What stats to display in HUD

Okay so i recently started using software to analyze my game (Poker Office) and i was wondering which information was best to have on the HUD overlay display, and why...

Oh boy, let me give you a rundown. I have a very solid HUD that helps me exploit people's tendancies nicely.

VP$IP: You want to know how often players are putting money in preflop to get a general idea of their range. For a good analysis of what these %'s roughly correlate to, either punch them into pokerstove, or check out this article by Pokey.

PFR: Remember that a high VPIP doesn't mean this guy raises atc. He may play 85% of hands, but only raise 2%. If so, you don't want to get involved when this guy raises. Good stuff to know.

3b%: Not as important at small stakes, since most people's 3b range here = QQ+ AK, but you should have this handy anyway to get used to using it. You need to know how often a guy 3bets so you can respond correctly but either 4betting or letting it go. Calling 3bets is usually -EV.

AF: Postflop agression factor is crucial. This lets you know if a guy's a calling station (Low AF, < 2) or is always firing or folding (AF>4) these are rough estimates, but close enough to use.

# of hands: The larger this number the better the data. If villain has only played 5 hands and AF = inf, then it might not be accurate, but if it's over 5k hands and AF=6, he's probably truly aggro.

Break Line -- Can't fit all this info onto one line

FCB: Flop cbet %, you want to know how often the guy cbets to again know how to respond. If his cbet is 33%ish he's only betting when he hits. If it's 100% then you have to check-raise him and it'll be profitable.

TCB: Turn cbet%, just keeping tabs on turn play

FvCB: Fold versus Cbet. This is HUGE here. Let's you know who to profitably cbet against, and who you shouldn't bother with. Also lets you know who's guarenteed to CALL you when you hit the flop.

Break Line --

SA: Steal Attempt% How often player raises when folded to them in CO or Button. Lets you know who you should re-steal against, take flops with then lead out, etc

Fsb: Fold small blind to steal. Use this to determine who gives up their blinds too often and steal against them.

Fbb: Fold big blind to steal. Same as previous.

I'll have to check and make sure that's all of them, but that's basically it. The other things you may wish to include are:

WtSD: Went to showdown lets you know how often this guy looks up players which can allow you to valuebet more against this guy.

W$SD: Won at showdown. Gives a good idea of what this guy needs to go to showdown.

If I think of any more then I'll add them, but this is a great start for sure. It's all I use, and gives me tons of info to make good decisions.

Thanks so much man, all of that is so helpful, i was lost with all that stuff, thanks for putting it in perspective!

hmm...weird, Poker Office has no stat for folding to c-bet...guess i should have gotten Poker Tracker.

Also, this is intended to be for micro cash games

thanks for the post mase, there should be a sticky about HUD stats and why they are important.

i would strongly suggest reading this thread and all the explanations in it - http://www.cardschat.com/f11/6-max-h...-how-i-140070/

it will give you a great idea what to look for in a stat, which will often be harder to figure out on your own than what stats help or do not help

as for not having a fold to c-bet stat (weird! "fold to flop c-bet" would be the same, do you have that?), you could have something like "fold (to) flop (bet)"... this is different, but it should still give you an idea.

Great post and read Mase, thank you

Great post Mase,just to underline something you touched upon.
Some stats you need a bigger hand sample than others to be able to get a accurate read on players habits.I have my own idea how many hands for each stat but i am not a big cash player so i will leave it up to others if they wish to elaborate.

Awsome post mate some very valuable information in the for somebody who is just starting out to use a HUD - Thanks mate.

Thanks Mase for the info, but I'm having a lil trouble as I don't know if i added the right stats.

So I am trying the free trial of PT3, downloaded it yesterday. I added these to my HUD....but I have a few questions... I play mostly NLHE, do all these apply to NL, lke 3bet, or is that mostly limit?....and for the AF, I have total AFq...is that right?
I HAVE : VP$IP/PFR/3BET TOTAL/TOTAL AFq/HANDS
newline :CBET FLOP/CBET TURN/FOLD TO CBET
newline:ATT TO STEAL/ FOLD SB TO STEAL/ F BB TO STEAL

So are those the best stats to have for no-limit holdem? or should i add/delete any? i think i am gonna add these 2 : WtSD and W$SD, I havent looked, but I'm sure there there on PT3...
The other question I have is the names on PT3 aren't exactly the same as what u listed here....did I put the right ones in?
sorry for these dumb questions, but 1 more....If I decide to play FL do i have to set up a diff HUD? or do these work for both FL and NL.
I play mostly full ring NLHE. So I assume I would have to set up a diffrent HUD for 6max or HU also?

also do i use the same stats fr sng or mtt's?

For SNG & Tourn a number of these are not that useful as you don't get to see the same players enough to get a enough hands.

I like to use
# of hands, VPIP, PFR, AFtotal
CBET FLOP, FOLD to FLOP CBET, WtSD
ATT TO STEAL/ FOLD SB TO STEAL/ F BB TO STEAL

For most SNG & Tournamanet action, the majority of your decisons will be preflop and on the flop.

What % advantage does someone using a poker tracker program have over a player who is not using one? Is there any stat. on this question or can some provide a reasonable guess.

Lots of variables in this question. Multi-tabler or not? If so how many tables on how many displays? What buy-in level?

A lot of variables that can make a large effect.

Stupid question here guys

On PT3 how do i go about addding the extra stats? Ive gone to configure hud > stats and then added the ones recommeded, clicked ok, but yet only the default stats appear.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

(ooops! editing cash game option while in playing in tourney, igonre idiot question )

Mase your post should be stickied...great info for beginners/intermediates

Agree. I googled when I was setting up my HUD, and it led me here. I had trouble tracking the post down again later tho. Really a great and informative post by Mase.

Both Mase's and chuckt's post are invaluable when it comes to getting your hud setup. If you read this one and that one, you should be pretty much set when it comes to your hud. After playing for a while you can see what you do and don't use and tweak it to your liking.

Hey Mase or anyone who knows for that matter

What is the range of a good player for W$SD and FvCB?

love the post im wondering what colour codes every1 else uses for the above stats?

currently trying free version of poker tracker 3. Have also tried tournament indicator. TI seems easier to read with the table instead of the HUD. Any other ones out there people have tried?

What would typical values be for SA, Fsb, Fbb, WtSD, W$SD and how would you exploit players with different values?

I don't have poker software so I don't even know what my values would be for each of these stats. It's really making me think about investing in software.

Man I have been trying to find out for the longest does anyone know?? Im also interested in standard PF 3Bet and F to flop Cbet ranges.

Well, these stats can be very different even among players of similar types. It really boils down to what personal mannerisms that player has. All the stuff I'm about to say is in regards to 6max. I don't know very much about FR, except that you should be tighter in general.

Steal Attempt: Stealing is something that a lot of players will tell you basically ends up being, the more the better. However you must ensure that you are stealing against correct opponents, and creating a profitable spot due to the combination their fold to steal %, and the equity you expect to have postflop from your hand strength combined with the likelyhood of making them fold. My steal % is generally around 40%.

Fsb/Fbb: These usually won't be too far off from one another. The looser a player is, the lower their fold to steal is going to be. A good rule of thumb is you can steal profitably against nits/TAGs, but not from stations/LAGs. Now that's oversimplified, more specifically, if both blinds have a fold to steal >= 80%, you can profitably steal with any two cards 100% of the time. The steal itself is profitable even if you can never win at showdown. Of course you will win some showdowns, and you'll also win some hands by forcing your opponent to fold. However, don't take this info and think, okay I'm going to raise 100% of the time this situation comes up. Doing so will leave you extremely exploitable, and even pretty brainless opponents will begin to 3bet you light, and making you pay for being too loose. TAGs are going to usually fold to steal 75%+, Nits 80%+. I personally fold my SB 80% and BB 75%.

WtSD: You'll see a few ranges of WtSD stats. Some guys will go to showdown 20% or even less. Even just over 20% is pretty tight, and these guys are basically only getting to showdown with really strong hands. This guy's probably weak/tight, and you can push him off a lot of one pair holdings.

From the low 20's to about 30% WtSD is the range most TAGs live in. They have a higher % because they'll be doing things like value betting more thinly and double-barreling more often. The higher the %, the more they're doing this stuff. The lowest end of this range, is probably still very straightforward in their play.

30%+ is just pretty loose. These guys are likely overestimating their equity most of the time. That means you have to adjust by calling them lighter, and value betting them more often.

I'm on the edge, I double barrel my face off, and I triple barrel most of the time that i double barrel too, so my WtSD is 27.7%.

W$SD: Let's start with the bad and go from there.
<40%: This is probably the same guy who's going to showdown a ton. This player is again overestimating equity, probably bluffs too much, could be a calling station. There's lots of ways to lose honestly, but those are some major characteristics this guy is likely to exhibit. If he's the station, value bet him to death, I'm talking 3 barrels of 2/3 pot or more. Whatever he will call, bet that 3 streets. If he's a maniac, then check/call with stuff like middle or bottom pair, and love life when he shows down jack high and can't believe you're such a fish that you called with "that crap". Obviously some high variance here, but very +EV.

40%-49%: Again the lower end is similar to what was just discussed. The top of this range probably still overvalue top pair on bad boards, and probably still go too far with things like whiffed overcards. You can definitely still value bet these guys light.

50%-54%: Most TAGs are here. They go to showdown with their decent hands, and usually did so with decent equity. Not too much info can be gained from this for exploitive purposes.

54%+: Nits and weak/tights fall into this category because they fold so much that when they finally go to showdown, they have a monster. People in this category generally have a low WtSD%. If that's the case, you must skew your range of hands that you'll take to showdown with them to very strong ones as well, or you'll just throw money away to these guys.

I have 57.1% W$SD even though I go there so often. I'm pretty LAGy, and people just don't adjust correctly. I also read people pretty well, and I get away from spots when I'm beat, and take thin value to showdown.

3bet: At micros, most people are going to have very low 3bet ranges. <3% is quite common, often 2%, comprising {AA, KK, AK} A good rule is if someone's 3bet range is around 5%, then they're not getting out of line. It would take a lot for me to start 4betting light at lower stakes. I don't think people are really out of line untill about $400nl, maybe at $200, but there are so few doing it, that you don't really have to adjust. Assuming people are 3betting normally until you have hard evidence contrary is a fine place to be.

3bet ranges get difficult because so many people tout polarizing these ranges. So if you see someone 3bet and flip up 76s, this doesn't really mean that much. You're going to have to look at his 3bet range, and try to decide what he's doing. Let's say someone's 3bet range is 5%. It's pretty safe to assume they are 3betting {QQ+, AK}, which is 2.6%. The remaining 2.5% is hard to determine. If their range is merged, then it's going to probably be {TT-JJ, AQ}. However if they polarize their 3bet range, now it's really hard to know. They probably have something like {65s-87s} which leaves 1.5% more hands. He may still have the entire previous range, since this totals 5.6%, and 3bet ranges take some time to converge. Or he may leave out TT, or AQo, or add some other weak hands, we just don't really know. On top of this we must decipher how the 3bet range will be skewed against us, or if they are adapting 3bet ranges versus specific players. Seeing someone 3bet a 60/50/inf and end up with AJo doesn't mean he's going to 3bet us with that hand.

I'm not even really done with this, but I'm going to stop here, and say that 3betting can get quite in depth, and that for simplicity, sticking to a general rule like if he's 3bet 5% total, he's doing it for straight value is a nice easy spot to start.

Fold to Cbet: This one is my favorite, cuz I cbet a LOT. With this stat, the higher the better. This stat alone can be reason to raise crap preflop. If someone who folds to 70% of cbets limps in, I'm jumping on that guy. He's going to bleed money to someone, and I want it to be me. 72o??? Looks good, raise that pot up! You want to isolate this guy, get him to yourself, and relieve him of his chips. As the number gets lower, the immediate value of a cbet also drops of course. However you need to take note of his fold to turn cbet %, because there may still be tons of value in double barreling.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the guy who's folding to 33% of cbets. He's not going anywhere. If he catches a piece, if he catches a gutshot, if he has one overcard, if he has a pocket pair lower than the 3 board cards, he's calling. Now you better not be cbetting that AK you raised preflop when the flop comes Td 4c 2d. It doesn't matter what the flop is, this guy's not going away. Check that hand down as far as you can, try to spike an ace or king. On the other hand, when you flop a big hand, just fire away. A majority of the time, you're going to be called, and paid off on all three streets.