My study time over the past two weeks has been spent working on my poker HUD.  After watching the latest training videos from Assassinato (MTT HUDs Classroom) and Apestyles (Stars 200r HH replay) on Cardrunners.com, I decided to turn mine into a combination of the their two HUD's.

I’m doing this post about my HUD so you can get some ideas on reworking your own HUD.

I use this HUD for SNG’s and MTT’s.  When I play cash, I just use the Cash – Legacy HUD that PT4 comes with.  Someday I'll configure a new cash HUD.

Assassinato uses HM2 and Apestyles uses PT4.  I use PT4 so configuring mine after Apestyles made the most sense, but I threw in some of Assassinato’s HUD ideas as well.

Hero HUD Stats

Top Line: # hands / VPIP / PFR

Next Line: Total Steal / Fold to Steal / 3bet / Fold to 3bet / Cbet Flop / Fold to Flop Cbet

Having my own separate, smaller HUD just for the most important stats lets me know how I’ve been playing at this particular table.  As you know, in any given session you could be playing a 14/12 game on one table, a 24/18 on another and 30/30 on a third.  It all depends on the cards you’re receiving and the play of your opponents.  Knowing my stats at a particular table gives me a good read on how my opponents possibly view me, allowing for better exploitation of my current image.

Stat Breakdowns

Number of Hands – This is here so I can quickly see how many hands I’ve been at the table.  It also gives me a good indication of the speed of action.  If we’re already in the 3^rd level but only 20 hands in, I’m up against some slow acting opponents.

VPIP – Voluntarily Put $ in the Pot – This lets me know how active I’ve been and how loose I’m perceived to be.  If my VPIP is high, I know they’re more likely to call me down light or 3bet light.  If it’s low, I’m more likely able to get away with bluffs and resteals, but less likely to get value from strong hands.

PFR – Pre-flop Raise – This tells me how often I’ve been raising the pot pre-flop and how aggressive I’m perceived by my opponents.  The higher this is the more likely my aggressive opponents can 3bet or resteal against me.  Not all opponents notice this, though, so I have to be aware of their stats when I’m faced with further aggression from them.

Total Steal – This allows me to see how much I’ve been stealing and is a good indication of whether or not the blinds at the tables are possibly getting tired of me and could fight back.

Fold to Steal – This helps me to see how passive I’ve been, and when looking at a late position opener’s RFI %, I can determine whether he’s likely on a steal or not.  If I know I’ve been passively folding a lot of blinds, I can more likely resteal vs aggressive opponents.

3bet – Having this is a key stat.  Later in the tourney your ability to steal is a great help in accumulating chips or just staying afloat.  If you’ve been very active, any 3bet steal you make is more likely to get called or shoved over.  If you’ve been just calling or folding to opens, your 3bet will get more respect and is more likely to get just a call or a fold.  You need to watch out for oblivious nits or aggro donks as it doesn’t matter what you’ve been doing with your hands, all that matters to them is what they’ve got.

Fold to 3bet – Of course this is necessary to see how much of a pushover I’ve been vs opponents who 3bet my opens.  I find that the more I open the higher my Fold to 3bet is because I'm opening a looser range.  I often have a little higher Fold to 3bet in MTT’s than I do in SNG’s, and that’s b/c in SNG’s it pays more to play tighter, whereas in MTT’s it’s generally better to get in there and mix it up with all sorts of hands.

Cbet Flop – This is the best flop stat that I use to gauge my play on the flop.  My goal is to have it right around 60-70% as this range is very hard to dissect.  I could be cbetting with all my made hands, lots of draws and bluffs with this range.  But of course, table dynamics will play a huge factor in whether or not I Cbet, and there’s been plenty of times when my Cbet was up to 100% or as low as 50%.  It just depends on who calls me pre and what cards come on the flop.

Fold to Flop Cbet – I know that if this stat is too high, then I’m making mistakes pre-flop.  If I’m just not flopping anything good, then I’m probably calling too wide pre and need to tighten my calling range.  If I don’t look at my opponents flop tendencies before I call pre-flop, then I’m folding on the flop to low flop Cbet stats, and that’s not good.  I need to determine the likelihood that I’ll face a Cbet before the flop hits.  Always have a plan before the next street.

Table HUD Stats

This only has two numbers, my current stack in BB’s (the big red number) and the M-ratio.

Current stack in BB’s – This is here to give me a quick glance to see my stack size in relation to the blinds.  Couple this with seeing the other player’s stack size, it’s quick and easy to determine how my stack relates to the other players.  This saves mental calculation time in figuring my stack in BB’s, which really aids in multi-tabling.

M-ratio – This has been on my HUD for a while, though I rarely look at it.  It’s the measure of how many orbits I can play while passively letting my stack dwindle down to zero.

Calculation: M-Ratio = (stack size) ÷ (SB + BB + antes for an entire orbit)

This can be useful when you’re on the money bubble with a shortish stack and when the money means a lot to you.  It lets you know how long you can just wait out your other short stacked players to squeak into the money.

My next post will go over the Player’s HUD.

Please leave your thoughts on my Hero and Table stats HUD's in the comments below.  What should I add/delete?

Make your next session the best one yet!