Does everyone use HUDs?

Agito · 05-26-2012, 11:47 PM

Does everyone who plays poker competitively use HUD? Do you think the superstars like Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond etc etc use HUDs? Won't you learn to play better without it?

If so which ones do you use?

dirtylobster · 05-28-2012, 05:06 AM

I found out about PAHUD maybe three months after starting out playing poker (in 2006). After that I used (the free and awesome) Realtime HUD, which I think was the first HUD with 3bet stats, whose developer soon moved to the Holdem Manager team and when it was released I started using HEM. I also have a PT3 license but I've rarely used it. The last 9 months or so I've played on a site that doesn't allow tracking software so I've been playing statless and HUD-less which has been pretty interesting.

Dwan doesn't use a HUD afaik and neither does Galfond, at least when he's playing nosebleeds where the player pool is small. A HUD is basically very useful when playing at stakes with large player pools where it's impossible to keep track of all the players in your head.

HUDs in general does offer an advantage over someone who doesn't use one, especially the bigger the difference in skill, as you can easily find out profitable spots (like someone folding 90% to turn cbets) which otherwise might take much longer to find out on your own.

NthingToLose · 05-29-2012, 12:02 PM

Ivey and Patrick Antoninus don't use HUDs. If you playing less than 4 tables really don't need one anyway.

Xaston · 05-30-2012, 06:24 AM

I don't like HUDs. I know a lot of people who have made good money at poker who use them and who don't use them.

Personally I don't like them. Or I didn't back when I played online poker fu DOJ. A lot of people are just asking to mess up because of anchoring if they use one.

Quote:

Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor," on one trait or piece of information when making decisions.

During normal decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals overly rely on a specific piece of information to govern their thought-process. Once the anchor is set, there is a bias toward adjusting or interpreting other information to reflect the "anchored" information. Through this cognitive bias, the first information learned about a subject (or, more generally, information learned at an early age) can affect future decision making and information analysis.

nitlag · 06-01-2012, 02:24 PM

The answer to your question is no; not every player does, but most do. But I suspect an additional related question is should you use a HUD. I would say yes.

The reason is how it will help your thought process while playing. Giving thought to the HUD stats you choose and how they relate to your opponent's hand range and tendencies will help you think of the right questions/things when making your decisions at the table during the brief time you have to make a decision while playing.

That said, playing a single table without a HUD and focusing on paying attention to how EACH player is playing (both to inform your decisions to call/raise/fold and how to exploit their weaknesses) is also a helpful exercise.