand: xxx%" your hand equity is shown against the Villains range throughout the hand.
Here on the flop, the values are 31.3% and 68.6% in favor of the hand value JH JD, as highlighted in the image below:

Flopzilla calculates in percentages and separates the different hand strengths the Villain's range can have in the "Statistics" section, e.g. "Set" 5.33% of the time, "Overpair" 11.2% of the time, etc. as highlighted in the image below:

This is one of the best features of Flopzilla, the capability to see how often and how strongly hands or ranges hit a variety of flops.

Quick Tips:

• Try out different ranges, hole cards and flops to see the different results. 
• Test yourself on the equity's and flop connection percentages by trying to guess what they will be before clicking the filter
• Learn about the different flop textures and what kind of ranges connect or don't connect with them (especially for 3 bet pots)
• Use the random buttons to generate random flops, turns or rivers for the above exercises (highlighted in image below)

Only after you have completed this tutorial though of course :)

OK lets continue. To filter the Villains hand values (i.e. what his betting or calling range includes); in the section below "Statistics" click on the blue cone shaped icon to either remove the hand value or add it to the range filter, as highlighted in the image below:

Quick Tips:

• You can change the hand strength values to exact combinations value rather than percentages by using the TAB key.  
• If you hold your cursor over one of these hand values, then Flopzilla will show you which combinations of hands make up this range in the left box and if you right click on this value then you can edit the hands in this selection (e.g. AK continues but A9 folds)

Generally you can use statistics such as CBET% or FOLDtoCBET% as guidelines for defining the villain's range if you use poker tracking software, but there are a lot of factors that may influence the analysis (e.g. bet sizing, stack sizes, players in hand) and you will probably want to tweak this when you are doing your own analysis.

If there was no betting on the flop (or say a player has 100% CBET or 0% FOLDtoCBET%) then the Villain's range will not change when the turn card comes, so select everything.

Once you have chosen the hands you believe the Villain has bet with, select the filter box.
The button will turn green indicating that the filter has been applied and you will not be able to change the filters whilst it is on.

The hands that were not selected as part of the villain's range using the blue cone icon will now be shown as 0%, as they have been filtered out of the analysis (such as "no made hand"). The hands left in the filter will now add up to 100%.

This is so that the hands that you have filtered out cannot be included in the turn or river ranges.

To see the equity values after the flop betting, select which hand values you believe the player will continue on the flop with as either a bet, or a call to your bet.

In the bottom right box the player's equity's are provided; the "Equity Hand" and "Equity Range" values will also change to reflect the filter being applied (33.6% vs 66.3%), and the hand combinations that did not make it through the filter have been nulled in the left box as highlighted in the image below:

(Drawing shapes on my laptop is tricky:X)

Turn:
Now repeat the last parts of the above process:

• Select the turn card from the middle section of Flopzilla, 
• Filter the villain's hand ranges by selecting or deselecting the blue cones in the statistics section to align with what you believe the player is betting or calling a bet with
• Click on the filter button at the bottom to apply it:

In this example the villain stats for turn CB was 50% so I have assumed it is the hand values selected in the above image which add up to 50.4% (pretty close!):

*Note that the Filter % from the flop has changed a small amount as well as the equity values - this is because the turn card blocks or impacts some of the combinations that were included in the Flop filter (i.e. the Villain can't have the ten of spades because it is the turn card).

Now that we have applied the turn filter and selected the hands we assume the villain is betting on the turn, the equity value's have updated. The equity range (villain) is 68.4% and the equity hand (hero) is 31.6%, as highlighted in the image below:

So we are not in very good shape.

However we do have the pot odds to call: 1600 to win 8150 = 19.6% equity required and we have 31.6% equity.

As mentioned before, lots of factors may influence your analysis. For example the bet sizing may mean you want to tweak the range of hands that pass through the filter.

River:
Repeat the process conducted on the turn card for the river card.
Here is a summary of the repeated process to make life easier for you:

• Select the river card from the middle section of Flopzilla, 
• Filter the villain's hand ranges by selecting or deselecting the blue cones in the statistics section to align with what you believe the player is betting or calling a bet with
• Click on the filter button at the bottom to apply it:

The sections where you do this are highlighted in the image below (same as turn):

I have assumed the player bets 80% of hands on the river as this would mean the weakest hand the villain bets is an over pair:

Now the hand equity (hero) is 1.0% and the range equity (villain) is 99% as shown below: I was pretty amazed by when I first saw it, but what hands do you think the Villain could have here?

Quick Tips:

• Try this hand example in your own Flopzilla and see what results you get, play around with some ranges and the filters to see what numbers come up:) 
• Maybe the villain is stone cold bluffing ;) It happens sometimes, so you'll need to factor this into your analysis by adding some hand values or ranges in, lots to play around with.
• When you are facing a river bet you can compare your pot odds against the hand equity to determine whether or not it is worthwhile calling, folding or raising, here we are not very close at all to our pot odds.

OK, All done! There is more to Flopzilla but this should be enough for you to go play around with the program yourself, to learn some new stuff about poker and most importantly to help figure out how often you and/or your opponent hit flops, turns and rivers so you can bet, call, fold or bluff in the most profitable way.

Try out different ranges for pre-flop, turns, rivers, using whatever stats you have on the villains or yourself and in different scenarios (this is a fast and effective way to improve your poker): also try out some hand history's from your own database, you can use this tool as the player betting or the player calling.

Flopzilla can open a whole new world to learning and improving your poker, it has certainly added a lot of value to my game...if you try to use it while you are playing though then good luck to you as most likely will not have enough time bank; instead consider it an essential off-the-tables tool for preparing, improving and reviewing your game.

Email me at stephenfburt@Gmail.com if you'd like to learn more or have any feedback :)

Hope this was helpful to you, GL at the tables and thanks for reading,

Steve (24Caliber)