26 May 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players EV exploit fish GTO MDA ranges reg winrate 1. Modern schools and billions of hands for analysis Today, there are a wide variety of poker schools, stables, and foundations, and their number is constantly growing. This Hand2Note feature is one of the main weapons of regs from top schools. They have entire departments of analysts who work not on the game itself, but on the field: they build filters, compare them with GTO, find deviations and turn them into strategies. These 'invisible' coaches don’t teach exploitation — they create strategies to exploit. And then they spread these findings through charts, hints, preflops, and even the subconscious of players. If you don't do that, you are playing by their rules. They train thousands of players who win millions of dollars. Each of them is taught by experienced coaches who share knowledge about solvers, strategy, discipline, psychology, and game selection. But this is not limited to just that. They analyze the playing fields — literally all the players at all limits. What for? So that their students can exploit you as effectively as possible. Yes, it's you. The more you play, the more data they collect about you, and the easier it becomes to play against you. Coaches spend hours studying the bases: your lines, ranges, frequencies, check raises, showdowns. They find your leaks, deviations from the GTO, bluff habits, value patterns - everything. But what if I played strictly according to the GTO? Have you tried memorizing GTO? Even players at the highest stakes make mistakes. 2. Opening Hand2note What do I need to do on this "Statistics" tab to start exploiting the field? - First of all, finish reading the article. Are you perhaps wondering why you should use Range Research? - Want a clearer view? What if your opponents have even more problems and mistakes than you do? Yes, this tab may not be helpful without knowledge of poker, but with knowledge… An example of the correct usage pattern is: Poker knowledge - you can find poker information anywhere, and there is a lot of it available on other websites Database - you can use your own database, or at the very least, purchase mining. Statistics - you can use the dafault hand2note popup profile, create your own popup or purchase a commercial package created by a professional developer. Leak and possible exploit search - comparing ranges with GTO or another strategy In-game use Let's take a look at the updates from Hand2note: Open the “Statistics” tab Click on the player's nickname or “Alias” Switch to the ”Multiple Players” tab Check your game type Setting up filters Okey, so here comes the tricky part: which filters should we use?It's not easy to figure out — especially when you're using mining and don't know your opponents. It's hard to tell who is really a regular.Filters or stats values for determining regulars depend on a wide range of factors, such as: Poker Room Rake Size Discipline Table Size Ante Presence Pots Bomb Presence Number of hands Field Complexity Yes, almost all of these points affect the range of players and thus make the task more complicated. What statistics and percentages should I use to ensure that the filter is accurate? ✨You can buy Hand2Note subscription with 10% discount using our GETCOACH promo code 3. Begin to Analyze To fully utilize this tab, we need stats. Where to get stats: Create them yourself — any stat, any quantity, texture, or sizing Purchase a ready-made popup (recently, the selection has become very diverse and prices are gradually decreasing) If you are a member of a school or foundation, ask if they have ready-made solutions Okey, so I have figured out where to get the stats and how to use them for analysis. But here’s the catch. Analysis is a comparison; to be more precise - the search for deviations between the first and the second. The first is our own data — the stat values from our database. The second is GTO, or another strategy that is optimal for your game type and your limit. And if you are not familiar with the GTO or a good strategy, I'm afraid your analysis won't provide much benefit. Let's look at one of the most popular spots. Example: BTN vs BB - SRP - CBet Flop The stat value is 59% How do you evaluate the stat value? Does this player use the correct bet sizes and selects textures for value and bluffs? On the one hand, the value is lower than GTO (GTO = 64-68). However, on the other hand, using a single stat, we cannot obtain many important data: Opening range with BTN What are the bluff and value balances in this line? What is the range of BB vs BTN protection for your field? Which sizing does player use for bluffing and value? But these data have a significant impact on our CBet on the flop: A person can have a wide preflop range There might have been an outlier of variance and most of the hands for this spot landed on low flops (where CBet is made less often) The field's BB defense may be narrow, making the range stronger Other players may check-raise more frequently, and this player exploiting the field himself One tab alone will not make you a pro player, you still need a wide range of other knowledge. So let's keep exploring. A small example of analysis: Let’s enhance our analysis using Hand2note’s features. First, let's take a look at the value of couple more stats. Open Raise from BTN is 63% - that’s a huge number. We can widen our 3Bet and Cold Call ranges. With such Open Raise, it's too hard to have CBet value around GTO, so the difference in values doesn't seem that big anymore. Let’s take a look at hand distribution and the bet sizes used: A bet size of 1/2 (50%) is very bluffy, we should play check-raise more often with vulnerable hands - 2nd or 3rd pair, add gutshots and draws. And don't forget to take more strong hands to check-call - two pairs, top pair+ The 1/3 (33%) and 1/4 (25%) bet sizes are often used too frequently with medium-strength hands. These lines include many low and middle pairs and suffer from poor check balance. They also show the highest fold rates versus check-raises. Fold vs. Check-raise: 64% and 59% - while GTO value is 40–44%. Yes, we’re trying to expand our check-raise range here too. The 3/4 bet size (75%) is very polar, here we see Top Pair + or air, after this size he rarely folds against a check raise. We will try to play the check-raise in a more polar way, choosing hands with more equity - Top Pair, Top Kicker and strong draws You can fold 2nd or 3rd pair more often without runners or when dopers can complete a straight. (Flop T93 and we have JT) Even a simple analysis like this can help us identify a small exploit against the opponent. And so you can study not only individual players, but also entire groups of people who use similar strategies. Let’s explore what can help you unlock Hand2note’s full potential - and what you need to know to make your analysis more precise. 1. Solver (calculator): Solvers are programs that process and calculate millions of possible scenarios to determine whether the player's actions would be correct in each situation. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, no one could have imagined that computers would become such a valuable tool, and even more so in the world of poker. At that time, even the most advanced machines could only make such calculations after thousands and thousands of hours. We all remember what could be purchased at that time. However, technology is constantly evolving, and today, an ordinary smartphone is capable of supporting and calculating. Solvers perform an unrealistic amount of calculations to find and present you with a situation close to GTO (Game Theory Optimal, theory of optimal play). The program analyzes a wide range of scenarios - including bet sizes, stacks, and ranges - to determine which actions are optimal and least exploitable. Therefore, the best way to get maximum benefit from the statistics tab and field analysis is to start working on the solver in parallel, this way, you will not only start learning and mastering the ideal strategy, knowledge that will certainly help you in poker, especially at high stakes, but you will be able to compare your field frequencies with the GTO strategy and identify any mistakes or leaks. 2. Regulars: There are differences between solvers. But is spending hundreds - even thousands of hours analyzing ranges, EV differences, and solving countless hands in simulators the only way to find opponent weaknesses? Of course not! The second option for using Hand2note is much simpler - just study how the regulars play. That sounds nice and easy. But how can I actually do it? Let's start by determining who is the regular. If you've played for a long time, you probably know all the toughest opponents by sight and can easily identify them by their nicknames and know who is the "thunderstorm" and "headache” on your limit. That's great, but do you have enough hands to analyze it? Analysis requires precision and sampling, and the larger the sample, the more accurate the study. If you have collected 5-10-20 top players from your limits and you have accumulated 50-100-200 thousand hands, okay, but let's be honest - this is still very little. Don’t forget that your regulars may use very different styles and strategies of the game, so combining their hands into one filter might confuse your analysis. Be extremely careful. It is best to study players with similar playing styles and analyze each group separately. Therefore, mining is the researcher's best friend here more than ever! Thanks to mining, you can gain a lot more hands on your main opponents, which will increase the selection and give you more opportunities to divide them into different groups. 3. The coaches: A great way to do things properly! You can always find a coach or a more experienced and knowledgeable player among your friends or acquaintances and ask for help. Many coaches have worked with database analysis multiple times and consider it one of the strengths of their expertise. Yes, choosing a good and experienced coach can be challenging. Here are some simple tips that may help you in your search: Try searching for websites where the coach offers services — this may also indicate that they’re active in the poker community. Find reviews and recommendations on various forums. Coaches often have personal blogs, branches, and topics where you can find a lot of information. There may be information about the quality of the training from former and current students, their methods of teaching, and analysis. You might also find a large number of hand analyses and databases, as well as graphics with the history of their games. Look, maybe he has a channel on YouTube or other platforms, where he makes various reviews or live recordings of the game, read the comments from the audience. Try writing and asking more questions before the training session, and observe how he interacts with you and approaches teaching. Be careful when considering packages - many coaches offer training packages at once, for 5-10 hours, which can seem cheaper, but if you're not happy with the coach or he don't have enough experience, you may struggle to get a refund. Therefore, consider taking 1-2 individual lessons first, and then, if necessary, a package, this is a more reliable option. There is a section on our website with trainers who can help you. You just need to open the relevant tab and find the one that can assist you with your issues today. 4. Popup with GTO: You can even buy a Popup with preloaded GTO values — so you’ll see the differences instantly, without any extra setup. There are more and more such packages now, and their prices continue to decrease. Here is one of the popular examples from the official Hand2note store. An example is the popular Cash HUD “Breakthrough” with over 6k stats are color ranges by frequency depending on GTO and regs pool analysis. Here you can see stats in four colors: Yellow = GTO Red = Too passive Green = Too aggressive Blue = stats without ready-made GTO ranges Additionally, gray numbers show GTO ranges next to the stats — allowing you to spot differences and deviations beyond just color coding. You can see that the field has been filtered and there are 300 regs in the database. Most of the stats have excellent values (yellow), but there are also red and green ones. When analyzing with such a popup, start with the most basic and frequent lines - those are exactly the stats you should focus on first. Buying a ready-made Popup is a fast and efficient option — start studying and using it in Hand2note at an affordable price. And sometimes they can add EV bb/100 stats with a discount as in “Breakthrough” 4. Starting to Filter Nailed it! You’ve nailed it! You’ve already collected a few hundred stats and enough hands to analyze, .and you’ve gathered ideal values that let you group players and start analyzing your field.. What's next? I'll tell you how to use them now. We’ve already opened the “Statistics” → “Multiple players” tab. Now it’s time to add the values. Here we have two filter options: Base stats Additional stats Hopefully, everyone understands base stats - the additional ones are where things usually get tricky. Additional stats - here you can use any stat that is available in your config. In Hand2note 3.0, there was a problem - the stat had to be in an active popup, and a database had to be built for it. Then, in Hand2note 4.1, when we rebuilt the database, all of your statis were filled in with your hands and thus, you can always select one or more of them. The main thing to note is that they were created before the reconstruction. A huge advantage for a lot of players is a new feature – we can now use stats without having to write out expressions. Oh, yes! I understand very well how much you dislike expressions! 1. Additional stats Click on the "Add Stat..." button and search for the stat by name — or browse manually. Do you already know the name of the stat? You can try typing it in — and if you're lucky and the developer gave it a clear name, you'll find it quickly. However, it is better not to take the risk and simply open the editor: For example, let’s say you want to use this stat: BTN vs BB, SRP Raiser IP, CBet on the Flop. Hopefully, you’ve at least located it in your popups? 2. How to find the desired stat Popup Editor Select the required profile Find the correct tab where this stat is located Find the stat itself Right-click on the stat and select “Edit stat” The stat editor opens If the stat is not from a finished product, you can click on the name and then click "Rename" to copy the name If, like me, you have a locked stat, the "Rename" button will not be available and here we have two ways to get the name. 3. How to get a stat name Just memorize the exact name or note it down somewhere convenient, then copy it using Ctrl+C. Clone the stat — H2N will create an exact copy with a name field that you can edit. It's not the most user-friendly, but it works. Hand2note creates a duplicate with the same name as the original stat, but with the number "1" added at the end. Copy the name (without the “1”) using Ctrl+C, then rename the cloned stat to something like “123” - so you don’t accidentally use it later. You can then delete these stats using the "Delete Unused Stats" function to keep your configuration and database clean. 4. Use the stat to filter the database Now let's go back to our “Statistics” and insert the name into the search bar. The first stat in the list should closely match the name. Feel free to choose it. Now we need to decide what to use. There are several options — to select one, click on “Value, %”. Value % — Stat values in percentage Hits — How many times the player has performed this action (old Cases) Sample — How many times the player could play this action (old Opp) Vs User Hits — How many times the player performed this action and the Hero was in hand (old Cases) vs User Sample — How many opportunities the player had to play this action and the Hero was in hand (old Opp) Won Hands — How many times did the player took the pot after this action Won At Showdown Hands — How many times did the player win the pot at showdown after this action Went At Showdown Hands — How many times did the player reach the showdown after this action AmountWon bbs — What is the profit in bb after this action Action Profit — What is the Action Profit in bb after this action AmountWonEV bbs — What is the profit in EV bb after this action Add filters for the stat value. Every time you change the stat values, Hand2note will instantly show you the number of players and the total number of hands in the database that match the filter. How to remove or add a filter When you hover over the edge of the filter, two buttons will appear: "-" and "+" After clicking the plus sign, another form will appear. There, you can choose between “AND” or “OR”, depending on whether players must match both filters or just one. In this way, you can select a wide range of stats, set your values for filters, and group players you need for future analysis. 5. Excluding players from filters You always have the option to remove a person from the report if you think they do not belong in this group. Just right-click on the player and select “Ignore Player”. Once excluded, information about the player will appear above, and their row will become faded. 6. Selecting multiple players If you want to view several players at once, instead of creating a separate alias, you can simply click through the desired nicknames, and the report will be built only for them. 7. The filtering method from Hand2note 3.0 for dinosaurs For experienced users, Hand2note still supports the old format for writing expressions. Just click the “Textual Mode” button. Here, we can use pre-built formulas from Hand2Note, the main thing is that you already know how to get the names of stats, the rest is just a matter of a few seconds. Just 500–1000 characters of code, and you've recreated everything we just did. 5. Creating an "Alias" or a report Updates are great, but there’s something even more important. Finally, by popular demand, we now have the ability to save an Alias containing selected players! Yes, you heard that right — no more typing in thousands of nicknames like a madman. Just press a few buttons. The developers made life easier by letting us save filtered players as an Alias — which you can reuse later or access in the “Reports” tab. Yes, of course, the older option to save a built report has also been provided. 1. Save the Report If your saved reports panel is hidden, and your report is already created and highlighted, right-click on “new dashboard” and choose “Rename”. Now, you can always turn it on and avoid having to redo all the filters, which will allow you to save a variety of reports for different groups of players and enjoy analyzing them. 2. “Alias” Just click on the "Settings" icon on the right and then select the "Edit Alias" option. Enter the name and click “ОК” Now, by clicking on the Alias or the nickname of a player and selecting a single player, you get the opportunity to select this "Alias" at any time. You can also use “Alias” to study in the “Reports” tab 6. Comparison: You're against Regs You just killed it! You’ve already sorted your hands and picked five groups of regs. Now let’s see how their game differs from yours — especially where you’re losing your most valuable blinds! Go to the “Reports” tab, select your nickname and open the popup. Next to Hand2note, open the "Statistics" tab and play the game "Find More Differences"! Small monitors won’t help here — but at least you remembered to zoom out! In your popup, extended popup on the stat will open in small separate windows — just like in Hand2note 3.0. Meanwhile, in the "Statistics" tab, all popups open on the right side of the screen. Try comparing one group of regulars with another. Open the report as a popup to compare two or more reports with each other Click on the settings icon and choose “Open As Popup” Create another dashboard Select a different alias or use new filters to filter the database again and open your popup Open the dashboard as a popup Repeat the process for the other dashboard, compare and find the differences between the two groups of regs, people, use it as you want You're almost at the finish line, just a little bit left. All that's left is to climb Mount Everest only with hands, unlocking stat after stat, board after board, size after size, and you're on top! 7. Are you being exploited? Hand2note provides a great feature to help you answer this question. Show all “vsHero” stats if the sample size is large enough. You can configure the display of two possible values: Playing against the field + game “vsHero” Only the “vsHero” game How to enable this option: Show the value of “vsHero” in parentheses, next to the normal value, if the selection of “vsHero” is greater than … Replace the usual stat value with the “vsHero” value if the “vsHero” sample is greater than … When this option is enabled, all underlined stats will show only “vsHero” values. To disable either value, simply enter 999999 — even in large databases, this will prevent the stats from showing due to insufficient samples. 8. Additional settings Use these settings to: Show one decimal if the stat value is lower than 1, 10, or 100 (usually set to 10 for better precision) Show 99 if stat value equals 100 (helps save space and reduces popup size) Add a leading zero to single-digit stats (to align the columns and ensure all stats show two digits) Shorten amounts (hands, winrates, sample size — works for the “Statistics” and “Reports” tabs) Sample font size (it will help you select a universal size, making it easier to work in popups) Sample font color (adjust it to improve readability and match your popup design) Show stat sample when it's below a threshold (helps determine the reliability and frequency of the stat) Make the stat transparent if its sample is lower than (so, in order to avoid paying attention to stats with a small sample) Stat opacity in case of small sample (0 — not visible at all, 1 — always visible) Show stat sample in parentheses 9. Exclude "Reg vs Fish" statistics from display Many players love this feature. Others are just now learning about it — and only a few know what it can do in Hand2note 4.1. Why do we need this? You know very well that regulars play differently when facing fish, rarely using GTO or other optimal strategies, and more often using exploits. For this reason, the hands of "VIPs" can spoil the accuracy of the statistics of regular players due to the difference in strategies. Example: BTN vs BB — SRP — CBet on the Flop GTO = 64-68% But against the "Vip", the regular can either reduce or increase this frequency, as it will depend heavily on which fish they are facing, who likes calling or, alternatively, raises more often, whether he likes to bluff checks. And then, the regular's usual stat in Popup can be significantly shifted in any direction. To avoid this during analysis and debriefing, players can activate the "Exclude Reg vs VIP Statistics" option. With this, when calculating the stat value, only hands that were played by regulars are taken into account. After enabling the option, be sure to rebuild all statistics. It only works for the "Statistics" tab and for opening a Popup through the "Reports" tab. How does Hand2note determine who is a regular? There are only two options in Hand2note for defining which players in the database are regular A player is marked as a regular if they match the filters you've set under Game Types. Here are two options: you can use multiple filters to match all of them, or you can just take into account the number of hands per player in the database. If a player has passed all the first ones, or just scored the required number of hands, Hand2note will mark him as “Reg” and will take this into account in all future scenarios with him. If you manually change the player's label You can do this by opening a Popup on the player or in the HUD at the table. It is enough to find the square color label and hover your mouse over it to change the color. By default, when you first open Hand2note, you will have two marks: Red — Regular Green — Fish The color labels can be easily customized and changed in the settings. After selecting the settings for "Game Types", Hand2note will automatically put the first top-down labels "Reg" and "Fish" on the regulars Mark the regulars using our own filters: You have already learned how to create an “Alias” of regulars using different values of specific stats in the "Statistics" tab, and you can make one or more specific group of regs. This allows you to bypass the default settings in "Game Types" and use any stats from your "Config" to define regs. You have already created Alias from the regs for different groups, you can check if they exist or not. If not, open the fifth section of this article. Now, we need to make all the players in the database “VIPs”. Open the “Game Types” and change the values for regulars. Just set up such filters so that no player becomes a regular in Hand2note's eyes. Go to “Reports”, open our “Alias" and open the Popup And just change the “Alias” label to the regular label Now, you can open the list of players and see that some of them will be green and some will be red. Only players from the current “Alias” are now marked as regulars. If you have other Aliases with different types of regulars, repeat the instructions as needed. All that remains is to rebuild the statistics, and all the stat values will be considered only by the "Regular vs VIP” hands. You can also look at your stats, how you play against the regulars and find more accurate errors. And when you watch other regulars or “Alias” with regulars, you will see their stats only against regs. In the future, you can create an "Alias" with "VIPs" and repeat the process, marking them as regulars and then, after rebuilding the statistics, you will only see the stat values against “VIPs”. Conclusion and recommendations You're one step closer to Phil Ivey! Or maybe more than one — you’ve got the fishing rod, now it’s time to catch the fish! Now, you can not only look at your opponents' VPIP-PFR at the table, but you can also find their dirty laundry. And more importantly, you can poke it with a stick and see what happens. Don’t forget: always analyze several stats together — that’s how you’ll get the real picture of the field. And as the icing on the cake, version 4.1 handles all these tasks with ease. Put the two versions of Hand2Note side by side — version 4.1 runs like a jet, while the old one now feels more like a prop plane. It will take other trackers years to design something similar. Add the site to your favorites so you don’t miss the juicy updates in the “Reports” tab.
