09 Mar 2024 HUD The important statistics to include in your Spin&Go poker HUD are those that can help narrow down your opponent's playing style and implement quick adaptations. Here, we will share our perspective on this matter. What is a poker HUD? HUD (stands for Head-Up Display) is a tool presented in the form of tables that organize information about players (ourselves or opponents) based on the hands played. It fills in automatically according to the applied settings. Technically, there are infinite possibilities for customization! HUDs work with trackers (software that tracks and stores hands). The tracker allows various functionalities, generally offering features such as the replayer and balance monitoring through figures and curves. Some trackers are more comprehensive, providing the ability for mass data analysis (MDA) or range research based on specific criteria. The most important stats in Spins HUD The key to using your HUD effectively is to feel comfortable with it and have a clear understanding of the included statistics. A good HUD should convey as much information as possible, covering both preflop and postflop with strategic distinctions based on stack depths. Given the limited number of positions and depths, it is advisable for the Spin&Go format to employ a more detailed HUD compared to other formats. It is also preferable to have separate HUDs for 3-way and heads-up scenarios. General information General information provides all the relevant details about a situation; it does not involve numbers and remains constant throughout the gameplay. Nickname and number of hands It may seem logical, but to associate specific numbers with each player, you need their nickname! On the other hand, the number of hands serves as an indicator of the reliability of stats. Position It is important to differentiate stats by position as only certain positions are relevant. For example, we don't need to know how the player to our right reacts in SB to a raise from the BU since we will never be in BU and he is in SB simultaneously. In BU we want to know how the player in SB and the player in BB react to a limp or raise; In SB we want to know if BU raises or limps a lot and when he doesn't we want to know how the BB reacts to the different options we have; In BB we want to have information on how opponents in BU and SB play to formulate the best response to their actions. Streets and stack depth Once the stats are detailed by position, we can further differentiate them by street: flop, turn, and river. Stack depth is also crucial when interpreting stats. The more detailed we differentiate stats by stack depth, the more precise our data will be. Be cautious and use the effective depth; for instance, in heads-up if one player goes all-in for 12 bb but the other has only 6 bb, the effective depth is 6 bb. Preflop statistics Preflop is played in every hand, making it the most important part of the HUD that fills up the fastest and which the information will be the most reliable. Openings There are two main types of preflop openings: Open-limps. Just call to 1 bb Open-raises. In form of MR (Min-raise: 2x), BR (Big Raise: more than 2x) and OS (Open Shove: all-in). This stat indicates how often a player initially raises preflop. Folds after opening The Limp/Fold and Raise/Fold indicate how often the opponent will fold his hand when facing a raise or re-raise. This information can incentives us to be more or less aggressive against an opponent who does not sufficiently protect his ranges by being unbalanced. Response to aggression Fold vs Raise, 3-bet or re-raise, Call, COS (Call Open Shove) tell us how our opponent behaves against different openings. Once again, possible imbalances of opponents can encourage us to change the way we play our hands. Postflop statistics Postflop scenarios occur less frequently, but this aspect of the game should not be neglected, as pots quickly grow larger, and differences in equity can become even more significant. Every inaccurate postflop move can potentially have a higher impact on your EV in the long run. Continuation bet (Cbets) The continuation bet, referred to as Cbet, represents the frequency with which a player continues to bet on different streets as a preflop-raiser. This number is a good indicator of a villain's aggressiveness. Cbet response There are three possible stats here: Fold vs Cbet, Call and Raise the Cbet. These responses directly impact our decision to bet or not when we have the initiative in a hand. Donk-bets The donk bet (referred to as Dk) indicates how frequently a player takes over the lead on a street when they are not the one with the initiative. This stat does matter, as many regular players overlook this move, which is still present at a low frequency in GTO. Adapt your strategy based on statistics Seeing statistics is good, but not enough. You have to adapt with the information recovered to set up an exploitative game. There are some very easy and intuitive adaptations to get started: If an opponent has a VPIP that is too high, simply raise him at a higher frequency than normal to punish his weak hands (VPIP too high = range too wide); If an opponent folds too many hands on the flop against CBet, it is advisable to continue betting more often. Conversely, if he defends too much through XR (check-raise), we must unbalance our CBet range in the other direction to make it stronger. Statistics themselves provide clues about the play of our opponents, but be careful to take a comprehensive look when cross-referencing the information to avoid errors! Which tracker to use in Spin & Go? There are many trackers on the market with even more HUDs! Some trackers are more oriented towards MTT, others towards Spin or cash game formats. We recommend Hand2Note or PokerTracker4. These two trackers offer HUDs for sale on their site, but also the possibility of creating your own. Hand2Note Hand2Note is arguably the most comprehensive tracker for a Spin & Go grinder currently. Its main advantages include: the ability to display observed ranges of opponents by hovering over the stats with the mouse; the Range Research function, which allows exploration of global statistics on a particular field. PokerTracker 4 PokerTracker 4 is not very expensive, highly comprehensive and is very precise. It has minimal bugs when importing hands, ensuring accurate figures on results. Source: spinelite.fr