Minimum VPIP tables were introduced on the more popular poker apps a few years ago as a way to get players to participate in more hands at the tables. Many recreational players were complaining that there were too many professional players only playing premium hands, which was taking all the fun out of the game. So the apps introduced minimum VPIP tables, which force everyone at the table to play at least a minimum percentage of hands if they want to stay at the table.
VPIP stands for "voluntarily put money in the pot". It is expressed as a percentage of how many hands a player voluntarily contributes to the pot by calling or raising before the flop, excluding blinds. Calling the big blind (also known as limping) and then folding to a raise or calling a raise and folding to a reraise counts towards VPIP. So does completing in the small blind. Checking the big blind does not count towards VPIP.
All VPIP tables are set to a certain percentage. A player's VPIP must be maintained at a minimum of the table's set VPIP or they will be automatically removed from the table.
There are generally two types of VPIP table settings - career VPIP and session VPIP. Career VPIP tables factor in all the play on your account for a particular game type and stakes. That means you cannot increase your VPIP at low stakes or 6 card PLO and then use that VPIP at a high stakes NLHE table. The app will track your VPIP for each game type separately.
Session VPIP tables generally take into account your play at only one table at a time. You have a certain number of hands as a grace period, after which you will be removed from a table if your VPIP at that point is below the table minimum. You will not be allowed to rejoin a particular table once removed for VPIP violation but you may play other tables of that same game type and stakes.
Playing at VPIP tables can be tricky. The conventional wisdom is that to win at poker you should not play too many hands. But if you do that at a VPIP table, you will be kicked off and miss out on all the action! On the other hand, you don't want to get too carried away playing extra hands just to stay at the table - you are likely to lose your entire stack just trying to keep your VPIP up - we want to avoid that!
The key to keeping your VPIP high enough to stay at minimum VPIP tables is to play all the hands you would normally play, then look for inexpensive ways to add just enough hands to maintain the VPIP you need to stay at the table. You may need to add just a few hands to stay at a VPIP 35% table or a lot of hands to stay at a VPIP 70% table.
Below, we list several strategies for increasing your VPIP. They are listed from least likely to cost you extra money to most likely, so you should start with the first one and add the others as needed, depending how high the VPIP is at the tables you want to play.
We recommend completing the small blind if no one has raised before you with all but the worst starting hands. That is, almost 100% of the time. This is a very cheap way to increase your VPIP - it will only cost you half of a big blind most of the time!
The exception to the rule of completing the small blind with almost all your hands is if the action has folded to you and it's just you and the big blind left. You are very likely to get raised by the big blind if you complete the small blind in this situation. So while you can squeeze in a few extra hands here and there, you probably want to play closer to your normal strategy if it folds to you in the small blind. Instead of costing you half a big blind to see the flop, it's likely to cost you 2-3 big blinds - that's not a great deal!
You should be limping (just calling the big blind) with almost all your hands on the button (similar to hands you would complete the small blind with) and a lot of your hands from the cutoff (one seat away from the button).
The more players who have limped in before you, the more you hands you can limp in the cutoff. This is because the extra limpers will protect you from getting raised by the button. If it folds to you in the cutoff, it may be better to raise instead of limp, especially if the button is a tight player. In this case, you not only increase your VPIP, but you are likely to take down the pot preflop and win the blinds!
If it folds to you on the button, you should be playing a very high percentage of your hands. You can raise a lot here in hopes of "stealing the blinds". If you limp and get raised by one of the blinds, it's not a bad situation to have position in a single-raised pot.
We do not recommend limping and then calling all raises, especially if there is a reraise. Use your judgement and just remember, your VPIP will still increase if you limp and fold!
We recommend finding a lot of hands to call with if there is a raise in early position and you can call in the big blind while closing the action. But we do not recommend this strategy if there is a limper in early position, and then a raise. The raise size will be bigger and you have to worry about the limper coming over the top with a reraise. Avoid calling here with weak hands!
If you are in the big blind at least one player calls but no one has raised, you may consider putting in a minimum raise from the big blind to boost your VPIP. The more players that have limped, the less you should be making this raise and opt just to check instead.
This play is more expensive and risky than the earlier strategies and should only be used if you are at a session VPIP table and your VPIP is getting very close to the minimum limit. The exception to this statement is if everyone folds to the small blind and they complete. In that case, you should be minimum raising with a lot of your hands! If the small blind starts limp/reraising you a lot, you can hold off on raising so much.
If your table is passive - that is, not raising and reraising a lot - you should be able to get your VPIP to 40-50% pretty easily without it costing you a lot of money with the above methods.
But what if there is one or more aggressive players at your table preventing you from using the strategies we discussed to increase your VPIP for two big blinds or less?
In this case you have two options - leave the table and find a less aggressive table. Or two, buckle up and be prepared to lose a few buy-ins while you battle the maniac!