My intention here is to help you understand what a HUD can and can’t do, the importance of creating your own personalised HUD, what stats you need to be considering for Sit and Goes, and finally using filters to get the best from your HUD at different stages of a SNG tournament. Poker HUDs – How Can Getting A HUD Improve Your Game. Poker Copilot Review – Best for Mac Users Poker Copilot was originally launched as an alternative to the big 2 in poker tracking, Holdem Manager and PokerTracker. They’re now on their 6th version of the software and Poker Copilot 6 has some useful features for players.

• Best Hud For Acr
• Free Hud For Acr

Which Poker Tools are Allowed at Different Poker Sites

Poker tools including HUDs (Heads-up-displays), advice engines and calculators have become an everyday part of the online poker experience.

More recently, poker sites have implemented different rules about which poker software tools can and can't be used on their sites. Below you'll see a table summarizing the current situation for the sites available for your location. Where you see a grey tick, this indicates that there are restrictions.

Remember, sites where tools are restricted have fewer 'pro grinders' – generally meaning softer games.

• Holdem Manager 2 Review:My HUD of Choice - Cutting Edge Stats Display, Personal Database With Plenty Of Advanced Add-Ons
• Super-HUD Review: From The Awesome Poker Pro Labs, This Tool Combines A Pooled Database With HUD - 100% Stars Compliant
• Poker-Edge Review: This Tool Is 'Grey Hat' And The Major Rooms Have Tried (And Failed...) To Stop It. Use At Your Own Risk!

• Tournament Indicator: Ideal For Beginners, This Poweful Advice Engine Is Based On Harrington’s ‘M’, You Can Win While You Learn
• Tournament Shark: Attaches To Your Table And Shows You Which Players Are Fish And Who Are The Pros (Approved by major sites too).
• SNG Wiz: This ICM Calculator Will Show You How To Work Out Profitable Push / Call Ranges At The Bubble Of Sit N Go Tournaments

• Fish-o-Meter Widget | Are You Looking For The Easiest Poker Sites? Our Legendary Fish-o-Meter Widget Will Help You Find Profits!
• VIP Loyalty Calculator | Find The Best VIP Rewards At The Leading Poker Sites - Make Sure You Get The Best Poker Value.
• Approved Tools | Calculators, Heads-up Displays And Beginner ‘Advice Engines’ That Are Approved By Big Sites.

Types Of Online Poker Tools

This guide shows you what kinds of poker software tools are available, and outlines the stages of your poker career which each are best suited to. I have broken the available tools into 3 main categories – calculators, databases and offline learning systems – though as you will see there is considerable overlap between them. After this, you will find information on 3 cool widgets we have right here at SNG Planet, including the Loyalty Calculator, Fish-O-Meter and the bankroll management tool.

Odds Calculators And Advice Engines: Tools which show you different poker odds and probabilities are great for players learning the game. These range from simple hand vs hand comparisons to some complex devices which take the size of the pot, chip stacks and even the known tendencies of your opponents into account when highlighting the mathematically correct plays.

Some of these tools give in-play advice by reading the screen. While this is not fool-proof, it will stop you from making big mistakes – the best of breed (for example the 'Indicator' series or Poker Calc Pro from Poker Pro Labs) will keep you profitable immediately – as you gain experience you will rely less on the calculator and be able to spend more time on finding (and exploiting) weaknesses in individual opponents.

Databases And HUDs: The 'Heads-up-Display' (or HUD) is an overlay of statistics on-screen which shows you the style and tendencies of each player. This is hugely valuable information which can give you an individually tailored insight into how to beat each player, how often they are bluffing and how likely they are to have a strong hand when they raise. Tools like Holdem Manager 2 collect this information from opponents as you play, allowing you to make better and better decisions at the table. (Read more about HM2 here!)

These databases also collect your stats, and you can analyze these after sessions to see which hands you are winning with and which situations or hands require more work – they are good for finding your leaks.

While most of these products are fine to use at the major sites, there are some variations which are considered to be cheating by some sites. These pool together the history of 100,000's of players and give you instant access to their stats – a huge advantage! Poker-Edge is the best known example of this category, you can find a review here.

Offline Calculators And Training Aids: Some tools work best for study between sessions. SNG Wiz is a great example of this type of online poker software, and is used to analyze your decision making at the bubble of Sit N Go tournaments. What I like about this one is that you can adjust the stack sizes and cards to see how the math changes. Once you see the patterns in the output, your play can improve next time. There are also odds calculators which show you the winning chances of hands against different combinations of hands you opponent might have – Poker Stove is a great example and is free to download.

• Poker Calculator Pro From The Innovative Poker Pro Labs, This Is The Ultimate Poker Calculator - Nothing Else Even Comes Close
• Holdem Indicator Ideal For New Players, Watches Your Opponents Patterns And Gives You Advice On The Best Moves As You Play.
• Omaha Indicator This Is For Players Who Love PLO, You'll Never Make A Math Mistake Based On Outs And Equity Again With This Tool.

Cash Game Tools: Sit and Go Planet mainly focuses on the Sit & Goes and Multi Table Tournaments. I realize that many readers also enjoy cash games, and have reviewed some excellent tools for this type of poker. These will help you beat No Limit Holdem or Pot Limit Omaha, and include options for advanced players as well as those learning the games. Check out the options in the table on the right, they could easily be the best investment you ever made in your game.

3 Widgets Right Here At SNG Planet! I am happy to announce our brand new widget - the Loyalty Program Comparison Tool. This compares the loyaly rewards you can get from 6 of the biggest online poker sites. You input your range of games and number of days played each month - and then see the comparison dollar for dollar. At the moment only the non-US sites are covered, and V2 is already in plan for the US sites to be added later. There are always the two existing widgets to take a look at too... Our Fish-o-Meter lead the way in giving a custom list of the easiest poker sites based on your bankroll, location and choice of games. This gets regularly refreshed as the sites shift in the rankings and some become tougher than others. Last, but certainly not least, the bankroll management widget takes a look at the levels you should be playing for different starting bankroll amounts. This depends on whether you are pro, recreational or somewhere inbetween - though my recommendation is always 'take a shot'.

Just a couple more newer articles to tell you about. First, many people are worried that their poker accounts will be banned for playing tools which are not approved. You can relax with this list of those tools which are fully approved - even by the strictest poker sites (like PokerStars). Second many beginner players are unsure the effectiveness of the poker software like HUDs or calculators and don't want to invest in them. If you are one of the skeptics, then why not try these tools for free poker software for free? The extra profits you generate will soon show you what a good investment many of these tools are. This article gives you 3 options for getting free poker software.

How To Get The Most From Your HUD When Playing SNGs

By Rich 'Drarr' Hunt

Tthere is no denying that Heads Up Displays, or HUDs, are a vital part of beating online poker games. In a game where information is incomplete, using a HUD correctly can give you a big edge over the field. HUDs come as part of tracking software such as Hold’em Manager 2 or Pokertracker 4. While there are default setups for displaying statistics on your opponents on-screen while you play, these can (and should) be customized for both your game choice and your personal preferences.

The huge number of configuration options can seem confusing and a bit overwhelming at first but will quickly become clear. My intention here is to help you understand what a HUD can and can’t do, the importance of creating your own personalised HUD, what stats you need to be considering for Sit and Goes, and finally using filters to get the best from your HUD at different stages of a SNG tournament.

Poker HUDs – How Can Getting A HUD Improve Your Game

Many players start using HEM2, for example, and automatically assume a HUD will make them a better player. These players are quickly disappointed.

If you are using HEM2, it will record all hands you and your opponents play at your tables. The HUD’s job is to take all these hands and display past information on an opponent’s play, in both an easy to read numerical format and automatic notes, so that you can consider previous tendencies and ranges when playing against them. This gives you more information when playing your hand but does not give you a solution as to how to adjust your own play.

So a HUD is not a device you fire up to make you a better player, it is a tool that acts as your memory. This is particularly useful if you are playing several tables and cannot track and remember all the action yourself.

Building Your Own HUD – A Brief Overview Of HEM2 HUD Options

Despite having many default HUDs in HEM2, building your own HUD really makes think about what information you wish to present on there. This helps you learn and understand the HUD far quicker and more efficiently in game than trying to using a default HUD. Actually setting up a HUD from start to finish on HEM2 can take a bit of time but all stages are well covered in the software tutorial, but here are a few quick stages explained to get you started.

Once you open up the main screen of HEM2 by clicking the “HUD Options” button on the dashboard, you will be taken to a popup window which has everything you need to alter your HUD.

Next pick a HUD to work on by using the dropdown button by the HUD image in the top corner, this could be a default or a custom one you have already started, and then you can save it under a new name. Now you can start editing your HUD.

On the left hand side of the screen you will see a list of submenus. The first one “Displayed Stats Screen” is the main screen you will use to set up your HUD. It shows two boxes, the left hand side showing what stats you have in your HUD and the right shows a list of grouped stats that you can add to your HUD. You have options under the left box to move and remove stats, and options under the right box to add stats into your HUD. There are also options to create new lines and change the layout of your HUD.

As you progress further down the submenus there are also options to position yourself on a certain seat, differing site configurations, options for the display of your HUD and filtering. But you will find “Displayed Stats Screen” is the main one you will use for a HUD setup and for now I will concentrate on which stats to pick for SNGs.

Which HUD Stats Are Best? Essential Sit N Go Stats

Especially if you are multi-tabling SNGs I strongly suggest that when you first use a HUD, less is more. It is easy to get carried away by choosing a HUD with a ton of different stats, showing how often your opponent check-raises the turn and such. The truth is you will never get enough hands on the majority of your opponents to make these stats meaningful. As a result you have no useful information and just a screen with a bunch of multi-coloured numbers, distracting you from your games.

Worst still you might rely on a stat in a spot but not have enough hands to make the information accurate. For example you may see an opponent has 3-bet you 50% of the time from their BB, however you may have only raised their BB twice and he could have woken up with AA on the hand where he reraised you. As a general rule I prefer having at least 1k hands on opponents before I draw any meaningful information from the majority of stats.

Two essential stats that you will find in any HUD and can quickly tell you something meaningful with few hands are VPIP and PFR. VPIP stands for ‘Voluntarily Put $ in Pot’ and shows a percentage for how many times a player has opted to call or raise before the flop. PFR is ‘Pre-Flop Raise’, or how often the player raises before the flop. With these two combined over a small sample size of hands, you can quickly see if a player is loose, tight, aggressive or passive. Another two stats I always include are the number of hands I have played against an opponent, in order to give my stats context and name of a player on my HUD, in case stats get positioned incorrectly on the table.

For a starter HUD for a SNG multi-tabler I suggest using this simple setup:

Name / VPIP / PFR / #Hands

By using fewer stats you are keeping things simple while you get used to having a HUD on your screen, and you will learn to incorporate the information into your game while you are playing several tables.

Advancing Your HUD – More Useful Sit N Go Stats

As you get used to playing with your HUD other stats can be included. Using HEM2 you can set up a stat for every scenario you can imagine, but you need to consider what information is relative to the game format you are using. For example WTSD (went to showdown) could be essential in a Limit Holdem cash game to spot how often an opponent will call you down, but in a SNG where a lot of the play is preflop it is far less informative.

Best Hud For Acr

Below is a short list of stats from HEM2 you can choose to add when building your own HUD.

“Big Blinds” & “Trny M”– These both display measurement of stacks for both you and your opponents, which is quicker and easier than working it out yourself in game.

“Steal” & “Fold vs Steal” – As a SNG progresses the game is all about stealing blinds, so seeing who steals often and who folds their blinds to a steal is very helpful. Other stats can break down by position to show, for example, just how often the Button open raises or a BB folds to a steal.

Free Hud For Acr

“FlopCbet” & “Fold to Flop Cbet” – The continuation bet is an essential part of winning tournament poker strategy so these display on how often an opponent CBets the flop and how often they fold to a CBet

“AF” & “Afq” – These are Aggression Factor & Aggression Frequency. These are both measures of how aggressive your opponent is postflop using slightly different formulas. Usually one or the other are standard stats in most HUDs but due to the lack of postflop play in SNGs I would not class them as essential here.

Filtering HUD Data – Getting The Most From Your HUD At All Stages Of A SNG

For those with large hand databases HEM2 has the useful option to filter your stats to the number of players at your table. By following traditional SNG play, as covered in depth in the $16/hr Blueprint, players normally stay tight at the start of a poker tournament and get aggressive and looser as the game progresses.

By choosing the “HUD Filters” submenu under “HUD Options” in HEM2 you can choose to only see stats based on hands where opponents have played with a certain number of players at the table be it full ring, 6 handed, Heads Up or any number of players in-between.

For a 9 man SNG I would filter the HUD as follows:

9-7 players, 6-5 players, 4 players, 3 players, HU.

This allows you to really see how your opponents play at different stages, especially where it matters on the bubble and in the money.

However if you are playing low volume or micro stakes I would not advise filtering straight away, if at all. This is because you will be faced with many new opponents day in and day out and will often not have any hands on opponents at these later stages. This is definitely a device to be used when you have built up a large database against regular opponents.

Gained information

Hopefully now you have a better idea and can get started using a HEM2 HUD in SNGs. As I said there is far more information can be found in the software instructions section on the HM2 Website. I would encourage you to look at these if you wish to build an advanced HUD.

Keep in mind what you need and do not need for SNGs and keep the HUD as tight as possible so you are not getting distracted by useless stats. Then as you advance make sure your filters are in place so you have the best information on your opponents for each stage of the tournament.

Finally, understand a HUD will not make you a better player all by itself, it is a tool displaying information you have collected from opponents in your games. The key to using it is to allow yourself to understand the information and then combining it with your poker knowledge and experience to make the best decisions possible at the table.

I strongly recommend using Holdem Manager 2 not only because of the superb options and flexibility their HUD provides, but because it is the leading tracking software currently available to help you study and improve your game. Think of it this way, many (if not most!) of your regular opponents already have stats on you!

Planet Mark's Note: My personal favorite OnGame Network site, Red Kings Poker, are currently offering Holdem Manager 2 Pro Edition as part of your welcome bonus. You can see this offer by clicking the ‘promotions’ tab on the Red Kings Poker Homepage, then the ‘Holdem Manager 2 Pro’ link in the left hand side list, the $500 deposit is only their ‘suggestion’, $50 will do just fine and with the help of the HUD you might even make a profit from this!

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