Beat The Bots

The advent of the tracking database, and the heads-up display (HUD), has had a massive effect on online poker over the last few years. If you haven’t heard the term ‘HUD Bot’ before, it’s a derogatory term for an unimaginative player who relies too heavily on their HUD.

The truth is, there are a lot of players who fit this bill and misuse their HUD, particularly in low- and mid-stakes games (up to $2/$4 no-limit). Typically, a HUD bot will be playing a very tight game on more tables than they can really handle, and will therefore have to make quick decisions based on a few simple stats. HUDs have some serious inherent weaknesses that skilled players can exploit while using the straightforwardness of their opponents’ play to maximise profit.

Key Point
Players using HUDs will often be playing on more tables than they can handle and will be making simple decisions based on only a few stats.

The Weaknesses of HUD Stats

When you first started to take poker seriously, you probably learned about the importance of position and the size of the pot. However, a HUD has never learned these lessons, and completely ignores them when it comes to displaying information.

Take a simple and important stat, such as ‘3-Bet %’ (the percentage of the time that a player re-raises before the flop). This stat doesn’t tell you whether the player who three-bet was in second position and re-raised an under-the-gun raise, or whether they were on the button and three-bet after the cut-off opened – there is a huge difference between the two. In fact, if I three-bet every time a player in a steal position raised before the flop, I would end up with a very high three-bet percentage.

Another important stat is ‘C-Bet %’. However, this doesn’t tell you anything about how big the pots were when that player made his continuation bets. In a $2/$4 game, there’s a big difference between c-betting $200 into a $200 pot, and c-betting $10 into a $30 pot.

Over tens of thousands of hands, these differences become less important. However, at the big sites it’s unlikely that your opponents will have that many hands on you. Typically, they might make their decisions based on less than a hundred hands, and that sample size makes the stats even less accurate, even in the unlikely event that they are correctly interpreted.

It should be clear then, that stats taken in isolation, particularly if based on a small number of hands, can be extremely misleading. But it’s what so many players are doing these days, so let’s talk through a few ways to make those stats even more misleading for your opponents!

Online Image Plays

Creating a false impression of how you play is nothing new. People like Mike Caro have written at great length about how to get your opponents to think that you’re a loose, gambling player even though your chips might be nailed to the felt! Sometimes, it can take just one memorable crazy play to totally change your table image.

In a live game, you might worry about your opponents not remembering your ‘image plays’ because they’re not paying attention or they’re not sophisticated enough to understand them. Usually, such a concern is exaggerated on the internet, and I usually advocate straightforward play for this reason. But if you know you’re up against a HUD bot, you can almost guarantee that your image play will be right there, on their screen, next to your name, until they leave.

Because HUD bots tend to be extremely tight, it’s to your advantage to create a loose image that will encourage them to pay you off when you hit a big hand. But how do you create a loose image in the minds of your HUD bot opponents, when they’re probably playing 24 tables and not watching the individual hands? You do it by manipulating the stats that your opponents see to your favour.

Key Point
Players who are over-reliant on HUDs tend to be extremely tight so it can be beneficial to create a loose image so you are paid off when you hit big

Creating Misleading HUD Stats

Let’s look at three scenarios from the same $2/$4 no-limit nine-max ring game online. In all three hands, you are on the button.

Scenario A
It’s folded to the cut-off who raises to $12. You re-raise to $40.

Scenario B
It’s folded to the cut-off who raises to $8. You re-raise to $12.

Scenario C
The under-the-gun player raises to $25. You re-raise to $100.

In all three scenarios, the effect on HUD stats is identical. However, the scenarios are completely different – in scenario B, your range of hands is very wide, while in scenario C you will almost certainly have pocket Aces or Kings. Since we want to create a loose image for ourselves which will help us get paid off in situations like scenario C, we can inflate our ‘3-Bet’ and ‘Aggression Factor’ numbers by being more aggressive in situations like A and B.

For example, we could three-bet every single time the initial raise came from a steal position, and we will have position after the flop. We can also three-bet every time we are on the button and the cut-off raises. Or we can three-bet from the big blind every time the small blind raises. Such an adjustment would be a minor mistake at worst, but might help us get paid off in a really big pot in the future.

In order to manipulate your ‘C-Bet %’. you ideally want to create a high c-bet percentage, but not as high as 100%. If your c-bet percentage is 100%, then many opponents will correctly call your flop bet in order to take the pot away from you on the turn, which stops you from winning the pot when you flop nothing. The correct percentage to aim for is probably around 75%, which strikes a nice balance between letting your opponents fold when you have nothing, and give you action when you have something.

Again, let’s look at three scenarios from a $2/$4 game:

Scenario A
The pot is $30, and you bet $15.

Scenario B
The pot is $30, and you bet $4.

Scenario C
The pot is $200 (there was heavy action pre-flop), and you bet $200.

You can create a high c-bet percentage at relatively low risk by betting more often in situations like scenarios A and B, when the pot is relatively small – let’s say just your initial raise and a single opponent’s call. However, in bigger pots like scenario C you will want to be pretty sure of your hand before making that huge c-bet, so you’ll bet less often. HUD bot opponents won’t know the difference between the situations – they will just see the combined stat which doesn’t accurately represent your actual behaviour.

If you’re feeling bold, there are some even more outrageous ways to exploit HUD bot opponents. For example, you could make a very small continuation bet (say a third of the pot) when you’ve missed the flop, but make a very large bet (perhaps the size of the pot or more) when you’ve hit it. Since the HUD doesn’t know the difference, neither will your opponent, and you’ll be maximising your value when you have the goods while risking little when you don’t. Likewise, you could make very large three-bets when you have the goods, but very small ones when you’re picking off a loose opener. Of course, if you go that far, you’ll need to be very sure that you’re up against a HUD bot, because a regular opponent will quickly turn such a strategy against you!

Being Aware

When you deceive your opponents by creating a false image, you need to be well aware of that image and how it will affect your opponents’ tactics against you. In this case, you should be very aware of the stats you are creating at each table you’re playing, which might mean using a HUD yourself, to follow your own image as well as that of your opponents.

In particular, be very wary of your image over your first few hands at the table. It might be that you currently have a 100% c-bet percentage for example, which means you should probably slow down on the c-bets in upcoming hands as your opponents will be more likely to bluff you.

Conclusion

Some players complain about HUD bots – they see HUDs as an unfair advantage, or are frustrated because they can’t beat players who use them. But like any group of players that focuses too much on one particular aspect of the game, they can be exploited for profit. All it takes is a little imagination.