What's in Your HUD with Martyn Horslen

Martyn Horslen is a micro-stakes grinder who has used poker software to help him improve his game and get a better read on his opponents.  His level of software experience and knowledge should be of interest to any player.

PokerSoftware: What poker software do you use while playing poker online and studying?

Martyn: I use a lot of different software. Holdem Manager 2 and Flopzilla are the main two and, depending on what games I am playing, I will use a combination of Table Ninja, StackAndTile, and a couple of AHK scripts.

PokerSoftware: Can you tell us how your HM2 HUD is set up line by line?

Martyn: I am constantly adding stats and looking for ways to increase the effectiveness of my HUD. I have a number of pop-ups and color schemes. I play six-max cash games most of the time and my HUD is built with that in mind.

On the top line, I have just a few basics such as Name, Hands, and Number of Big Blinds.

The second line is VPIP, PFR, 3bet, Fold to 3bet, and Fold to 4bet

The third line is BB Fold to SB steal, SB Fold to Button Steal, BB Fold to Button Steal, SB Fold vs Resteal, and BB Fold vs Resteal.

The fourth line is Flop, Turn, and River Cbet  (in position and out of position for each)

The fifth line is the same as above, but for Fold to Cbet

The sixth line is Fold to Flop Donk Bet, Fold to Turn Donk Bet, Fold Flop Cbet in Position to a Raise, and Fold Flop Cbet Out of Position to a Raise

The final line is Bet Flop vs Missed Cbet, Bet Turn vs Missed Cbet, Bet River vs Missed Cbet, Skip Flop Cbet and Fold to Bet, Skip Turn Cbet and Fold to Bet, and Skip River Cbet and Fold to Bet.

It's a lot, I know, but they are all essential for me.

PokerSoftware: What sample size are you looking for before you rely on the information in your HUD?

Martyn: It varies, as some of the stats don't come up too often. I use the HM2 sample size filters on all of the stats in my HUD.

For VPIP, PFR, and 3bet, I use the sample size of 20 hands. I prefer to see 50+ hands on these before I feel comfortable making any real assumptions on a player, but fewer than 20 and even the loosest of players could just of picked up a wave of hands and you'd flag them as being recreational.

For stealing and re-stealing stats, I use 10-hand samples. For flop stats, I use 10-hand samples. I'd advise more, but a lot of my stats are very situational and hard to get larger samples of. Turn and River stats are incredibly unreliable and I usually ignore them unless it is versus a regular.

PokerSoftware: Tell us what you use Table Ninja for.

Martyn: I use Table Ninja when I play a lot of tables on PokerStars. I am currently not playing much there and tend to focus on up to four tables so I can focus more on the stats. When I do use it, I use a lot of the betting hotkeys and table controls and map it to an XBox controller. I also have a few preset bets mapped to a couple of hotkeys.

By far the best feature is the SNG Sensei. I don't use it much now and most people who use it will tell you it has a lot of bugs. I haven't experienced too many bugs that I couldn't work around and the preset bet-sizing based on the size of the blinds is great, especially in turbo sit and gos and MTTs.

PokerSoftware: How do you use Flopzilla to analyze your game?

Martyn: A lot of the time, I use it just to check equities versus a range of hands, but it is far more powerful than just that. Combined with the stats from Holdem Manager, I can really narrow down a player's range of hands on any street. It's great to review a hand history and work out scenarios like if someone is only raising your flop cbet with a set or allow you the peace of mind to fold correctly next time. There's no end to the number of scenarios you can analyze when you use both Holdem Manager and Flopzilla together.

PokerSoftware: Can you tell us if you prefer the pricing of poker software to have a monthly subscription or a one-time payment?

Martyn: Definitely a one-time payment. It works out much cheaper in the long-run. I don't always use all the software so managing subscriptions on and off constantly would be a little annoying.

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