That obviously shouldn't happen but it's a good idea to have exported backup copies of your custom HUDs just in case in the future.


The only way you might be able to recover it if you never exported it is to close HM2 and open the C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Roaming\HoldemManager\ Config folder.


- If you can't see it, turn off the windows option that is hiding that directory. http://faq.holdemmanager.com/questio...es+in+Windows+


Rename prefs.xml to anything (i.e. prefs_corrupt.xml) and then rename prefs.bak to prefs.xml

- If you can't see the extension, turn off the windows option that is hiding that extension - http://faq.holdemmanager.com/questio...es+in+Windows+


Restart HM2 and see if your HUD is there in the HUD Designer and working. If it is, promptly export it and save it somewhere safe. All my important exports and backups are in a sub folder of my google drive folder.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Hi there. You mentioned a while back if you get a new computer, always get a quad core always if you are planning to use HEM2 and play say 12+ tables correct?


Im looking at a laptop that seems to have very long battery. The processor is an i5-8250U. At first i thought its not a quad core because of the U... but then i read its actually a quad core. My laptop is a i5-6300hq processor and quad core. That means the i5-8250U would work as well since its a quad core right? It says its a power efficient quad core. So that would mean its quad core and uses less power and more battery correct?

That sounds like it should be fine. Make sure it also has a SSD, the bigger the better. I recommend at least 256GB minimum, larger if you can afford it and have multiple large databases.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Could you tell me if a lenovo thinkpad t480 would do its job for running hem2 with 12+ tables with that processor along with ssd and at least 8gb ram?

okay thanks. I compared these processors on google and it seems the i5-8250U is actually a bit better.

I can't, I am not a hardware expert and that is not something we offer support for.

Google is your best source for researching laptop models and hardware performance. I always recommend buying at least one step higher up than you think you need in terms of CPU performance and SSD size if you can afford it comfortably.

Fozzy71
Customer Support

I am having trouble with getting the application to work following these instructions. I am on Windows 10 and use McAfee antivirus. Is there any more details you can provide to help me out.


The new update has a lot of changes under the hood for things not mentioned in the release notes as well. Some of these things are causing some antivirus programs to quarantine some things, and it is also causing some machines with certain OS's to remove shortcuts and *.exe's unfortunately.


edit to add: Which Operating System, Firewall, and AntiVirus are you using?


Uninstall HM2 from the Windows Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs menu and then Reinstall HM2 from this file http://www.holdemmanager.com/downloa...er_2_Setup.exe

- After downloading, you should right-click the file, go to properties and click unblock.*
* If you do not see an 'unblock' option you can ignore this step.
- Then, right click the file and run as administrator.
- It will not affect your database, settings, etc.


If you continue to have problems, please reproduce the problem and send your HM2Logs folder with a detailed description of what you were doing and what problems you were experiencing, with a link to this thread and your forum name.


Fozzy71
Customer Support[/QUOTE]

You can try removing McAfee temporarily:

1) Uninstall any 3rd party security software (even windows defender or security essentials) bundles and dont reinstall them until after you reconnect postgresql.
2) Reboot your computer
3) Uninstall HM2* and then Reinstall HM2 - http://www.holdemmanager.com/downloa...er_2_Setup.exe
- After downloading, you should right-click the file, go to properties and click unblock.*
* If you do not see an 'unblock' option you can ignore this step.
- Then, right click the file and run as administrator.
4) Enable Windows Firewall's recommended settings through your Control Panel, turn off Windows Defender (unless you are using Windows 10, in which case it should be enabled), and add firewall exceptions for HM and SQL - http://hm2faq.holdemmanager.com/ques...rewall%29#MSES
5) Install Microsoft Security Essentials (unless you are using Windows 10) for antivirus/malware protection and update it - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14210

*This will not affect your database, settings or original hands in your archive folder.


And/Or you can try the following. If none of it helps make sure you send us the logs as instructed at the end of my previous reply, and again at the end of the following reply:

Please try a clean install of HM2. This will preserve your database and backup your HUD and settings.

1) Export any custom HUD configs.
2) Open the HM2 > HUD Settings > HUD Designer menu > Click 'Reset' > [x] All Configs > OK

Step 1 – Restore Default Settings:
First try restoring your default settings, often some settings files can become corrupt and cause these issues.

Step 2 – Uninstall and reinstall HM2 with Revo uninstaller:
Other times critical system files may not have been installed on previous updates and it can also cause these types of errors or in some cases antiviruses may have removed files that it mistook for unsafe. Doing a revo uninstall also removes old registry file information which might have become corrupt. You can download the free version here and there is a useful tutorial how to use it here.

Uninstall Holdem Manager 2 via Revo unistaller and then reinstall this version.

Please add this file to your firewall and antivirus exceptions and run it as Administrator.

Step 3 – Follow the steps in this FAQ.

Step 4: If the default settings work, please use the FAQ in step 1 to restore your settings and test them. If the problems then return you will need to reset your settings to default again and use those going forward.

If you continue to have problems, please duplicate the issue and send us log files with a detailed description of what you were doing and what problems you were experiencing:
- Open Windows Event Viewer's (Control Panel > System & Security > Administrative Tools or Start > Search > 'Event Viewer') > Windows Logs > Applications.
- Check for any errors and send the information (Save All Events As...).
- Please send your \HM2Logs folder files as well.

When sending any files please zip them (right-click > send to > compressed folder) before attaching them to an email. If the attachment is larger than 10MB please upload them to a file hosting site like dropbox, then right-click > 'copy public link' and paste the download link directly into the support ticket email. If you have any problems with dropbox try using filedropper.com

Fozzy71
Customer Support

When will you get HUD working on pokerstars.es, they implemented the new graphic settings. HUD isn't working but hands get imported to database.

You have to disable the new beta graphics engine until our developers have time to add support for it. They did not give us any advanced notice about, or access to, their new beta graphics engine so we couldn't support it in advance.


Try to turn off the PokerStars - Settings - Table Appearance - Table Graphics: [ ] 'Enable the new PokerStars Graphics Engine' option if your poker client has that option. Also disable the Table Appearance - Table Display - [ ] 'Display Seasonal Themes' option. Our developers will have to try adding beta HM2 support for this new beta graphics engine once it is available in all of the PokerStars.com and PokerStars.xx skins. For now you need to leave it disabled and use the legacy/original graphics engine in the PokerStars client.


If you continue to have problems:


Please follow the instructions in this FAQ and reply back with the answers to the 12 questions in that FAQ. Those answers should help us quickly identify your issue, skipping questions will just mean we have to ask again in the next email and will delay the resolution of the issue.

Please enable the Settings > Feature Logging > [x] 'HUDStats' and 'FastPoker' option and increase the Max number of log files option to 10 so old logs are saved with date/time stamps. You can also enable this before you launch HM2 from the Start Menu.

Please reproduce the problem and:
- Attach a screenshot of the table/desktop
- Try to include the Active Sessions tab and/or Sessions Report that also includes your windows clock and poker client lobby clock in the screen shot
- Attach a copy of the original Hand history for the table with the issue*
- Close HM2 and send your HM2Logs folder with a detailed description of what you were doing and what problems you were experiencing.

* All original hands that are auto-imported get moved to an archive for performance reasons. Your \HM2Archive is in C:\HM2Archive by default, but you may have put it anywhere. The archive should be organized by \Month\DayOfMonth (example: D:\HM2Archive\2009\07\31) or if it was auto-imported with 7283+ it would be in \HM2Archive\SiteName\YYYY\MM\DD. It is configured in the Site Setup - Auto Import Folders menu.

With all the above information we should be able to narrow down what is causing the issue. If all the information is not included we will need to email you again to request it.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Thanks, managed to disable the new stuff and it works just fine now.

2 things

1) under the Oppenent > player analysis > where you select the target player, it says i have 372992 players to choose from. is there anyway to mass delete them? I play on ignition so i dont know who they are.

2) this question might not be your area but for studying the population tendencies, is there anyway to select everyone as the target player?

The Aurora Graphics Engine for stars should be supported in the next HM2 Beta.



1 - No. The only thing you could do to get rid of a player is delete all his hands, but all the hands you played vs him would be gone also. In HM3 Beta there is a setting you can toggle on/off to hide anonymous players in the player select menu


Here it is disabled:





And enabled:








2 - If you want to create an alias with a lot of villains you can do it via PGAdmin as explained here or via the new NoteCaddy Premium Aliases feature that creates an alias based on a color definition but please be aware that it can be very resource intensive to link all villains to an alias so you should have a powerful computer with lots of ram if attempting this. This technique can also cause erroneous results if some of the villain's you aliased together have played hands against each other. An alias is designed to join 2 or more hero screen names that would not have played against each other so while this is possible to do it is not something we officially support or recommend.

If you are using NC you can do the aggregate percentages much more quickly than by making an alias.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Is there HUD designer stats for: fold to delay delay cbet OOP?

Hello, is HEM2 working properly on the Microgaming network at the moment? I heard that the new softwear is not supported by HEM, what about the old one?

Did you actually mean to type 'delay' twice? Please ask your question again in more detail. Please explain the actions and street(s) in full detail so I can see if we have such a stat.


All of their restrictions are on our FAQ - https://hm2faq.holdemmanager.com/que...gaming+-+Prima

We do not support the new 'Prima' software as it does not write hand history files. We can not support cash game hands on their previous software because the HH files are incomplete.



Fozzy71
Customer Support

Our QA/Testing Manager seemed to understand your question and said HM2 doesn't have it but HM3 does:



Fozzy71
Customer Support

So basically for 6max cashgames it does not matter if new or old softwear, HEM2 does not work right? :/

Correct, but you can use an older version of HM2 to import the hands and see the HUD with their old software but many/most of the stats will be wildly skewed which makes the HUD stats rather useless IMO.

They are no longer writing hands from the point you don't contribute to the pot so we can no longer support these cash game hands - http://www.mpn.poker/blog/closing-a-few-loopholes/

Microgaming has made a decision to not provide cash game customers with all hand histories for games they are seated in. They also stopped writing anonymous hand history files but we never supported a HUD on those tables. Even though a Microgaming cash game player has posted blinds for the round, they will now only provide customers with a hand history if the customer directly contributed to a pot. We are no longer importing Microgaming cash game hand histories because many stats are significantly skewed as a result of the Microgaming decision to not provide hand histories on all cash game hands. We will continue to support Microgaming tournaments as all players are provided with complete hand histories.

See this forum thread/post for more details about these changes -http://forums.holdemmanager.com/showthread.php?t=536230&p=2485729&viewfull=1#post2 485729

There are links in the above forum post if you want to roll back to be able to import these hands but the stats in the HUD/Reports will be inaccurate which could cause you to make bad decisions at the tables. If you continue to have problems importing with the older versions please tell us the software version of your poker client as some customers have reported that microgaming is no longer saving any cash hands so they may now be rolling out changes to completely block trackers/huds on cash tables.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Is there a thread on 2+2, or somewhere else, discussing HEM 3? I just got a message on hem 2 to check out hem 3 and it would be nice to see what's being discussed, if it will be worth it, etc.

No, and we do not have any HM3 forums on our site yet. We will open some forums on our site after it is out of private beta testing. For now we prefer all feedback be sent via the software. There is one big HM3 thread on our forums but it is in the RU sub-forum so you would probably have to use google to translate the thread.


Here is the WHAT'S NEW WITH HM3? FAQ on our site and you can browse the rest of the FAQs if you would like. Other than that the best way to see what it's like to install it. Anyone with a HM2 license can participate in the private beta. I have personally been using HM3 for over 2.5 years. I only use HM2 (or PT4) if I have to use it for comparing HM3 behaviors or issues.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Thanks for the answers

for the past couple days ive been trying to open hold um manager and it keeps saying it is already running. but its not. any suggestions?? thanksss

If you continue to have problems, please reproduce the problem and send your HM2Logs folder with a detailed description of what you were doing and what problems you were experiencing, with a link to this thread and your forum name.


Fozzy71
Customer Support

Is there anything that can be done with the new Stars client?

What problems are you having?



If you haven't updated HM2 to the beta you have to disable the new Aurora Graphics Engine Beta feature they introduced recently:

Try to turn off the PokerStars - Settings - Table Appearance - Table Graphics: [ ] 'Enable the new PokerStars Graphics Engine' option if your poker client has that option.



Or update to the new beta we posted on our forums which added support for Aurora:


Please update to the latest beta version - https://www.holdemmanager.com/Downlo...pdate_8629.exe

- After downloading, you should right-click the file, go to properties and click unblock.*
* If you do not see an 'unblock' option you can ignore this step.
- Then, right click the file and run as administrator.


If none of that helps:


Please follow the instructions in this FAQ and reply back with the answers to the 12 questions in that FAQ. Those answers should help us quickly identify your issue, skipping questions will just mean we have to ask again in the next email and will delay the resolution of the issue.

Please enable the Settings > Feature Logging > [x] 'HUDStats' and 'FastPoker' option and increase the Max number of log files option to 10 so old logs are saved with date/time stamps. You can also enable this before you launch HM2 from the Start Menu.

Please reproduce the problem and:
- Attach a screenshot of the table/desktop
- Try to include the Active Sessions tab and/or Sessions Report that also includes your windows clock and poker client lobby clock in the screen shot
- Attach a copy of the original Hand history for the table with the issue*
- Close HM2 and send your HM2Logs folder with a detailed description of what you were doing and what problems you were experiencing.

* All original hands that are auto-imported get moved to an archive for performance reasons. Your \HM2Archive is in C:\HM2Archive by default, but you may have put it anywhere. The archive should be organized by \Month\DayOfMonth (example: D:\HM2Archive\2009\07\31) or if it was auto-imported with 7283+ it would be in \HM2Archive\SiteName\YYYY\MM\DD. It is configured in the Site Setup - Auto Import Folders menu.

With all the above information we should be able to narrow down what is causing the issue. If all the information is not included we will need to email you again to request it.


Fozzy71
Customer Support