What is Poker IQ?
A score for your poker decisions on a scale of 0 to 1000. Not a win rate, not ROI, a measurement of your thinking at the table.
Ask a poker player "how good are you?" and you get three kinds of answer. "I win", is one. "I break even", is a second. "It is just not running right now", is the third, familiar to every serious player after a losing stretch. None of the three can be measured. All three depend on luck, on how many hands you have played, and on who you played them against.
Poker IQ is an attempt to solve that problem. It is not a win rate and it is not ROI. It is a score for how technically sound your decisions are, separate from whether the cards cooperate. And it is our own measure, not a validated instrument: below is exactly how it is made and from when it means something.
How you get your first score
You start with a 15-hand starter quiz: three from each of the five categories, picked on the format and the stakes you enter. No time pressure. The five categories:
- Preflop decisions by position: opening, 3-betting or passing
- The continuation bet and reading the board
- Catching bluffs and judging your opponent’s range
- Working out pot odds and equity
- ICM and short-stack play in tournaments
That quiz gives you your starting score. From then on the score is no longer calculated from quiz questions but from your own played hands, as soon as you import them.
The five parts behind the figure
The score is not a loose impression but a sum. Five parts, each with its own maximum, adding up to 200 and then multiplied by five onto the scale of 1000.
Preflop
max 40How often you enter, raise and re-raise before the flop
Postflop
max 40Your continuation bet and your play after the flop
River
max 30How often you win when it goes to showdown
Leaks
max 30How many open leaks sit in your game and how heavily they weigh
Result
max 60Your profit per 100 hands, set against a healthy win rate
That is why one number is never the whole story: two players with the same score can collect their points from very different corners. The app shows you the five parts separately, and that is the part you can act on. A low preflop score tells you what to work on tomorrow; the total only tells you that once you take it apart.
From how many hands does the figure mean something
This is the most important question and at the same time the one most often skipped. A score based on 80 hands is not a measurement, it is noise with a number on it. The app therefore puts a reliability label next to it, which moves with the number of hands underneath.
| Label | Cash | Tournament |
|---|---|---|
| Rough read | up to 500 hands | up to 1,000 hands |
| Coming into focus | from 500 hands | from 1,000 hands |
| Locked in | from 2,000 hands | from 5,000 hands |
| Stone cold | from 10,000 hands | from 20,000 hands |
Below 500 cash hands this figure still says little, and the app says so too. Tournaments need more hands than cash, simply because you make fewer telling decisions per hand. Slow figures such as your 3-bet percentage have the longest run-up of all, even within those thresholds.
Why not a win rate
Profit per 100 hands is what most tools use. The problem: that measures the outcome, not your play. Two players with the same profit per 100 hands can be far apart; one plays against weak tables, the other against regulars who fight back. A win rate does not tell you who plays better.
Poker IQ looks at your decisions instead of at your stack. Your result does count, as one of the five parts, but it is not the whole figure. That is why your score can hold up while you run badly for a while, and that is exactly when you need it.
How the score moves
The score starts halfway up the scale, at 500, and moves from there with what you play. There is a brake on it: one session can shift your score by at most 40 points, up or down. That is deliberate. One evening where the cards flew in all directions should not overturn your measurement, and a bad run should not stay invisible either.
What does not happen: your score does not drop because you did nothing for a week. There is no decay on it. Leave the app alone for a month and your score sits there unchanged until you add new hands. The only way the figure moves is by playing.
Comparing yourself with others is possible, but only when there are enough others: the comparison with players at your level switches on from five players in such a group. Below that we show no percentile, because it would amount to your own score in a different coat.
frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions.
How is my Poker IQ calculated? +
You start with a 15-hand starter quiz, three from each of the five categories, and that gives you your first score. After that the score is recalculated from your own played hands: how often you enter, raise and re-raise before the flop, your continuation bet after the flop, how often you win at showdown, the leaks that are open, and your profit per 100 hands. Those five parts add up to 200 and are multiplied by five onto the scale of 1000.
What is a good Poker IQ? +
We deliberately give no target number. To say what is average or good you need a large group of players who have taken the same measurement, and we do not have that group. What you can use is your own line: the score starts halfway up the scale at 500 and moves with what you play. Whether it runs up or down across ten sessions says more about your game than the single standing figure.
Cash IQ and tournament IQ, what is the difference? +
They are two separate scores, each with its own history and its own reliability. Cash is about deep stacks where play after the flop weighs heaviest. Tournaments are about short stacks, push or fold, and the pressure around the bubble. Being good at one says nothing about the other, so the app keeps them apart.
Can my Poker IQ go down? +
Yes, but only by playing. Bad sessions push the score down, and one session can move it at most 40 points, up or down. What does not happen: your score does not drop because you did nothing for a week. There is no decay on it. Leave the app alone for a month and the score sits there unchanged until you add new hands.
How do I compare my IQ with other players? +
There is a comparison with players at your level in the app, but it only shows figures once there are at least five players in such a group. Below that number a percentile would be nothing more than your own score in a different coat, and then we would rather not show it. Your own name is only visible if you switch that on yourself.
Is Poker IQ scientifically validated? +
No. It is our own measure, not a validated instrument and not a clinical score. It is meant as a usable indication for the question "am I getting better?", not as a judgement on how good you are. How solid the figure is depends mostly on how many hands sit underneath it, and the app says so every time.
measure your IQ
Take the baseline quiz.
15 hands, about 10 minutes, free. No credit card. You see your starting score and your biggest leak straight away.
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