Using a Poker HUD

A Poker HUD is the most common piece of software in online poker. A Poker HUD (heads up display) projects a string of numbers and statistics about your opponent in an overlay box next to their avatar. Using this information allows you to make calculated reads on your opponent during different streets, narrow down their hand range and ultimately enable you to make more +EV decisions when you’re involved in pots.

You can trial Poker HUDs for free but the most commonly used and promoted are Poker Office, Poker-Edge and Holdem Manager (HM). The average cost is probably around $80 per year, however along with a HUD you receive plenty of live tracking software tools including graph to record your win rates, sessions, leak finders and table finders. You can monitor your progress and use the built in calculators to re-play your sessions and see where you went wrong too. If you’re short on cash, Poker-Edge provide an excellent poker hud for just $5/month if you’re only playing micro-stakes games.

In terms of whether or not you need to start using a poker hud, as an experienced player I would suggest that if you’re putting in more than 10 hours of play per week or playing above the micro-stakes games (NL25+) than you need to start using one.

How to Use a Poker HUD

A Poker HUD can help you out in so many ways, but in this article I’m going to provide a run up of the basic stats and how to interpret them.

First of all, the VPIP% is the most important and stand-out stat. It tells you how often opponents call to see the flop, aka their staring hand range. Most TAGs will have a VPIP (voluntarily put money in pot) of 10%-20%. Anything below 10% means that a player if a full-on nit sitting out of way too many hands. Likewise, a player with a VPIP above 30% means that he’s a LAG and likes to play lots of hands, especially from position, in the hope of bluffing the pot in later streets, hitting a monster on the flop or out-playing you.

The PFR% (pre-flop raise) is usually displayed next to the VPIP% and it shows the percentage of hands that an opponent raises with. The PFR% is normally no more than 6% lower than the VPIP, so for example a typical VPIP/PFR will be around 25/20. Importantly, if the PFR is far below this range than the guy is obviously cold-calling a lot of his hands (meaning that he isn’t very good).

Another stat that most players find useful (especially in tournaments) is the AG or AF (different abbreviations depending on the live tracking software used). AG stands for post-flop aggression and it shows how aggressive a player is post-flop in terms of making raises and calls (it’s actually calculated by a few nifty formulas based on his recent activity). Most player’s AF stats are between 1-3. Anything above 3 indicate a very loose an aggressive player, where as anything less than 1 is very tight/nitty. Importantly, it’s easier bluffing opponents with a low AG stat and when these players raise it usually means they have something very strong.

3betting and 4betting becomes increasingly common as you move up the stakes past NL25 ($0.10/$0.25). The 3bet/4bet% shows the percentage of hands that an opponent 3bets with. Generally a TAG will have a 3bet stat of 5% or less, only 3betting premium hands AJ+/JJ+, where as a LAG will have a 3bet% up to 10%. A lot of his 3betting range will include more marginal hands such as pocket pairs, broadway cards and suited connectors. A lot of his 3betting light hands will be from position where it is most profitable.