I heard soem coaches say you dont need a hud for 5nl, but is this true?

Depends how many tables you want to play.

You may as well get familial with a HUD at 5NL because you'll need one as you climb.

It's free information that you cannot track without being a savant.

Use it, get used to it.

if you want to spend time playing live i wouldn't use a hud

Whenever this comes up in BQ (and it comes up a lot) people immediately focus on the pros and cons of hud use.

Often that misses the most important point. HUDs are part of the package of HM and PT, which more importantly include all the tools you need to record and analyse your online play.

If you are not using a HUD based package like HM or PT, you must be using something to track and analyse your hands and that seems inefficient to me.

If you are not tracking and analysing your hands, you are just a rec, so w/e.

I agree that if you are using online to train for live it's best to go hudless to better creat live conditions, but then I would play on a hudless site, so its a level playing field.

Playing on stars hudless even at 5 nl is conceding a real edge to the opposition.

Interestingly I play hudless on stars at 5nl on my phone, but that's purely for training/recreation for me when I'm killing time away from my PC. I would never play hudless at 25 or 50 nlz

I use a HUD online and also play live. No reason why not. Using a HUD makes you consider ranges, that kind of thinking translates to live play perfectly well. Pretty much anyone who can beat online cash at any level at all has the skills to beat 1/2 live, the people who can’t make the transition fail for meta reasons.

Edit

Trying to create live conditions online anyway is not possible. Much more important to learn how to play poker and adjust to live via direct experience.

I have tried to use HUD on stars for 5nl and I didn't like it because I have never used that kind of programs before and it was kind of confusing. I play 6 tables and used Jivaro. I understand that at some point if I climb up the stakes I have to use hud, but maybe then I will invest in something better like HM2 or PK4.

Sample sizes at 5nl can be a problem. Relying on stats with too small a sample size can be more of a hindrance than a help.

I don't understand the logic. He said nothing about playing live, he asked a specific question about playing with a HUD online...

If you can use a HUD, always use a HUD. It's like asking if you should ever check raise in poker. Sure, you can handicap yourself and play with one hand tied behind your back, but you'd be silly to do that.

Take every edge you can, you're going to need it.

ok thanks for all the answers. Im using the hud now but have it only show after 1k hands on villain. is that too many or how many hands do I need until I can rely on the stats?

Show straight away.

Stats vary wildly in their reliability. If someone has 100 VPIP over 8 hands, chances are they are a huge fish. Conversely river bet/fold stats are going to take a long ass time to converge.

Over 50 hands, you get some idea of VPIP/PFR but again it’s the outliers than you are getting more reliable information on.

I set mine to show at 20 hands. That's when VPIP/PFR starts to become reliable. 100+ hands minimum for other basic stats, 3bet, cbet. 500+ for some and 1000+ for 4bet, river stats etc. The more infrequently they occur, the more hands you need.