What's in Your HUD with James Lambert (Rivermen123)

This week, PokerSoftware caught up with new Tournament Poker Edge pro James "Rivermen123" Lambert, who has been playing online poker full-time since 2010. Lambert is a well-known regular in small- to mid-stakes multi-table tournaments.

The topic of our interview with "Rivermen123" was Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) and their use in cash games and tournaments.

PokerSoftware: Why do you use a HUD and what do you feel are the pros and cons of doing so?

Rivermen123: I use HUD software because it's a tool most people are using. If you multi-table online and don't use one, you're at a competitive disadvantage. HUD software also allows you to review your sessions, which is crucial to improving your game.

Players who are especially diligent can develop some incredibly detailed reads on regular opponents, although in MTTs it takes a few thousand hands to get accurate reads because the stats come from different stages of tournaments. It can take a few months of heavy volume to get truly reliable stats on other regs.

A HUD can cause someone to sort of autopilot through a session, though. That won't improve your game in the long-run. It can also dull your sense of game flow if you're too reliant upon the numbers and don't pay close enough attention to each hand.

PokerSoftware: In your opinion, what are the most and least useful HUD stats?

Rivermen123: For MTTs, I use a couple of stats that don't appear on the default HUD, but I find extremely useful.

One of these is VPIP/PFR by position, particularly under-the-gun and big blind. I use the "BB VPIP" stat to identify players who are too loose in the big blind. Someone whose BB VPIP is 40% or higher will generally lack positional awareness and have other fishy tendencies as well. Conversely, it is easy to steal the blinds of someone whose BB VPIP is below 10%.

I also use an early position PFR statistic to identify regulars who like to steal from under the gun, which is somewhat popular among MTT regs because UTG raises naturally get more respect than late position raises. When I see an aggressive regular with an early position PFR of 20% or more, I look for spots to 3bet light and exploit his tendency to steal from UTG.

One basic stat that I have displayed in a large font, specifically for tournaments, is the number of big blinds in an opponent's stack, which is a number that any competent MTT player should know on every single hand. Having this stat displayed eliminates the need to do the division in my head, which saves time while multi-tabling.

The least useful stat for MTTs, although it's not entirely irrelevant, is probably post-flop Aggression Factor. It's hard to get a good read on post-flop tendencies in MTTs because stacks are usually shallow, so I don't use the Aggression Factor stat at all. Other than that, I'm not sure which specific stats aren't useful; I just load my HUD with the ones I do find useful.

PokerSoftware: Do you prefer PokerTracker or Holdem Manager?

Rivermen123: I'm a Holdem Manager 2 user. I haven't tried the latest release of PokerTracker, so I'm not sure which is better. I use HM2 because I preferred HM1 to PT3 and just stuck with it. HM2 is far more user-friendly than its predecessor, so sticking with Holdem Manager was an easy choice. It's not perfect, but it is pretty awesome.

PokerSoftware: Do you believe there are situations in which you should ignore HUD stats? Or turn them off altogether?

Rivermen123: In short-handed situations, such as a final table, you can throw a lot of stats out the window since most of them come from nine-handed play. When you're heads-up in a tournament, many of your HUD stats are irrelevant, for obvious reasons.

PokerSoftware: In general, what percentage of your poker colleagues use a HUD when playing online poker?

Rivermen123: I'd guess that at least 80% of the players I regularly talk to use a HUD.

PokerSoftware: Can you go through your favorite "HUD moment" in which you believe using a HUD helped you out?

Rivermen123: My HUD helps me every day, so it's hard to think of a specific moment, but during the final table of my Merge Daily High Roller win in May, with stack sizes between 25 and 40 big blinds, I was 3betting one particular opponent with literally any two cards when he opened pots from under the gun because his early position PFR was so high.

At that stack size, it only takes a couple of successful 3bets to chip up significantly and by the time your opponent figures out what you're up to, the damage is already done. In a final table situation like that, HUD software can potentially pay for itself many times over.

That said, you don't really need a HUD to tell you an opponent is opening UTG too much; you can just pay close attention. However, a HUD can help confirm reads you've developed through observation.

PokerSoftware: What are some of the mistakes you feel are common when interpreting HUD stats?

Rivermen123: I fall into a trap that I'd imagine is pretty common: when my own HUD stats appear to be too tight or nitty, I start playing too many pots just because my HUD is telling me I haven't been active enough. It's rarely good to ignore game flow and start opening and 3betting for its own sake. However, it's not necessarily wrong to use your HUD to make sure you're not playing too tight or too loose. There's definitely a balance.

PokerSoftware: Are there any improvements you'd like to see for the HUD software you currently use?

Rivermen123: More stability. There are days when I have to restart the program several times. I'm not a computer guru, so I'm not sure why this happens, but it seems to happen to a lot of the people I talk to regularly. It's really just a minor annoyance, though.

HUD programs archive data constantly and in real-time. They're very powerful and therefore they demand a healthy chunk of system resources to run effectively. There are always a few bugs, but HM seems diligent in addressing and fixing them, particularly through their forum.

I'd also like HM2 to automatically track MTT profit/loss/ROI for Merge tournaments. For some reason, this still isn't possible. I think it's an issue with Merge hand history files.

PokerSoftware: Please feel free to add anything you feel is relevant.

Rivermen123: If you're just starting out, buy the software and track your play, but don't use the HUD until your game has developed enough to start playing four or more tables.

Check out Tournament Poker Edge to learn from Rivermen123 today.