Disadvantages of a Poker HUD

Disadvantages of Using a HUD in Poker?

A HUD (heads up display) has become a very popular tool used by experienced low-high stakes online poker players and it plays a big part of their strategy. Getting extra "reads" on opponents, finding their hand ranges and equity in most hands will get you a long way. However, many people who multi-table online rely heavily on these tools; and new players think they can just fork out on a product like Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager and it will turn their game around overnight.

There are several disadvantages to using a HUD in poker:

1) A HUD costs money . Almost every poker tracking software that I'm aware of has a one week free trial to hook users into their product. However, once this trial is over the product has a $ 90 + activation fee. Poker-Edge's high stakes version will set you back over $ 300 for a single year's use. When used properly, these tools are extremely helpful for experienced players regularly seeing action. New players, however, will not get to see the full extent of these products nor will it increase their profits by that much.

2) Lack of Stats for New Players. Most poker tracking software, poker-edge aside, requires an import of hand history to analyze and make use of. You need at least hundreds of hands worth of history to be able to use reliable stats in the heads up display (500 hands + for 3bet% stats). The worst part is that a lot of new players are unaware of this and end up playing bad because of their skewed stats on opponents' playing styles.

3) Over-Reliance on Key HUD Stats. "Stats junkies" and multi-tablers play a game that is heavily reliant on stats and figures. Not only does this remove the fun, traditional element of the game, but it can also limit your development as you progress up the stakes.

4) Some HUDs are Illegal. There are a proportion of poker tracking software tools that are banned by major poker sites. Getting used using these means your account could probably be closed and all of your wins or deposits are revoked by the poker room. Poker-Edge for instance is strictly forbidden by PokerStars because it uses a central database rather than an upload of your own hand history. I do not think this is too bad myself considering you can still buy hand histories from sites like pokerhand.org or hand-histories.com and plug them into "legal" tools such as HM and PO5. However, it's a big risk and poker rooms can change their terms and conditions any time nowdays.

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Source by Adam G Robert