What's in Your HUD with Marc Alioto (aznAllin007)

PokerSoftware sat down with Lock Poker pro and Tournament Poker Edge instructor Marc "aznAllin007" Alioto for a look at what's in his Heads-Up Display, or HUD. If you missed Part 1 of our interview with Alioto, click here.

PokerSoftware: How useful or important is your HUD in daily game play? Which HUD do you use?

Marc Alioto: I think a HUD is very useful in my daily sessions.  I thought it was way more important when I grinded sit and gos, as I found it much easier to dissect each statistic for each player.  In MTTs, it has been very useful, especially during the early stages, as certain stats on villains allow you to exploit their play.

I am using Holdem Manager 2 at the moment, which has been great, but I feel I would be a winner without a HUD.  I am 100% certain that using a HUD has increased my hourly rate and I have developed a greater understanding for No Limit Hold'em.  Going over hand histories with the replayer and looking deeper into the numbers have made me get way better at a faster rate.  I don’t “live and die” by the HUD, but there are many spots when I am six- to eight-tabling where I can glance at it for some help.  Do not make all of your decisions based on the HUD, though, especially late in MTTs.

PokerSoftware: Which HUD stats do you believe should be displayed by default?

Marc Alioto: Hands Played/VPIP/PFR/3bet% - That’s what should be displayed by default in order for new users to adjust to a HUD.  I use over 18 different stats and feel there are more to be added in the near future.  Don’t use more than five to start, as you must adjust according to the HUD.

PokerSoftware: Which HUD stats do you believe are undervalued and overvalued?

Marc Alioto: I do not think there are many stats that are overvalued while using a HUD because I think they all have certain value for certain opponents.  It is simply based on how one uses those stats.

VPIP, PFR, 3bet% - These are the most commonly used stats, but they lose so much value unless you adjust them during different spots of tournaments.  Adjusting these numbers based on blind levels or the number of players per table is a must if we want to get the most value out of our HUDs.  Even if you just adjust from pre-ante to post-ante, you will be gaining so much more from this product.

I am a player who runs 14/10/4% pre-ante. Once the ante is introduced, I turn into a monster: 25/22/9.5%.  As you can see, if you are deep in an MTT with me and you just have these three statistics bunched as one stat, you will think the deck is hitting me.

This is a gigantic trend in poker, as most players are playing nitty in the early stages and open up during the post-ante stage of an MTT.  Not everyone is like this, so adjust your HUD accordingly so you can determine which players are adjusting.  If you don’t know how your opponents are adapting to different situations, you will be losing so much equity in MTTs.

 I can think of a bunch statistics that are undervalued. Here are a few:

Early Position Steal - Knowing how frequently someone is opening under-the-gun can allow you to 3bet from literally any position at the table to turn a profit.  For years, players have said that being under-the-gun is the new button, and this has not changed.  Use this stat along with other steal percentages and you will see your profit increase.

If you play sit and gos, have every steal percentage possible in your HUD.  Knowing your opponents’ tendencies is so crucial in taking the next step to exploit them.  I cannot begin to tell you how many players in Double or Nothing tournaments steal 90% from the button and only 20% from the cutoff.  Exploitable?

Turn Continuation Bet - For the longest time, I was only using Flop Continuation Bet as a stat, but if you want to exploit some of the advanced players, this statistic is not enough.  For instance, a player who c-bets 80% of the time can be floated with complete air in position a good portion of the time.

After my float, I look at my HUD to see that his Turn Continuation Bet is only 20%.  The other 80% of the time, you can assume he has marginal showdown hands (second pairs, ace-highs) at best.  So, once he checks, we bet one-third of the pot and, often enough, see a snap-fold.  This is one example of many where using Turn Continuation Bet will increase your pots won in any given game.

Fold to Continuation Bet and Fold to Turn Continuation Bet - Floating has become the norm, so in order to take advantage of the better players out there, we need to see what percentage of the time they will be folding to a double-barrel, the Fold to Turn Continuation Bet percentage.  If they are folding to c-bets only 30% of the time on the flop, it is crucial to see how many times they will actually float the turn.  I see so many players with 30% Fold to Flop c-bet and 80% to 90% Fold to Turn c-bet.

I could go on and on about other statistics I think are useful, but I will leave it at these.  I believe I have not even scratched the surface of the many different statistics that HUDs offer and cannot wait to explore the rest of them.

If any of you are interested in learning more about poker, I encourage you to sign up at TournamentPokerEdge.com.  I have done three different series on there and am one of many great players on the site.  Good luck all!