What's in Your HUD with BobaFett

Today, we're talking with a Scottish poker player, Paul "BobaFett" McTaggart, about how he utilizes his HUD. McTaggart has over $1 million in online and live tournament cashes according to PocketFives and the Hendon Mob. A few weeks ago, he won the major tournaments on 888 Poker and PokerStars.fr for about $50,000 combined.

PokerSoftware: What poker HUD are you currently using?

BobaFett: I am currently using Holdem Manager 2.

PokerSoftware: How long have you been using HM2? Were you using anything else before that?

BobaFett: I was a little late upgrading to HM2 from HM1, but took the plunge in January. I have been using the HUD regularly for MTTs for about two years now. I alternated between HM and PokerTracker when I learned how to use HUDs when I used to grind STTs and play some cash. The first three years of being an MTT grinder I did not use any HUD software.

PokerSoftware: How do you approach poker differently with a HUD than from before you were using it?

BobaFett: I make a big effort not to be too influenced by the numbers on the screen, so I don't feel I generally approach the game any differently than I would without a HUD. However, if I am put in a spot and don't have notes or history with the villain, then maybe the stats I have on them will nudge my close decisions one way or another.

The HUD also allows me to easily identify people playing abnormally (e.g.. huge VPIP stations, serial limpers) without having to watch every hand at the table. With this information, I can hopefully exploit those players.

PokerSoftware: Can you tell us line by line what is in your HUD?

BobaFett: I designed my HUD almost from scratch. I wanted as few numbers on the screen as possible, with those numbers also easily readable in any situation. I additionally wanted to have the option to access more specific stats if needed, so my HUD has two lines per player. On the top line, I have #BBs/VPIP/PFR. On the bottom line, I have 3b%/Total Post-Flop Aggression.

BBs is in the biggest possible text size, while the other numbers are in the smallest possible size, and every number is color-coded based on I want to interpret each stat. Also, each stat has a pop-up of several more stats related to it. I also have only BBs hovering next to my own stack on each table.

PokerSoftware: What are the most common uses for you to utilize the pop-ups?

BobaFett: The pop-ups I use most are:

- The PFR popup for checking how often they fold their opens to 3bets, how often they peel OOP, and how often they 4bet.

- The 3bet pop-up for checking how often they 3bet/fold.

- Total Post-Flop Aggression pop-up for c-betting tendencies.

They're so important deep in tournaments and can be the difference between saving chips or chipping up in close spots and spewing off a bunch of your stack.

PokerSoftware: We both know a few successful poker players who are adamant against using HUDs. Do you recommend HUDs to any type of player looking to improve their game?

BobaFett: I would recommend them to everyone, from complete beginners to hardened grinders. The information is just too valuable and, if you aren’t using it, your opponents probably are and it gives them an edge. However, I also think it's important to learn to play well without it initially, as I think people easily become too reliant on the stats and their poker ability deteriorates, so if I were to recommend it specifically to a certain type of player, I'd recommend it to experienced grinders looking to go that extra mile to improve their results.

If you are interested in catching up in what BobaFett is up to, you can check him out on Twitter under the handle @BobaFettdozer11.

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