Many players once they've played online poker make a few friends that show that sitting at two tables and grinding micro-stakes tables is a great way to bore yourself to death. Adding tables
is such a key skill in increasing your $/hr that every single cash game player works on it constantly until they have maxed out the allowable number of tables at their poker room. In order to
help them keep reads on players they use a HUD (Heads Up Display) which overlays statistics on each player. This allows you to mentally categorize each player (loose, fish, etc) and also know
tendencies in order to help you make critical moves in a hand. Both tournament and cash game players use a HUD and although one is not necessary to win at poker, it assists players when they
want to multi-table.
Programs that support a hand history database and generate an overlay HUD include Holdem Manager, PokerTracker 3 and Poker Office. Of the three I recommend you try the free trials for HEM
(Holdem Manager) and PokerTracker 3 and decide which is best for you. Personally I use HEM because of its stability and support for Omaha, but both HEM and PT3 have all the stats and
customizable options that a player will need.
Let's take a look at a screenshot I made when I first started using a HUD. You'll notice numbers below each player, which are specific stats for the player in my database at the time.
In the screenshot above you see color coded numbers. Here's how this HUD was layed out:
VPIP - Voluntarily put money into the pot. This shows you how often a player is in the pot, and therefore, whether the player is loose or tight in a general sense. For full
ring a player above 20 would be considered loose, 18-14 fairly tight, and sub-13 tight.
PFR – Pre-Flop Raise Percentage. This is the percentage of the time a player will raise a hand preflop. For full ring play (again general guidelines here) a player with a
VPIP above 18 is considered loose, 17-12 fairly tight, and 11-below very tight.
AF – Aggression Factor. This is a formula which shows how aggressive a player can be post-flop. Don't give this number absolute belief, it's more of a guideline stat. Someone
with an AF of 5+ is very aggressive, 3-4 solidly aggressive, 2-3 somewhat aggressive, and 2-below fairly passive.
Hands – Number of hands in the database for that specific player.
Steal – Percentage of the time in a steal situation that player will make a steal attempt. If you see that someone plays a 14/12/3 game (VPIP/PFR/AF) but their steal percentage is
45% you know that they are stealing with almost any two cards. This can be exploited!
Fold SB to Steal – Percentage of the time, when facing a steal attempt while on the small blind, they fold.
Fold BB to Steal – Percentage of the time, when facing a steal attempt while on the big blind, they fold.
CBET – Percentage of the time they Continuation Bet. If this number is very low (45% or lower), you know they are only cbetting when they have a hand, and if they cbet way too
high (90%+) you know they are betting at any flop even with air.
This is a nice starter HUD for people just getting used to using one and understanding what the stats are and how to use them. Now, let's take a look at my current HUD and go over the
stats. You will find it's a lot more compact, has more stats, and seems a bit more "evolved" than the last example.
Obviously, as you play more and more poker and the stakes (and players) get higher and more difficult, you'll need more HUD stats at your arsenal if you intend to keep playing a bunch of tables at
a time. The stats in this HUD are:
VPIP / PFR / AF / Limp-Call% / Hands
3Bet / Fold 3Bet / Flop Cbet / Fold to Flop Cbet
Steal % / Fold BB to Steal / Squeeze % / Fold to Turn Cbet
The stats above pretty much speak for themselves in terms of a definition. As you move up in stakes a 3bet becomes pretty standard and knowing how often people fold to 3bets will help you in
steal situations where you want to defend yourself – meaning that if you see someone has a Steal % of 40% for example, and they fold to a 3bet 90% of the time, you should be re-raising them
all day long with just about anything. See how a HUD can help you with your play? Since all of this tracking can technically be done with a pencil and paper, most of the major poker rooms
(PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, iPoker, etc) all support the use of a HUD.
Let's wrap up by showing how our HUD can help us make a specific maneuver in a game.
The Big Blind in this hand is a 18/14/3, so we're going to label him as a decent tight aggressive player. He folds to a steal 77% of the time, and he 3bets 4% of the time. However,
looking at the HUD stats for "3bets on the Big Blind" he 3bets a whopping 15%! This means he is 3betting super wide (basically any cards) when he's on the big blind. That's our first
ah-ha moment. Our second ah-ha moment is to see how often he folds to a 4bet. Now – you're asking, "Wait a minute. I don't see these stats on your HUD!" and you'd be right to ask
that. One thing I like about HEM is that it comes with the ability to have a secondary POP-UP HUD that has another set of statistics built in, and as you guessed it, I put in "3bet on the BB"
and "Folds to 4bet" in that popup. We see that this player folds to a 4bet 88% of the time, meaning we have all the reason in the world now based on our HUD stats to put in a thin (meaning
2-2.5x his raise) 4bet against him. The stats tell us he 3bets with a ton of holdings in the big blind and that he almost always folds when re-raised. Time to bluff this guy! So
that's what I did, and that's how I won a big bluffed pot with Q4 offsuit in a low stakes 6max game.
Again, I highly recommend that you:
- Try out both Holdem Manager and PokerTracker 3. They are both compatible for Windows only and both have free
trials so there's no risk in trying it out.
- Try to find a good community forum that has user uploaded videos for free and you can see how they use and have
laid out their HUD.
- Think about the stakes you are playing and what stats would be most beneficial to your game.
If you are familiar with a HUD or have already read through the article, what we are going to do in this article is run a quiz for you by providing a hand up until a certain point and then
offer you the stats of the villain.
