Behind the Scenes of AJackson Advantage HUD

We recently reviewed AJackson Advantage for PokerSoftware and were so impressed with it that we decided to get an insider's look from its developer, Guy Vliegen.

PokerSoftware: When was AJackson Advantage developed, what was involved, and how long did it take?
 
Guy Vliegen: Development began in November 2013 and, in total, took about 800 hours of work.  The first beta version of our software was released in April, followed by the official software release in July.
 
PokerSoftware: What were the main reasons AJA was developed?

Guy Vliegen: Alan Jackson was involved with another NoteCaddy package for a long time, but grew dissatisfied with the programmer of that package.  Alan then got in touch with me to develop a new package.  I already planned on creating a NoteCaddy package since I had extensive experience with NoteCaddy and felt I could make a better product than what was on the market.  Alan's stat-based strategy approach and my programming skills turned out to be a perfect combination.
 
PokerSoftware: How is AJA different from other third-party HUD or NoteCaddy packages on the market?
 
Guy Vliegen: AJA offers dynamic stats, ranges, and badges.  Dynamic means that the type of values displayed change to always offer the most reliable data.  As an example, let's say a player has had the opportunity to c-bet 100 times versus Hero; the HUD will only show that percentage because the sample size is reliable enough.  We feel how a player plays versus us is more relevant than how he plays versus everyone.
 
Our badges use data from multiple stats to indicate a player's exploitability. Other HUDs will tell you when a player folds versus a 3-bet or c-bets too much.  The advantage of our system is that you can find profitable spots that often aren't obvious when looking at stats and make quick decisions.
 
The differences just mentioned are unique to AJA.  We also feel our HUD is well thought-out and more intuitive.

PokerSoftware: We understand that PLO and tournament versions of the AJA HUD may be coming out soon.  What are the target dates for those releases?
 
Guy Vliegen: A PLO version will be available in about a month and a beta version is already available.  It's very similar to the Hold'em version; however, many parameters were adjusted for Omaha.  These differences include assumptions on bet-sizing, what constitutes value hands, and what is a bluff.
 
A tournament version will follow later this year.  This HUD will be quite different than either of the other two versions of our software, with much more emphasis on pre-flop all-in scenarios and stack sizes and less on post-flop spots for which you often don't reach a decent sample size in tournament play.

PokerSoftware: Will more badges and more functionality be released in the current No Limit Hold'em version?
 
Guy Vliegen: The main limit when developing our HUD is performance.  The PC requirements for our Dynamic HUD are already quite high and we feel that adding more functionality would exclude too many users from being able to use our product.  This is also the reason we made a lighter Premium version of our HUD that can be used on more average PCs.  We will definitely be releasing updates with minor tweaks, but major changes aren't to be expected.

PokerSoftware: How do the timing tells work in your software?
 
Guy Vliegen: The CaddyClock feature in NoteCaddy that we use consists of two functions.  The first function is that it displays the timing of the last action in the HUD, which is especially handy when multi-tabling.

The second function records the timings and hand strengths of previous actions.  These are plotted in a graph so you can quickly check the relation between timing and strength of a player in any given spot.  Often this won't tell you much, but for specific players in specific spots, this can be a huge advantage.  A river raise, for example, is a spot where I found that many players have obvious timing tells.

PokerSoftware: Are there any HUDs planned to be compatible with PokerTracker or other poker tracking software?
 
Guy Vliegen: Not at the moment, but with Holdem Manager and PokerTracker merging, we can expect, at some point, new versions of both being developed.  It is certainly possible that we'd release a version compatible with PokerTracker in the future.

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