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Heads Up Display (HUD) For Rush Poker

A custom HUD designed for Full Tilt’s Rush Poker? I think it makes sense to have one, and I’ve put together this article to walk you through what’s in my HUD when I play Rush NL 6-max.

Files for loading the HUD into Hold’em Manager (along with the files for the custom pop-ups) are linked at the end of the article.

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Jump to the download links.

To be honest, you could probably use your standard NLHE HUD and get along just fine in Rush Poker, but there are enough small differences between Rush and standard NL that it’s probably worth tweaking your HUD just a bit. This article focuses on a HUD for 6-max NL, but the core concepts extend to full ring as well.

Why Have a Custom HUD for Rush Poker?

I think there’s one main reason: Unlike standard NLHE, you don’t really develop a history with your opponents, and most of the history you do develop is focused on preflop and flop confrontations. Because Rush tends to play shallower and a bit nittier in general, turn and river play tends to be a good deal more straightforward, and people are a bit more likely to be making plays preflop and on the flop than on later streets (which is true for standard poker as well, just even more so for Rush).

How Should a Rush Poker HUD Differ?

The answer’s pretty loudly suggested by the two reasons above. Namely, a Rush Poker HUD should focus more on preflop and flop play, and worry less (in fact, very little indeed) about turn and river play.

There’s only so much space on your screen for stats, and something’s got to give. I argue that you just don’t get into too many sticky spots on the turn and river in Rush Poker and that, even if you did, it would be really difficult to acquire a large enough sample size to feel confident about making a decision based on those stats.

The HUD in this article is also designed with the belief that Rush requires a more streamlined HUD than a standard NL game. With new opponents appearing every hand (and with the HUD sometimes taking a second or two to update), you just don’t have the time to re-scan a ton of stats each time a new name appears. The same concept applies to pop-ups – in a standard game, your HUD use is more efficient because you can familiarize yourself with the details of your opponent’s history during game down-time or over the course of multiple confrontations. In Rush, you need the big picture, and you need it right away.

There are also custom pop-ups for this HUD; they’re noted in the description and the files are provided at the end of the article. A pop-up is a window that appears with additional information when you hover over a specific stat on your HUD.

Specifications for a Rush Poker HUD

Here’s what the HUD looks like in action:

A note about color-coding: The colors run red, yellow and green depending on how likely aggression (on your part) is likely to win you the pot. Green’s best, red’s worse and yellow’s … not bad. You should adjust the color ranges based on your experiences, and regard the defaults provided as starting points only.

As always, this HUD is a work in progress (as all HUDS should be). Feel free to leave comments and criticisms in the comments.

The First Line:

• Name: Easy enough.
• Number of hands: Hard to tell if a stat’s valid without a sample size. Some stats converge pretty quickly (50 hands is a reasonable starting point for basic VPIP and PFR stats); others can take much longer. I color code so that the number shows purple if the sample, just as a quick reference to know if looking at the rest of the HUD is even useful.
• VPIP (Voluntarily put money in the pot): Still a great measure of a player’s overall looseness and, when compared to the PFR stat, passivity.

Pretty standard first line. This line uses the standard HEM pop-ups for these stats.

The Second Line:

• Preflop Raise: The first critical stat for determining whether you should call, fold or raise when faced with a preflop raise. The numbers in the parenthetical are PFR from under the gun and PFR from the button, respectively. That way you get a quick, efficient snapshot of whether a player is aggressive from all seats or weights their aggression more heavily toward the later seats (the latter also providing a clue that the player is likely to at least be a competent player who is aware of position). It’s good to know that a player raising under the gun raises 25% of the time preflop; it’s better to know that they only raise UTG about 7% and have skewed their average by making the majority of their raises in the later seats.
• Fold to Three Bet: Some people are more likely to abandon a pre-flop raise in Rush than in standard poker. Unfortunately, not all are. This stat gives you awesome insight into whether you should consider playing aggressively preflop versus a habitual preflop raiser or perhaps be more selective in your attempts. For example, let’s say you’ve got an opponent who’s raising UTG about 20% of the time. You’re in the BB and they raise again. You want to three-bet, and can make a case for doing so profitably, but your life will be much easier if you attempt the bet against an opponent with a F3 of 70 or so, as opposed to opponents who are defending their raises more than half the time (those opponents you can abuse when you’re in position and can maneuver better post-flop).
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  Boost your read by using the four-bet stat on the next line in conjunction with this stat.

This line uses the standard pre-flop pop-ups that come with HEM.

The Third Line

• Three Bet: The amount of times they three bet. Again, the parenthetical breaks things down quickly by position. Why three numbers? It’s probably a matter of preference, but I believe that people allow themselves to be far more habitual about where they three bet from than they are with some other common actions. I also think the three bet stat out of context is a pretty dangerous thing when you’re considering playing back light (as you’re going to have to do from time to time if you’re active in late position, or, in some games, even if you’re aren’t). Most people, for example, feel a lot more comfortable three betting from the big blind than the small blind because they get to close the action; some people hate three-betting out of position, and so on.
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  Having this stat handy can let you know not only whether you should be opening light preflop. A sea of green to your left means fire away; lots of red means tighten up. This stat also works well in conjunction with the steal stats on the next link.

• Four Bet: This one’s not color coded only because it can be tough to get a good sample size, but even at a small sample size it can aid the predictive power of the Fold to Three Bet stat (it’s a good tiebreaker for players who you’re on the fence about re-raising light). At a larger sample size, it obviously gives you great insight into who you should play for stacks preflop with hands like nines and AQ and who you should focus on playing smaller pots preflop with.

This line uses a custom pop-up that details only three bet-related stats called RUSHThreeBet.

The Fourth Line

• Fold to Steal: FTS is when players fold to an opening raise coming from the CO, Button or SB. This stat is a little redundant in the face of the Three Bet and VPIP stats above, but since 6-max in general (and Rush 6-max specifically) has you challenging the blinds from these seats, it’s a nice number to have in order to get a fuller perspective on the merits of a late position steal attempt. It’s also a nice number to have when you want to quickly ID folks who are apt to select the ‘Quick Fold’ button, as they often have very high FTS numbers.
• Steal: How often your opponent attempts to steal. The numbers in the parenthetical are they amount they attempt to steal from the button and the SB, respectively. Again, these stats may seem redundant in the face of the PFR stats, but they provide a much clearer picture of whether or not playing back light is going to be a winning proposition or a steady leak. They also allow you to quickly ID people who are looking to take advantage of other player’s propensities to use the ‘Quick Fold’ button in the blinds.
• Squeeze: A squeeze just always looks bluffy. This stat is to help you resist the temptation to play back at a squeezer based on nothing more than the fact that they’re squeezing. Rush opponents tend to meld into a single opponent after a bit, and it can seem like everyone’s squeezing every time you flat. The reality is that they aren’t (check your overall opponent stats), but it’s frustrating when you can’t tell who’s who.
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  This stat also allows you to gauge when calling with a hand you feel comfortable shoving with preflop against a loose opponent is a better strategy than re-raising. Let’s say you have tens on the CO and UTG+1 raises 3x. You have two players behind you with high squeeze numbers. If you flat and they squeeze, there will be 6BBs plus their raise, which will probably be 13-16BBs. You can safely play for stacks (assuming the original raiser folds) against the squeezer, because the amount of times you’ll win the pot uncontested plus the times you’ll win when they do call outweigh (in most conditions) the times you’ll lose.

  Because of the above, the color-coding for squeezing goes against the color-coding for other three bets. Lower numbers get reds to alert you that the squeeze you’re considering playing back at probably isn’t as bluffy as you think.

This line uses the standard HEM pop-up for the Steal stats and a custom one (RUSHsqueeze) for Squeeze stats.

The Fifth Line
They can’t all be preflop, right?

• Flop Continuation Bet: It’s a post-flop stat but it also helps you make better decisions preflop. If you have an opponent, for example, with a high preflop raise and a low fold to three bet along with a low flop continuation bet, you can consider flatting and taking the pot on the flop as opposed to three-betting. Primarily, however, the stat gives you an idea of how strong an opponent’s range is when they’re continuing after raising preflop, helping you call, raise and fold more appropriately based on the tendencies of individual opponents
• Fold Continuation Bet to Raise: A stat that offers support for the FCB stat above. If you can find an opponent wit high numbers for both, add them to your buddy list pronto.
• Fold to Continuation Bet: You can get a general idea of an opponent’s passivity from other stats, but when you have a decent sample size (this one converges pretty quickly as far as post-flop stats go) this stat is a very accurate barometer of weakness. Again, if you can find an opponent with a high VPIP, a low three-bet and a high FCB, add them to your buddy list.

This lines uses two custom pop-ups: RUSHcbetasPFR for Flop CB and Fold CB to Raise, and RUSHcbetvsPFR for Fold to CB.

Download Rush Poker HUD Files

Hopefully you’ll find this HUD useful for Rush. It’s a pretty standard HUD in a lot of ways, but I think the tweaks and adjustments make it uniquely streamlined and useful for Rush. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions in the comments below.

Rush Poker HUD ZIP (includes all pop-ups and .xml config file for HUD).

Rush Poker HUD config file only.

To install, simply paste the files into the config file of Holdem Manager (typically located at Program Files >> RVG Software >> Holdem Manager >> Config).

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