What is a HUD?
A HUD is short for “Heads-Up-Display”. It is a program which displays statistics on your opponents, while you are playing. These statistics are come from the hands that you have played in the past. You can select which statistics are shown on your HUD.
Why use a HUD:
A HUD is used to identify the player types at the table. One of the most important ideas in exploitative poker is that you should understand how your opponents play. A HUD can also help you to find leaks in your game.
The most well-known HUDs are Poker Tracker and Holdem Manager. You do have to pay for these.
HUD statistics
Most people use, at least, the following statistics on their HUD.
VPIP or VP%
This statistic refers to the percentage of time a player voluntarily placed money in the pot.
PFR%
This is the percentage of time a player raised pre-flop.
Flop c-bet%
This statistic indicates the how often a player raises pre-flop and then bets on the flop. This bet is often referred to as a “continuation bet” or a “c-bet”.
Fold vs Flop c-bet%
On the flop, this statistic indicates the percentage of time that a player folds to a c-bet.
3-bet%
A 3-bet is when a player re-raises after a player has raised.
Fold vs 3-bet%
This statistic represents the frequency that an opponent folds to a 3-bet.
Fold vs Steal%
This measure represents the percentage of the time a player folds in the blinds when a player raises from late position.
The Arguments For Using a HUD
1. Study Hand Histories Easily
A HUD is useful because it allows you to replay hands. Therefore, if you want to go back and study a hand, you can do this easily. When you play poker at the top poker sites, your hand history is saved in a folder on your hard drive. You can just open the folder and find any previous hand manually. Therefore, it is not essential to use a HUD to study hand histories. However, a HUD makes this process easier.
2. Finding Leaks
A HUD provides useful statistics. For example, you can analyse which situations that you lose in. For example, you might look through HUD statistics and find that you are losing money, when you are dealt low pocket pairs.
3. Playing Multiple Tables.
A HUD is also useful if you are playing on multiple tables. However, I would argue that, if you want to improve your game, you shouldn’t be playing on multiple tables.
The Disadvantage of Using a HUD
Your Observational Skills may not Develop
Traditionally, poker players have always used observation of other players and their betting patterns to get reads. You still have to do this if you play live.
Observation can provide you with finer details of a situation that a HUD can’t give you. A HUD can only give you statistical information.
The problem with HUD statistics, is that they provide an average. Poker players vary their strategy depending on the playing style of the other players at the table. A good player will play differently at a table full of loose players, compared to a table full of tight players.
Poker players also play differently, depending on the players sitting next to them. For example, most players like to steal the blinds. Let’s say you are on the button and a tight player is in the big blind. If the hand folds round to you, this is usually a good situation for stealing. In fact, against a tight player, you can steal with any two cards.
Let’s add a bit more information to the above situation. Let’s say that there is a calling station or an aggressive player in the small blind. Now, this will not be such a good spot for stealing. If you do plan to steal in this situation, you would have to consider how your hand will play post-flop. Therefore, the new situation means that, you can’t steal with any 2 cards.
Conclusion
HUDs are useful for studying your leaks and convenient for examining hand histories. As long as you don’t allow the HUD to make you lazy about improving your observational skills, there is no disadvantage to using a HUD.