This Advanced HUD User Guide is intended for users who wish to customize their HUD to provide an optimal playing experience. This guide assumes that you already know how to use the default HUD Profile. For information on the use of the default HUD Profile, please see the Basic HUD User Guide.
PokerTracker 4
v4.0.x
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Overview
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Configuring Your HUD
To customize your HUD go to Hud from the main menu and make your selection.
Edit Hud Profiles: From here you can customize everything in your HUD Profile including stats, layouts, colors, and pop ups.
Edit Hud Options: The HUD options allow you to automate the Profile Selection which determines how a HUD Profile should be assigned when a specific table, game or poker room is selected. Additionally under the General Settings heading you can define HUD filters, the database used by the HUD, and other HUD display options. The options available under General Settings are applied to all HUD Profiles.
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Configuring HUD Profiles
When you select Edit Hud Profiles the Hud Profile Editor window appears. This window has a tremendous number of options, so let's review each aspect below:
- Here you can select the HUD profile that you wish to customize.
- This brings up options such as importing, exporting, and duplicating HUD profiles.
- These page selection buttons allow you to choose which aspect of the HUD profile you wish to customize. The options include table groups, popup groups, or positional popups.
- Here you can choose which HUD Group you wish to edit. You can also add, delete, import, and export groups.
- This area allows you to edit group properties and/or assign Popup Groups to an existing Group.
- This is a list of all the group components including stats in the selected group.
- Customize all aspects of the selected HUD component, including including color ranges, text, alignment, and position (for stats).
- This is the area where stats and HUD components can be re-aranged simply using a drag and drop interface.
- Here you can see a simulation of what the HUD Group looks like, updated on the fly as changes are made in the drag and drop editor, or the item properties.
The HUD is defined by a profile, this is a collection of HUD groups which contain various components that are displayed within the HUD. Each named profile is either a Cash or a Tournament profile, and can only be used on the appropriate type of table. You can have as many different profiles as you'd like and each profile is configured independently, so it can contain different sets of statistics and/or different layouts on the table.
Tip: You can choose which profile to use on each individual table by clicking the PT-Icon and choosing Change Profile at any time.
Tip: To change which Profile is used as the default for the table type you are currently seated at, select Change Profile from the PT-icon menu then Make Active Profile Default for Table Type. You can have separate default Profiles for each site and table size combination, this will be automatically reflected in the Hud Profile Select interface.
In the Hud Profile Editor window you can only work with one HUD Profile at a time. You can select the HUD you want to work with by selecting it from the drop-down menu (image on the left). You can also click the Options button to create a new profile, delete a profile, import/export, etc. (image on the right).
The options are:
- New Profile: Creates a new empty profile. You can name the new profile and choose whether it is a Cash or a Tournament profile.
- Duplicate Profile: Makes a copy of the current profile. You can name the new profile and choose whether it is a Cash or Tournament profile.
NOTE: If the new profile is of a different type to the one being copied (e.g you duplicate an existing Cash profile into a new Tournament profile) the full layout will be copied across including all statistic names, but any statistics which do not already exist will not be created. So, for example, if you have any custom stats in your cash profile and you duplicate it to a tournament profile you will need to recreate them in the tournament section.
- Rename Profile: Allows you to rename the current profile.
- Delete Profile: Deletes the current profile. This cannot be undone, so please ensure that you are deleting the correct profile.
- Import Profile: Creates a new profile from a profile file generated when you or another PokerTracker user Exported a profile. You may also download profiles which have been shared by other users in the Customization Warehouse. Any Custom Statistics stored in the HUD Profile will be imported automatically.
- Export Profile: Writes the current profile to a file which you can share with other PokerTracker users or keep as a backup. Exported profiles include all Custom Statistics used by the profile, so the exported file is all that is needed for another user to share your HUD Profile.
- Replace Current with Default: Replaces the layout within the current Profile with the default profile you select, including all popup groups, table groups, or positional popups included within the default selected.
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Configuring HUD Groups
Each statistic box shown on the HUD is called an On Table HUD Group, you can configure these groups by choosing the group in the upper right hand side of the HUD Profile Editor. A Group can contain any number of stats and can be arranged on one or more lines. You can have as many different groups as you like but be aware that excessive use of groups may hamper performance of your HUD. The creation of unique HUD groups allows you to separate different elements of the HUD and place them where you like on the poker table.
All Groups are configured in the same way, regardless if the group is used for display on the table (for everyone, everyone but hero, hero only, or as table averages), or as a pop up.
In the above example we have selected a HUD Profile with 2 groups, 'Player Stats' and 'Table Stats'. We can also add a new group by clicking New Group, or delete the selected group by clicking Delete. You can also import or export a group by clicking the button that looks like a hard disk.
On the right you see the basic properties of the selected group. Here you can rename the group, decide how the group is shown on the table (for Everyone, Everyone but Hero, Hero Only), the stat separator, background color.
You can also set the opacity of the group and whether the group is displayed with lower opacity until you mouse over it. To enable this change the Display Type to 'Lower Opacity Until Mouse Over', and to define the lower opacity level go to Hud > Edit Hud Options > General Settings > Advanced (see below).
You can also decide to arrange your stats in a grid, which is used to align stats into columns like a spreadsheet. The images below show normal on the left and with grid mode selected on the right.
You can Assign Popups to a group by clicking the tab. Here you can add, edit, and delete the popups for the selected group. The information for each popup can be customized by going to the Popup Groups page, which will be discussed later in this guide.
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Group Items
The Group Items section gives you the list of each stat or HUD component in your current group. By selecting a stat from the Group Items and choosing the Item Properties tab you can see lots of information about the selected stat.
From here you can customize the display of the stat, the position at the table the stat will display (or all positions), and for post flop stats you can also choose to display data exclusivly when the player is in or out of postition:
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To change the font used, select the Font field, click on the
button and select the appropriate font styles and sizing in the dialog box. You can also expand the font section by clicking the + icon to the left, and change any property individually. If you want to copy your font settings to another stat, select all the text in the font section and press CTRL-C (Win) or CMD-C (Mac) then switch to another stat, select the font section to highlight all the text and press CTRL-V (Win) or CMD-V (Mac). -
To change the foreground or background color of this specific stat, click the button and select a color.
- If you set Transparent Background to True then the background color of the statistic will not be shown and the Group's background color will instead be shown. In the event you place two or more stats together that have this property set to true, then the background will be consistent between the stats without any gaps.
- The Decimals property defines how many decimal places will be shown for numeric stats.
- If you set Show Times/Opportunities to True then the statistic will be displayed with the number of occurrences and opportunities as well as the percentage. E.g. 20% (2/10)
- The Prefix property allows you to enter text which will be shown before the stat value. For example, If you enter "PFR:", your stat would look like this in the HUD: "PFR:25".
- The Suffix property allows you to enter text which will be shown after the stat.
- The Alignment (Grid Only) property specifies whether the stat (and prefix/suffix text) will be aligned to the left, center or right of the cell if you are using Grid layout for this group. This does not affect "Normal" layout groups because there is no excess space to align within.
- Position filters the data displayed by the stat to the position at the table selected. You can select from All Positions, Small Blind (SB) or Big Blind (BB), Early (EP), Middle (MP), Cutoff or Button. If you choose Early (EP), for instance, then data for the stat will be shown only from hands the player played from early position.
- Has Position filters the data display by the stat to either 'in position' or 'out of position' for postflop stats.
- You can also decide which, if any, popup is used for the selected stat. You have the ability to assign popups to either a stat or a group in PokerTracker 4, this provides tremendous flexibility in HUD design.
If desired, you can also add color ranges for the selected stat. To do so, click the Color Ranges tab and add/edit/delete. You may also save the color range below or use a previously saved color range.
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To change the font used, select the Font field, click on the
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Configuring HUD Stats
The bottom half of the HUD Profile Editor is the most fun aspect of customizing your HUD, you have the freedom to move any stat to any location within the HUD group just by dragging and dropping, as well as adding or deleting the stats to your liking. And best yet, you can see exactly what your HUD looks like with the preview on the right. The Drag and Drop editor will reflect the HUD group chosen in the top left hand side of the window.
Let's first start with how to add components to the HUD Group. Click the plus button to the right of any line (or right click a stat and click Add Item). Here is what each option does:
- Add Statistic: Add any built-in or custom stats to the current HUD profile.
- Add Text: Here you can add any text (for instance, a custom separator or label) into your HUD.
- Add Note Editor: Add the PokerTracker 4 free-form note editor into your HUD.
- Add Horizontal Separator Line: This will add a separator between two HUD lines, it is used to add organizational flare to your HUD Group design.
- Add New Line: Click this to add a new line to your HUD.
To add a stat just click Add Statistic to bring up the stat menu. From here you can search for stats by categories or use the search to find any stats you wish to add. Once you've selected your stat click OK.
Once added, you organize the stat(s) in the stat layout. You can do this by clicking and dragging the stat to another location. You can also move stats by right clicking a stat and choosing which way you want to move it. Each time you move a stat you can preview the HUD layout on the right.
It should also be noted that you can easily delete stats. The first way to do this is to right-click the stat you wish to erase from your HUD and choose Delete Item. You can also delete an entire line of stats by clicking the minus sign at the end of the line and selecting Delete Line.
Once you're done click OK to save your changes.
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Configuring Popups
PokerTracker 4 allows you to edit both HUDs and popups. To edit a popup, select the Popup Groups page along the top right.
The window will look very similar to the Table Groups page, but with different groups and predefined stats. You can still add new groups and delete groups, import and export, and also change the properties of groups and stats. To change the properties of an item just select it and make your changes on the right.
You can also edit the stats/layout of the HUD below the same way you did in the Table Groups page. Any changes made can be previewed in the preview window on the right side.
Once created, click OK to save your changes.
To use your new Popup in the Hud you need to link it to an on-table group so that PT4 knows when to display it - see Assign Popups earlier in this guide, or set the Popup property for an individual stat in an on-table group.
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Positional Popups
PokerTracker 4 also allows users to create popups using a simplified creation method which automatically populates the stat for each position, you may find this method is is more efficient for creating preflop HUD popups because all positions are automated. To do this, click the Positional Popups page in the top right corner.
This window is very similar to both the Table Groups and Popup Groups pages. You can add/delete groups, import/export, and also change which positions should be shown. To begin adding stats to your positional popup, click Add Stat in the bottom left corner.
You can also click the Convert to Freeform button to make your current popup available for edit in the Popup Groups page, this will allow the use of the drag and drop interface.
Once you've created your positional popup you can apply it to any table or popup group, or alternativly you can apply this popup directly to any stat. To do so, click the selected stat(s), go to the Item Properties -> Popup and select it from the dropdown. In this example the positional popup created was Popup Group 9.
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HUD Options
You can define your HUD's behavior by clicking Hud -> Edit Hud Options from the main menu.
This will bring up the Hud Options Configuration window which has two pages, General Settings and Profile Select.
Let's first review General Settings.
From here you can change a wide range of HUD settings.
On the General tab you can define filters which restrict the data the Hud displays based on the current table you're playing.
You can change the Minimum Hands Required before your HUD displays for a player, whether the stats are from only the current cash stake or current bet type that you are playing ("bet type" means no limit, pot limit or fixed limit; cash and tournaments, and holdem and omaha, stats are always separate), and whether to display Session Stats for Tooltips as well as lifetime data.
Stats from the last X hands causes the Hud to only display data from the most recent number of hands you define. Note that this option prevents use of the database cache which will slow stat retrieval down significantly in large databases.
Instead we recommend using the Stats from the last X weeks option; this causes the Hud to shown only recent data while still allowing the cache to be used to maintain optimum performance.The Number of Players Filtered setting is used to filter the HUD data based on the number of players currently seated at the table.
Here you define the minimum and maximum number of players in each range, and the Hud will show stats from previous hands with that many players whenever the current number of players is within that range.
The first range which matches the current number of players is used. For example if you have ranges 6-10 then 5-6 then if there are currently 6 players at your table it will display stats from previous hands where there were between 6 and 10 players; if there are are currently 5 players at your table then it will display stats from hands where there were between 5 and 6 players involved.The Mucked Cards section defines whether the board cards and player cards will be displayed when a hand goes to showdown, how long for and how translucent they will be, and whether equities are displayed for known hole cards.
Tournament Stacks filters allow you to restrict data shown in the Hud for tournaments to hands a player previously played with similar stack sizes. 'Player Stack' defines the player's current stack and 'Show Hands With' defines which stack sizes to retrieve data for.
For example, if you select the 3-15BB range for player stacks 5-10BB then whenever a player has a stack between 5 and 10BB it will display data based on previous hands where they had a stack between 3 and 15BB.Refresh Rates allows you to define how often the Hud updates custom stat values. This setting was introduced before custom stats could be cached to reduce delays caused by updating custom stat data too often. Now that custom stats can be cached this isn't normally needed, and should only be used if you have a significant number of uncached custom stats and a large database and are seeing delays in Hud updates.
On the Advanced tab you can set less frequently used options.
Change your Read From Databases settings if you want the Hud to display data from more than one database.
In the Hud Display Options section you can restrict how large note tooltips will be and whether or not note colors display a border around the stat group as well as the note icon.
Allow Translucency and Allow Vector Scaling should both be turned on for full Hud functionality.
If you disable Allow Translucency the Hud will always be solid - this can help performance on some weaker computers but should not be necessary on modern systems.
Allow Vector Scaling causes the Hud to scale as you make the table window bigger or smaller; turning it off will cause the Hud to display at a fixed size and may be useful if you need a very precise layout in a lot of small table windows for example.Allow Table Selection Tool to Appear When Necessary will cause the table selection Hud overlay to appear when there are multiple table windows of the same type and PokerTracker cannot automatically determine which table is associated with which hand history. This does not affect many sites; just a few cases where tournament numbers do not match between the hand history and the table window for example.
Group Display Type is a unique feature in PokerTracker 4 that will allow you to lower the opacity of a Table Group unless the mouse is hovering over the selected group.
This feature is very helpful when playing on tables where there is little room to display the HUD table groups without blocking some information at the poker table.
Set the opacity for this feature using the Lower Opacity To setting, and then enable the option in the Hud Profile Editor for each Group where you want it to apply using the Display Type setting in Group Properties as shown below.
The Profile Select page allows you to tell PokerTracker 4 when certain HUD profiles should be used.
First select either cash games ($) or tournaments (T) along the top, and make any changes using the drop-down menus to select a profile and restict which types of tables that profile will be used for.
Once you've made all of your changes, click Add and your preference will show below in the Active Profile Definitions list below.To use just the same HUD profile for any/all situations select the profile and change every option to ANY, click Add, and make sure it's the only Active Profile Definition.
If you set a profile to be the default for a table type from the PT4 HUD Icon menu, then the preference will be automatically populated in this window as well.
Once you've made all of your changes, click OK to save your selected options.
