Is my understanding of PFR correct?

actually it's "preflop raise" but i'm sure that it was just a distraction. ♦

Originally posted by maythany
Using this PFR stat, I can determine how loose or tight a player is before the flop. So the higher their PFR stat, the looser they will raise.

okay

Originally posted by maythany
For example, say a player in the SNG tournament that I am playing in has a stat of 30/20. That means he only raises the top 20% of hands?

not okay

good players will adjust to the different blind levels.
also, specially with deeper stacks it doesn't really mean the top 20%.

equilab gives top 20% as:
66+,A4s+,K8s+,Q9s+,J9s+,T9s,A9o+,KTo+,QTo+,JTo

but well, some of these play less than easily postflop.
so instead of taking QTo type of hands he may prefer some better playability hands instead:

22+,A2s+,KTs+,QTs+,J9s+,T8s+,97s+,86s+,75s+,65s,54s,ATo+,KJo+

or something like that.

Originally posted by maythany
So with that information, I can adjust my calling range to say the top 12% of starting hands?

on early phases, not really.
on late phases, that's where icm kicks in...

Also remember that PFR just shows his raising range average from all positions.

For example, he may have 10% PFR from EP, but then it gradually increases until he has like 30% CO and 40% BTN raising range. In this case his average PFR will be around 20%.

Also PFR disguises ranges somewhat because it obviously does not add hands where villain calls a raise where he would have open raised had the initial raise not happened.

Because of this and what above people said, it really is just a stat to see when people are out of line or super nitty, rather than an exact narrowing of a preflop range.