What's in Your HUD with Dean Cursley (Cursley11)

This week, we are pleased to be interviewing poker player Dean "Cursley11" Cursley on his thoughts regarding poker software.  He is primarily a successful small-stakes multi-table tournament player who plays across a multitude of sites and eventually wants to work his way up to higher limits.  More than half of Cursley’s tournament cashes have come on PokerStars, where you can find him playing under the screen name Cursley11.

PokerSoftware: What poker software do you currently use?

Dean Cursley: I currently use Holdem Manager 2, Universal Replayer, and PokerStove.

PokerSoftware: When and how do you utilize Universal Replayer?

Dean Cursley: I use Universal Replayer to review hand histories with other players so the players as a group can discuss what happened in the hand, what we could have done differently, and look at good and bad plays.  Also, I feel the software is great, as it shows you what pot odds you had, and also there is a progress bar at the bottom that is color-coded to show you what hands you played, won, and lost. This feature is very handy, in my opinion, since it makes it faster to skip through hands you know nothing came from.

PokerSoftware: Tell us a bit about PokerStove and how you utilize this free poker odds calculator.

Dean Cursley: PokerStove is really great and I think it is amazing that it is free. I normally use PokerStove while I'm doing a hand history review. It is a handy tool for ranging players and finding out if you have the right equity to call all-ins.  As long as you know how to work out your pot odds and are able to put a good range on a player, then it is the best tool out there, in my opinion.

PokerSoftware: Now that we have briefly talked about how you utilize free poker software, we are curious about what is in your HM2 HUD.  Can you please share line by line what is under your hood?

Dean Cursley: I have messed around with my HM2 HUD quite a lot recently.  I used to have maybe nine or ten stats (three lines) in my HUD, but felt that I wasn't using them that much.  I have cut my stats down to two lines, as I feel that's plenty for a quick glance.  If you need any more info, then you can just use the drop-down menu.

On the first line, I have Name/Hands/BB and on the second line I have VPIP/PFR/3Bet/Fold3Bet.  I feel that VPIP and PFR are musts for any player running a HUD and BB is my most handy stat because I can quickly see the number of BBs I have and how many another player has, which is very efficient if you’re playing a lot of tables.  The Fold3Bet stat is also very handy, as you can quickly see who the weak players are who don’t put up much of a fight.

PokerSoftware: What stats have you dropped from your HUD and why?

Dean Cursley: I used to have cbet flop/turn and fold to cbet flop/turn and, to be honest, I felt that the only use they had was for taking up extra space on my screen.  Those stats should be kept in the drop-down menu, as most players these days cbet most flops anyway, so the stat isn’t that effective.

PokerSoftware: Are there any stats you are thinking about adding?

Dean Cursley: I need to add one more stat to my HUD, Aggression Factor.  I feel that is an important stat to have these days, as people may be very aggressive pre-flop, but then shut down post-flop or vice-versa.

PokerSoftware: Do you use Holdem Manager 2 for anything else besides the HUD?

Dean Cursley:  I also use Holdem Manager 2 for tournament reports, which is quite good, as the reports show you how many MTTs you have played at that buy-in level, ROI, Net Winnings, $EV, and what type of player you are overall.  For every hand you have played, it puts the stats together and shows you if you are loose-aggressive, tight-passive, etc.

There are also some fun things you can look at to put your mind at ease such as hole card winning %.  This report shows you what percentage of hands you have won with and things like how many times your A-A and K-K have held up.  If you are on a bad run and feel like your whole world is crashing down, that can be a good thing to look at so you know you are not doing much wrong; variance is playing with you for a bit.

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