PFR Explained: What Your Preflop Raise % Says About You

PFR stands for Pre-Flop Raise. It is the percentage of hands you raise before the flop, out of the hands you were dealt and had a chance to act on. If you raised preflop in 16 of 100 hands, your PFR is 16 percent. It is the stat that shows how often you take the initiative, and together with VPIP it gives a quick, accurate picture of your whole preflop game.

Most players guess at their PFR and guess high. Here is what the number means, how to calculate it correctly, what ranges are typical, and what to do with the result.

What counts as a preflop raise?

A preflop raise is any time you put in a raise before the flop: an open raise, a 3-bet, a 4-bet, or any re-raise. It counts once per hand, no matter how many times you raise in that hand. If you open and then 4-bet a 3-bet, that is still one hand with a PFR.

What does not count:

• Limping. Calling the big blind is passive. It counts for VPIP, not PFR.
• Calling a raise. A cold-call or a call of a 3-bet puts money in, so it is part of VPIP, but it is not a raise.
• Checking your option in the big blind. No money voluntarily added, no raise.
• Posting blinds. Forced bets are not decisions.

Because every raise is also a voluntary entry into the pot, PFR can never be higher than VPIP. That gives you a very useful relationship, which we get to below.

How do you calculate PFR?

The formula is:

PFR % = hands where you raised preflop ÷ (hands dealt − walks) × 100

The denominator is the part people get wrong. It is not "hands I played." It is hands you were dealt, minus walks. A walk is a hand where everyone folds to the big blind, who wins without acting. The big blind never had a chance to raise, so that hand should not count against them.

A worked example. In a session you are dealt 120 hands. In 6 of them everyone folds to your big blind (6 walks). You raised preflop in 19 hands.

• Eligible hands: 120 − 6 = 114
• PFR: 19 ÷ 114 = 16.7 percent

If you had divided by 120, you would have reported 15.8 percent. A small difference on one session, but over thousands of hands it adds up, and it is why the denominator matters. The same logic applies to VPIP, which we covered in our VPIP guide.

What is a good PFR?

It depends on the game, but there are typical ranges for players who are doing roughly the right thing:

Game	Typical PFR range
6-max cash	about 15 to 22%
Full ring (9-handed) cash	about 10 to 16%
Loose, passive low-stakes live games	often much lower, 5 to 10%

These are common ranges, not targets. A good PFR comes from playing the right hands in the right positions, not from hitting a number. Two things shape it:

• Table size. The more players at the table, the tighter you should be, and the lower your PFR.
• Table dynamics. In a game full of players who call too much, a higher PFR with strong value hands makes money. Against opponents who 3-bet a lot, you need to trim it.

A PFR under about 10 percent at a 6-max table usually means you are folding too many playable hands, particularly in late position. A PFR above 25 percent means you are raising a lot of weak hands, and unless your opponents fold a lot, it is expensive.

What does the VPIP/PFR gap tell you?

This is where PFR becomes powerful. Written as VPIP/PFR, here is how a few common profiles look:

• 24/20: a small gap. This player raises most of the hands they play. Tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive in style. Hard to play against.
• 22/8: a big gap. They enter pots often but rarely raise. They are limping and calling too much. Passive, and easy to exploit by raising for value and by 3-betting for isolation.
• 12/10: tight and aggressive. They do not play many hands, but when they do, they raise. When this player raises, believe them.
• 35/5: a calling station. They like to see flops and rarely raise. Bluff them rarely, value-bet them thin and often.

As a rule of thumb, a gap of about 2 to 6 points is healthy for a balanced player. A gap bigger than about 10 points means the player enters too many pots by calling. For yourself, a big gap is the first thing to look at, because it points to the hands you are calling when you should be either raising or folding.

Raising has two ways to win a pot: your opponent folds, or you have the best hand. Calling has only one. That is the root of why a small gap, with the right hands, is the shape of most winning preflop strategies.

Why should PFR be looked at by position?

A blended PFR hides your biggest leaks, just as it does with VPIP. A 17 percent PFR could be:

• 8 percent from UTG, 14 percent from the cutoff, and 30 percent from the button, which is a sensible spread, or
• 17 percent from every seat, which means you are far too loose in early position and too tight on the button.

The same overall number describes two very different players. Looking at PFR by position is how you find out which one you are. The right shape is that your PFR climbs the closer you get to the button, because fewer players act after you and you will have position after the flop.

How do you track your own PFR at a live table?

Online, your tracker gives you PFR automatically. Live, you have only your memory, and memory is flattering. It remembers the times you raised and won, and forgets the many times you just called.

Final Table calculates PFR from the hands you log, using hands dealt minus walks as the denominator, so the number matches the real formula. It counts each hand once, whether you raised once or three times. It also records the counts by position, so the numbers behind your result are kept per seat. The same logic applies to the opponents you save: you log what they do at the table, and their preflop raise numbers build up over time, so after enough hands you can see which regular only raises the top of their range and which one raises everything.

A word on sample size. A PFR from 50 hands is a rough sketch, not a verdict. A few hundred hands starts to show a pattern, and about a thousand hands gives a stable picture, especially for opponents. Treat early numbers as a question to investigate, not a conclusion. The app also needs enough logged hands before it labels your overall play style, for the same reason.

If you log hands quickly enough that it does not slow the game, see our guide to logging a live hand in under 30 seconds. The stats follow from the habit, not the other way around.

What should you do with your PFR?

1. Log at least a few hundred hands so the number means something.
2. Check the gap. If your VPIP is more than about 6 to 8 points above your PFR, look at which hands you are calling that you could raise or fold.
3. Compare positions. Your PFR should rise toward the button. If it is flat, tighten early position and widen late position.
4. Use it on opponents. A player whose PFR is near their VPIP is telling you that a call from them is rare. A player with a huge gap is telling you that a raise from them is strong and a call is weak.

The takeaway

PFR is the share of hands you raise before the flop, out of hands dealt minus walks. Read it with VPIP, check it by position, and give it enough hands to settle. The gap between the two numbers is often the most honest summary of how you really play.

Final Table works out your PFR from the hands you log at the table, so you can check it against what you think you do.