What's in Your HUD?

Sitting around the other evening with a couple of poker playing friends, our discussion came around to poker software and how we used them. The conversation eventually drifted to how we use Heads-Up Displays, or HUDs, and one of my friends actually confessed that he had no idea how to use his: "The numbers don’t make any sense to me, but I know that they could be useful if I actually learned what the statistics indicated," he said.

This is actually a common issue for people who are new to many of the poker software programs out there. For those who jump into using them without looking over the tutorials that are provided or talking with other players, understanding the numbers can be as difficult as cracking quantum physics. The different choices can offer limited information or a total review of players that you are battling against on the felt.

"My HUD has every bit of information that you need at the tables," she stated. "I only play tournaments, so it has to be conformed to what I need in a tournament setting. Tournament Indicator tells me about every player at the table and, if I have a long history against them, indicates their playing proclivities."

My female friend then launched into a soliloquy about the features that Tournament Indicator offered, leaving my male friend with his head spinning. "It shows EV, the Sklansky group ranking, odds of winning the hand, pot odds, any notes that I have on the player, the percentage of times they voluntarily put chips in the pot (VP$IP%), their pre-flop raising percentage (PFR%), their aggression post-flop (AF), their winning percentage at showdown (WSD%), and if they are on a 'hot' streak."

"These numbers are all critical to my actions at the tables," she finished. "I use this information, along with my own personal reads at the tables, to make judgments on the players I am up against."

I play tournaments on occasion, but cash games are where you can make a good deal of money. I have been using the PokerTracker brand and, with PokerTracker 3 - the best version yet - it has definitely improved my play at the tables. When I take a look at the HUD, I find some of the same things that my female friend has in her Tournament Indicator, but I read it differently.

There are three primary percentage indicators with PokerTracker 3: VP$IP%, PFR%, and AF are there (you can bring up a second table that has more information as well) and, through reading these, I get key information on what the players are doing at the tables. Because the nature of cash games is that you don't run into the same players that often - at least not at the levels I play - this information is pretty much for the time that I have spent playing that night. Two of those three indicators are what I use to make important decisions at the tables.

The first thing that I look at is a particular player's aggression factor (AF). This is something that will tell me a great deal about how a player will attack after the flop. For PokerTracker 3, the big indicator is if the AF has an infinity symbol (∞) after it. This means that the player always is betting after the flop and, if I have a big hand, then I can slow play it providing that there isn't anything to worry about on the flop. This is a tool on PT3 that I have used and it has increased the value of the pots I win because if someone is blindly aggressive after the flop, then they aren't usually going to lay a hand down.

The other indicator that I look at is how often my opponents voluntarily put chips into the pot (VP$IP). Players who have a higher percentage are always splashing around and could be winning huge. For these players, I know I have to look for a hand that will stand up to their pressure, as they are also those players who seem to have the infinity symbol in their AF ratings as well.

If the player has a lower VP$IP and suddenly wakes up with total aggression, then I know that they have a monster and I can get away from playing against them in that situation. This will sometimes mean laying down lower pairs and connected cards that could cost me quite a chunk of change on the virtual tables to these players.

Understanding what is in the HUD for poker software is just as important as having the software itself. If you can use the tool properly, it can show a huge improvement in your game. If you don't, however, then you are probably just as well to play without it.

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