In 2019 partypoker stopped letting players download their hand histories. The decision sounded technical, but its effect was simple: without those files, HUD software had nothing to read, and tracking opponents on the site ended overnight. Partypoker presented it as a move to protect recreational players, and it was one of the clearest signs that online operators were rethinking how much information regulars should have about the people they play against.
That debate is still going on. Some sites allow heads-up displays and publish lists of approved tools. Others ban them outright, and a few have built their own versions into the poker client. If you play online, the first thing to check is which group your site falls into.
What a poker HUD does
A HUD sits on top of the poker table and shows numbers next to each opponent’s seat. Behind it is a database. Every time you play a hand, the poker client writes a hand-history file, and tracking software imports it. Over hundreds or thousands of hands, a picture of each opponent forms.
The most common statistics are easy to read once you know what they measure.
Swipe the table
| Stat | What it measures | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| VPIP | How often a player voluntarily puts money in before the flop | High numbers point to a loose player |
| PFR | How often a player raises before the flop | A big gap from VPIP means lots of calling |
| 3-Bet | How often a player re-raises a preflop raise | Aggression before the flop |
| Fold to C-Bet | How often a player folds to a continuation bet on the flop | How easily they give up |
A player with a VPIP of 45 and a PFR of 8, for example, calls a lot and rarely takes the lead. Those numbers become reliable only after a large sample, which is one reason HUDs favor regulars who play many hours over recreational players who drop in for a session.
Most trackers also let you add notes and color tags to players, and those notes stay in the database from one session to the next. Some players rely on them more than on the numbers: a short note saying an opponent always bets the river when checked to is easier to use in the moment than a percentage. On sites that ban HUDs, the poker client’s own note feature is usually still available, so the habit of writing short, specific notes carries over.
The main HUD tools
PokerTracker 4
PokerTracker 4 is one of the longest-established trackers. It imports hands, builds the database, and adds a customizable HUD and detailed reports on your own results by position, stake and game type. It supports hold’em and Omaha, and many players use it mainly as a database for reviewing their own play.
Hold’em Manager 3
Hold’em Manager 3, usually called HM3, is the current version of the other classic tracker. It offers a similar mix of HUD, reports and hand replayer, with a focus on speed when importing large databases. Players who started with Hold’em Manager 2 often moved across to it.
Hand2Note
Hand2Note became popular with high-volume players because of its detailed pop-ups and dynamic HUDs, which change the stats shown depending on the situation in the hand. It is regarded as the most configurable of the three and also the hardest to set up.
Poker sites where HUDs are allowed
Sites that permit HUDs usually say so in a published list of permitted and prohibited software. PokerStars has long maintained such a list, and for many years it treated standard trackers such as PokerTracker 4 and Hold’em Manager 3 as permitted, subject to the conditions on that page. The details matter. A site may allow a tracker while banning add-ons that share data between users or that suggest decisions.
Because these lists are updated, the safest habit is to check the current version on the site before installing anything, even if you have used the same software there before.
Poker sites without HUDs
Several of the largest operators now run without third-party HUDs. As of mid-2026, GGPoker prohibits them and offers its own statistics through PokerCraft, its built-in tool for reviewing your sessions. Partypoker’s 2019 change removed the files HUDs depend on. Ignition, which serves US players, uses anonymous tables, so there is no stable screen name to track in the first place.
For regulars, the practical effect of a ban is that everyone starts from the same information when a new opponent sits down. A recreational player who joins a table is no longer facing opponents who already know their tendencies from thousands of earlier hands. The argument for these policies is that HUDs give experienced players a large edge over casual ones, who rarely know the software exists. The argument against is that HUDs only summarize information any attentive player could note by hand. Both sides agree on one thing: tools that work out the right decision during a hand, such as poker solvers run during play, are a different matter.
Safety measures: fair play and security
The “safety” side of HUDs runs in two directions: what sites do to protect the games, and what players should do to protect themselves.
On the site side, game-integrity teams look for bots, collusion and real-time assistance (RTA), the use of solver software during play. GGPoker has publicly reported closing accounts and returning funds to affected players after RTA and bot investigations. Many sites also prohibit seat-selection scripts that automatically find weak players, and data mining, which means buying or sharing hand histories from hands you did not play.
Players can take a few basic precautions. Download trackers only from the developers’ own websites, since cracked versions are a known source of malware. Keep your database backed up and private, since it contains a full record of your play. Turn on two-factor authentication on your poker account where it is offered. If you are unsure what a term like VPIP or RTA means in a site’s rules, the poker terms glossary is a quick reference.
Rake, not HUD policy, is the other big factor in where serious players choose to play, and it varies just as widely between operators, as the comparison of rake structures shows. On a site without HUDs, the only statistics on the screen are the ones you collect yourself, one hand at a time.