What's in Your HUD with Jared Bartlett (RikaKazek)

We sat down with Ivey League instructor Jared "RikaKazek" Bartlett to learn how he is using poker software while playing and during review.  He primarily plays No Limit Hold'em cash games and enjoys playing live tournaments as well.
 
PokerSoftware: What type of poker software do you use while playing or while studying?
 
Jared Bartlett:  The HUD I am using while playing depends on which site I am playing on.  For some poker sites, I use Hold'em Indicator for my HUD, while for others I use PokerTracker 4.  For studying, I also often use PokerStrategy Equilab.
 
PokerSoftware: How is your PokerTracker HUD set up line by line?
 
Jared Bartlett: My HUD is setup as follows:

VPIP / PRF / Total AF / Hands/ Cold Call 2-Bet

Player Name / 3-Bet / 3-Bet Steal / Fold to 3-Bet / 4-Bet / Fold to 4-bet

Attempt to Steal / Fold to Steal / Check-Raise Flop / Check-Raise Turn / Check-Raise River

Raise Flop C-Bet / Call Flop C-Bet / Fold to Flop C-Bet / Fold to Raise

While playing, I am also frequently clicking on the HUD pop-ups to pull up how often my opponents are raising from certain positions.  This is important since many full ring players have an unbalanced early position and middle position opening range.
 
PokerSoftware: How do you use PokerTracker 4 while studying?

Jared Bartlett:  A great tool in PokerTracker 4 I use for studying is LeakTracker.  For a beginning player, using LeakTracker can singlehandedly fix big and important leaks that they might not be seeing.  Sometimes it's literally one aspect of a person's game that is holding them back from winning, and usually that one aspect will reveal itself with LeakTracker.  As you get more advanced, LeakTracker won't really help the player as much.  However, having PokerTracker 4 save and store all of your hands is invaluable.

To grow as a player and stay ahead of the curve, you must be constantly experimenting and learning new lines.  A good example would be in my own game, I just started open-raising 2.5x from the small blind instead of raising 3x.  By having all of my hands saved in PokerTracker 4, I can see what percent of the time raising 3x has been successful and what percentage of the time 2.5x is successful.

If I only did this by feel and not by software, it would be impossible for my brain to know the difference between 64% and 67%.  Those small differences are impossible for us to keep track of; if we could, our brain would be overwhelmed.  In other words, using software that keeps an exact and accurate stat is really helpful.

If there's a huge difference in success from 2.5x to 3x, then I can go back to 3x.  If there's a little change, which is what has been happening so far, then I can keep open raising 2.5x, thereby risking less to win the same amount and improve my win rate.  Little experiments like that are impossible without PokerTracker 4 or Holdem Manager 2.
 
PokerSoftware: What are some of the features you like about Hold'em Indicator?
 
Jared Bartlett:  I really like how reliable it is and how you can filter the table based on a specific stat.  For example, if I filter based on VPIP and notice the table is filled with solid players, I can just get up and find another softer table.  Also a lot of my students use it to save their hands, so we can go over them after the fact in a lesson.

I also really like how the software can accumulate the table's stats before I even sit down.  Even on a site with anonymous players, I might have 10 to 15 hands on other players before I even played my first hand.
 
PokerSoftware: Picture a world without HUDs.  What adjustments might you have to make and how would this affect your win rate?

Jared Bartlett: I think people would play more ABC poker.  In other words, a more straightforward style of poker. I also imagine people would play fewer tables at a time, meaning the games would be a little softer.  I also think in a world without HUDs it would take someone longer to go from a losing player to a winning player, so the games would be softer.
 
PokerSoftware:  How are you using PokerStrategy Equilabs and how has it helped your game?
 
Jared Bartlett:  I consider the software to be the same as PokerStove.  I used PokerStove for years before using PokerStrategy Equilabs.  The software is an invaluable tool that I use on a daily basis.

The biggest way the software helps me is in the way I study and analyze hands.  I'm a huge proponent of going over hands you've played and seeing if there's a better way to play them.  Many times, especially in big pots, it comes down to your equity versus their range.  By using Equilab, I can do hypotheticals, almost instantly, to see if I adjust their range a little bit, does it adjust my equity.

Here's an example:  The hero is all-in with A-J on a J-8-5 flop with a flush draw out there.  If I assume his range is "x", maybe my equity is 45%.  If I play devil's advocate and pretend maybe my assumption of his range is wrong and instead put in "y", I can see how my equity has changed.

What you'll sometimes find is even a tiny adjustment in their range dramatically affects your equity.  Other times, you can put in a radically different range and it doesn't affect your equity at all.  Equilab helps me a ton in this regard because I used to do it by hand.  Now, I can do it in one-thousandth of the time.

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