Why it’s important to use tracking software and HUD when playing online poker?

Using tracking software when playing online poker gives you the opportunity to not only study your play in detail, but also to study your opponents. This software saves every hand you play and stores it in its database, so you can always check how you played couple months ago, and compare it to how you’re doing this month. You can see all the stats you desire and relive every single hand you ever played.

HUD or heads-up display which comes with those trackers allows you to see your opponent’s stats while playing, so you don’t really have to pay so much attention any more. You can just take a peek at the HUD and you know immediately how many hands he plays (VPP), how often he opens (PFR), 3-bets, c-bets, and so on.

It allows you to multitable, instead of focusing on a single table, you can play as many tables as you can handle. There are people who play 50 tables at once and you can do that too, but for that you will need additional software like TableNinja.

Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager?

Two of the most known tracking software are Poker Tracker and Holdem Manager. I have used both and I can tell you it’s simply a matter of preference. Some people will like Poker Tracker more, some will be more happy with Holdem Manager.

It only starts to matter as your database becomes larger. When you’ve played 500 thousand hands, Poker Tracker will work more smoothly for you. It won’t crash as often as well. That’s because PT is just lighter on system resources.

When it comes to navigation, they both have a very intuitive interface, but in my opinion Holdem Manager is way easier to get to know very well. Setting up either won’t be a problem as they both have great tutorials on everything. I think it’s best to just try out both and stick with the one you like the most. They both offer a 30-day free trial, so you’ll have plenty of testing opportunities.

Poker Tracker

Poker Tracker is my personal favourite. I kind of like its retro interface.

The HUD is great and it’s easy to set up your own with stats that are important to you.

There are a lot of additional options, which can give you some important insights into your game.

Holdem Manager

Holdem Manager is not so retro, but I like its modern design.

Setting up your own HUD is even more intuitive than in Poker Tracker.

There are lots of options to analyse yours and your opponents’ play as well.

All in all I would say that Holdem Manager is the more intuitive tracker and if you’re new to tracking software, it might be best to start with it.

But by all means try them both out and decide for yourself, which one works best for you!

Is it Poker Tracker?

or Holdem Manager?