What's in Your HUD with Luciana Manolea (luckierno7)

We sat down with Luciana "luckierno7" Manolea to discuss her poker life and how she uses poker software.  Luci is one of the most successful female poker tournament players and one of the top players in her home country of Romania.
 
PokerSoftware:  Tell us how you got into poker and some of the reasons for your success in the game.
 
Luckierno7: It was fortunate that I got into poker without knowing anything or having any poker playing friends.  I started playing all by myself back in the day when the games were much softer.  I heard, however, about people making a good living from poker. So, I thought I could do it as well. Then, I got very lucky to win $10,000, which was life-changing money for me.  After that, I never looked back.
 
Now, the game is continuously getting tougher and tougher and you need to put in a lot of work off the table to perform well in poker consistently.  I have dedicated myself to this for a very long time; however, I feel that I haven't learned as fast as I would have liked to.  I am ashamed to admit that I predicted I would become the breakout player of the year starting from three years ago.  I didn't even bother posting again about this last year since I don't feel it has happened yet.  However, now I definitely feel closer to it than ever before.
 
PokerSoftware:  How is life in the poker world?  Do you enjoy the ability to create your own schedule and the travel to different places?
 
Luckierno7:  I love it!  I never had a "real" job and never plan to get one either.  Making my own schedule is very important to me.  Poker provides me so much freedom and I am grateful for everything it has offered me.  I also am thankful for the very nice people I have met through poker.
 
PokerSoftware:  What poker software do you use while playing poker and while studying?
 
Luckierno7:  I use PokerTracker 4 and Table Ninja while playing and use ICMIZER for studying.
 
PokerSoftware:  How is your HUD set up and which stats are most important to you?
 
Luckierno7:  First row - VPIP / PFR / 3-bet / Steal / Number of Hands
Second row – C-bet / Fold to C-bet / Turn C-bet / Fold to 3b-bet / Aggression Frequency
 
Also, whenever I feel I need more information, I check the HUD pop-ups. For example, I check 3-bet by position fairly often and river aggression when I am holding a bluff-catcher on the river and am considering calling.
 
PokerSoftware:  What do you think about PartyPoker's decision to ban HUDs and PokerStars' decision to limit advanced HUDs?  Will this cause you to play less on the sites that implement restrictive measures?
 
Luckierno7:  The decision by PartyPoker doesn't affect me since recently all Romanians are banned on from the site due to new regulations.  However, I never grinded much PartyPoker anyways. I will always play on PokerStars. The restrictions will affect all players, so I am not worried. Note-taking will become way more important because of this, though.
 
PokerSoftware:  What Table Ninja features are you using?
 
Luckierno7:  Well, this is bit of a problem for me at the moment, as I used Table Ninja 1 as far as I can remember. Now, I am forced to migrate to Table Ninja 2. I had a problem during installation.  I need to fix that. I use SitNGo Sensei, where I set up what size I open at different blinds and also bet sizes for post-flop streets.  I also use other features that help when playing a lot of tables, like an all-in button, never sit out, and close tournament lobby after some time.
 
PokerSoftware:  How effective does the software make your sessions?  How many tables do you play with the software as compared to if you didn't use it?
 
Luckierno7:  I sometimes play too many tables, especially on Sunday when I can have 20 tables in play at the same time.  It is much easier with Table Ninja than without it. For instance, I am ashamed to admit last Sunday, since I again got greedy with registering, that I sat out in the Sunday Million for about 50 minutes or so. I recall after busting out on a lot of tables and asked myself, "Hey how did I bust out of the Sunday Million?"  Then, I found the table and I had only three blinds remaining.
 
PokerSoftware:  Tell us about ICMIZER.  How easy is it to use and when do you use it?
 
Luckierno7:  I use this software when I am not playing the tables since we are not allowed to use it having PokerStars open.  It is simple to use.  I simply copy and paste a hand history and then adjust the suggested ranges.  I use it for all-in spots, re-shove spots, and calling spots.

More articles