I want to start using a HUD, any advice?

I feel like I am at a huge disadvantage not using a HUD even playing 25nl. But I'm not really sure which stats I need, or even what some of them mean.

I've looked around here and other places but can't find a really concise guide for doing this. If someone could explain to me some of what the stats mean, and what you look for at a table that would help me a bunch, or even a link to somewhere that explains this?

Thanks!

If you have no clue what stats are important, then us telling you will not help. Everyone here has different numbers on their hud based on what they are looking at at this moment in time.

What I can tell you is that the big 4 are already on the hud when you get it, and they are the most important. It is what the highest stakes players use as well as the rest of us.

VP$P/PFR%/AF/Total hands. Use these and use Pokerstove and you will be well ahead of the curve already.

VP$P = voluntarily put money in pot. this is whenever they call/raise/complete SB preflop

PFR% = what % of hands did they raise preflop with

AF = aggression factor. i cant tell you too much about this one because i'm not sure of it, but i heard somewhere if the AF is < 2, then the player generally has what he represents when he bets

total hands = yeah. total hands.

so when looking at a hud (poker tracker 3 is good) then you will see something like this under a player's name

10/5/4.0 (70)

^ VP$P/PFR%/AF/Total Hands

He has played 10% of his hands.
He has raised preflop with 5% of his hands (he has raised half of the time hes played preflop)
AF hopefully someone else can explain.
Total hands is the # of hands you have recorded for that player. A bigger number means the stats are more reliable because the HUD has been on that player for many hands

The ones I use a lot
# of hands: So you know how reliable the other numbers are and can spot people who likely play a lot.
VP$IP: How loose they play
PFR: How often they limp or call instead of raising or re-raising.
AS: How often they open in late position. How positionally aware they are.
FS: How often they defend. Against people who don't defend much I will widen my steal range. Against people who feel the need to defend very loose I narrow it.
3-bet PF: How often they re-raise pre-flop.

I don't think much of Aggression Factor. There are other stats that give better direct answers to the questions that AF is supposed to solve.

Even though I only play 3 tables, a HuD is huge for me because it gives me an objective way to evaluate someone's stats. It gives me comfort to see someone 3-bet twice in a row then see a low 3-bet % because it's more likely they just caught hands and aren't playing back at me. So I save a lot of money by not making the wrong adjustments.

I use this it's in a nice simple list and fairly comprehensive.

http://tinyurl.com/6qxwes