At a glance
- On the HUD
- BB/100
- Formula
net big blinds won / hands × 100 (bounties included)- Typical range
Not colored on the HUD: it has no typical range, because a good number depends on the game. See “Too low, about right, too high” below.
- Where it shows
- In the player database, where you can see every stat for a player (not on the table badges).
- Trust it after
- 12 chances. Below that the number is faded; reads need 12 chances and a number at least one standard error outside the typical range.
What it measures
BB/100 is a player’s total profit or loss in big blinds, scaled to 100 hands. +15 means that over the hands you’ve seen, they’ve won 15 big blinds per 100 hands; −30 means they’ve lost 30. Measuring in big blinds instead of chips lets you compare players across games with different stakes.
It’s the only number on the HUD that measures profit rather than decisions. VPIP, AF and the rest describe what a player does; win rate describes what happened to them, and in poker those two can disagree for a long time. A sound player can sit at −40 after 500 hands while a wild one sits at +60.
Don’t confuse it with won at showdown (W$SD) or won when saw flop (WWSF). Those count how often a player wins pots in a given situation. Win rate counts how much they won or lost overall, every posted blind and folded hand included.
How it’s calculated
For every finished hand, the HUD works out the player’s net result:
- what they collected from the pot,
- minus everything they put in: blinds, straddles, antes, calls, bets and raises (an uncalled bet returned to them doesn’t count),
- plus any bounty they won, minus any bounty they paid.
Each result is converted into that hand’s own big blinds, so a session at 0.10/0.20 and one at 1/2 add up fairly. Then:
BB/100 = (sum of net big blinds / hands) × 100
Example: over 400 hands, Ana’s results add up to +72 big blinds, so her win rate is 72 / 400 × 100 = +18 BB/100. On hand 401 she loses a 100 big blind stack. Her total falls to −28 and her win rate to −28 / 401 × 100, about −7. One hand flipped the sign of the previous 400.
Blinds give you a benchmark. A player who folded every hand would lose 1.5 big blinds per orbit: 1.5 × 100 / 6 = 25 BB/100 at a six-handed table, or about 16.7 nine-handed (no antes or straddles).
Why it matters
Win rate matters less than it looks. Poker results are lumpy: most hands win or lose a big blind or less, and a few win or lose a whole stack. One stack of 100 big blinds moves a 100-hand win rate by 100 BB/100.
That spread is measured by the standard deviation. Nobody can give you an exact figure for your game, but a rough, commonly used ballpark for no-limit cash is around 100 big blinds per 100 hands, and loose, deep-stacked home games can run wilder. Taking 100 as a round number, one standard error is 100 / √(hands / 100):
| Hands | One standard error | Rough 95% range |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | ±100 BB/100 | ±200 |
| 1,000 | ±32 | ±63 |
| 5,000 | ±14 | ±28 |
| 10,000 | ±10 | ±20 |
| 40,000 | ±5 | ±10 |
So a player showing +40 after 1,000 hands could truly be anywhere from about −23 to +103. Even 10,000 hands, more than you’ll see from most home-game opponents, leaves a 40-point window. That’s why the HUD fades win rate under 100 hands and doesn’t color it at all.
Too low, about right, too high
The HUD doesn’t color win rate: there’s no typical range, and the number is mostly noise until the sample is huge. These bands are ours; read each through the sample size.
Losing fast: under −20 BB/100
What it says
Over a few hundred hands, this is often just a player who lost two or three big pots, coolers included. Over a few thousand, it starts to mean something, typically a loose-passive player who plays too many hands, calls too much and pays off. Six-handed, anything worse than about −25 means they’re losing faster than someone who folded every hand. To see why, look at their VPIP, WTSD and W$SD rather than the win rate itself.
How to exploit it
The win rate doesn’t tell you what to do; their other stats do.
- Loss plus high VPIP, high WTSD and low W$SD: they pay off. Value-bet thin, size up and don’t bluff.
- Loss plus normal-looking stats over a small sample: assume they ran bad and play them as their stats say, not as a weak player.
- Some players loosen up after a big loss in the current session. Watch their next few hands for wider opens and calls, and widen the hands you value-bet against them.
Near even: −20 to +20 BB/100
What it says
The most common display and the least informative. Under 10,000 hands, everything in this band is hard to tell apart from zero or from each other: at 1,000 hands a +15 and a −15 player are under one standard error apart. Most players in a home game land here because luck spreads them out, not because they all play alike.
How to exploit it
- Ignore the sign. Base your decisions on PFR, VPIP, AF and the showdown stats.
- Use win rate only as a tiebreaker, and only with a big sample: at 5,000 hands one standard error is still ±14.
- Don’t avoid a seat or a player because they’re +18 over 800 hands. Their stats tell you whether they’re actually tough.
- For a results stat that settles faster, use W$SD and WWSF. They count pots won, each pot weighing the same, so one huge pot moves them far less than it moves BB/100.
Winning big: over +20 BB/100
What it says
Over small samples, they won a few big pots, often with a run of strong hands. Over large samples, it may point to a skilled player in a soft game; home games can allow bigger edges than tough online games, but even then part of a big number is usually luck. Wild players show huge numbers in both directions, because they play big pots: their win rate swings faster than anyone’s.
How to exploit it
- Check whether their stats back it up. Winning with VPIP, PFR, AF and W$SD all inside their typical ranges points to a solid player: avoid marginal spots and pick on others.
- Winning with Maniac numbers (VPIP 40%+ and PFR 26%+) is often a heater. Keep calling down lighter and keep value-betting them.
- Don’t let a big number scare you off good spots. Play the hand in front of you against the stats in front of you.
When it’s your own number
Your own win rate is in the player database, and it’s the stat most likely to mislead you. Downswings of a few thousand hands happen to winning players, and upswings of the same length happen to losing ones. Judge your game by your decisions instead: your VPIP, PFR, AF and showdown stats against their typical ranges, and the reads on your own badge.
Anyone running the HUD can see your number too. A big negative can make you look like a target and bring you more loose calls. If that happens, value-bet thinner and bluff less until it settles.
Using it on the HUD
Win rate is in the player database only, not on the table badges. PokerNow HUD Advanced shows it as a whole number with a sign, such as +12 or −35, includes bounties, and fades it until the player has 100 hands. It isn’t colored, because there’s no typical range to compare against.
Treat the faded threshold as a minimum, not a target. At 100 hands one standard error is roughly ±100 BB/100, and at 1,000 hands about ±32, so the number says little about skill until the hands count is in the thousands. It follows the player’s PokerNow ID across games, so long-running home games are where it comes closest to meaning something. Read it next to VPIP, PFR, WTSD and W$SD, which explain where the money went.
Questions
What is a good win rate in BB/100?
Any positive number sustained over a big sample. In tough online games, a few big blinds per 100 is a commonly quoted mark of a solid winner; softer home games can allow bigger edges. The number only means something over thousands of hands: assuming a standard deviation near 100 BB/100, one standard error is about ±32 at 1,000 hands and ±10 at 10,000.
How many hands do you need to know your real win rate?
Tens of thousands for a tight answer. With a rough standard deviation of 100 BB/100, one standard error is ±10 at 10,000 hands and ±5 at 40,000. The HUD fades win rate under 100 hands, but even past that, treat anything short of a few thousand hands as luck as much as skill.
What does BB/100 mean in poker?
Big blinds won per 100 hands. It’s a player’s net profit or loss measured in big blinds and scaled to 100 hands, so +10 means 10 big blinds won for every 100 hands played. Using big blinds instead of money makes results comparable across stakes; the HUD converts each hand at that hand’s own big blind.
Does the HUD win rate include blinds and bounties?
Yes to both. Each hand’s result is what the player collected minus everything they put in, including blinds, straddles and antes, plus any bounty they won and minus any they paid. An uncalled bet returned to them doesn’t count as money put in. That’s why a player who folds a lot still shows a loss from posting blinds.
Why can a good player have a negative win rate?
Because poker results swing far more than most people expect. A single lost stack of 100 big blinds moves a 100-hand win rate by 100 BB/100, and even after 1,000 hands one standard error is roughly ±32 BB/100 (assuming a standard deviation near 100). A winning player can easily sit below zero for that long.