How to use a HUD on PokerNow

Before you start

You need Chrome on a computer: Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS. It doesn’t run on phones or tablets. It works in No-Limit Hold’em games on pokernow.com (formerly pokernow.club), and you don’t need an account.

Set it up in 5 steps

1. Add it to Chrome

Open PokerNow HUD Advanced on the Chrome Web Store in Chrome on your computer, click Add to Chrome, then Add extension. To keep its icon in view, click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome’s toolbar and pin PokerNow HUD Advanced.

2. Agree to the privacy policy

A window opens with the privacy policy. Read it and click Agree and continue. Nothing is recorded or sent before you agree. If you closed the window, click the extension’s icon in the toolbar, or open a PokerNow game and click Review and agree on the card where the HUD would be.

3. Open a PokerNow game

Open or join any game on pokernow.com. The HUD starts on its own: a small panel beside the table shows that it’s recording, and the first time you open a table it imports the hands played there before you arrived, then shows how many it has. If the game was already open when you installed, the HUD starts there too. Stats are tied to each player’s PokerNow ID, so you’ll recognize regulars at any table.

PokerNow HUD Advanced reads the game log of the tables you open (the same log players see under Log / Ledger), which includes players’ names. It reads it at the start of each hand and on your turn, with a backup read if a minute goes by without one (30 seconds if the table’s live updates go quiet).

4. Read the seat badges

Each player gets a small badge with two numbers: VPIP (voluntarily put money in pot) and PFR (preflop raise). On that player’s turn, or when you click it, the badge opens with 3-bet, aggression factor (AF), went to showdown (WTSD) and the hand count, plus the stats for the spot they’re in: facing their open, for example, their raise first in from that seat, fold to 3-bet and 4-bet.

After 30 hands with a player, the pill also shows their type, such as FISH, NIT or LAG (loose-aggressive). It’s faded until 60 hands, because it can still change. Hover the type for how they play and how to play against them; the stats page explains how the HUD picks a type.

If you’ve tagged the player, your tag sits in a colored chip in front of the numbers.

A gold number is above the typical range, a blue one below, and a faded one has fewer than 12 chances behind it. Hover any number for its definition, sample, typical range and a read, and drag a badge to move it. The stats page explains every stat it tracks.

5. Use the panel on your turn

On your turn, the panel shows the spot (for example, “Facing riverrat’s CO open”) and a random number from 1 to 100 for mixed strategies. Under that come your bet sizes with how often the others fold: after the flop, the chance everyone folds to each size, in the panel’s biggest numbers; before the flop, the chance everyone folds to your open or raise. Then who raises, who check-raises, and who bets if you check.

Click a size and PokerNow’s bet box opens with the amount filled in. The bet only goes in when you confirm it in PokerNow.

Choose your bet sizes and HUD options

Click the extension’s icon in Chrome’s toolbar to open its settings:

• Share mode: for screenshots, the HUD shows seats instead of names and hides your notes, and PokerNow’s name plates, chat and the table owner’s name are blurred. It turns itself off after 6 hours; more under Share a screenshot without names.
• Show the HUD on PokerNow: turns the badges and panel on or off.
• Open a player’s badge on their turn: off keeps badges small until you click them.
• Show a badge for your own seat.
• Mark players you have notes on: a dot on their badge.
• Show player types (Fish, Nit, LAG…): the player’s type on each badge.
• Show reads and shown hands on open badges: with no note of yours, an open badge shows the player’s strongest read or the latest telling hand they showed.
• Bet sizes (% pot): 20, 33, 66 and 133 by default.
• Open sizes (bb): 2.2, 2.5 and 3 big blinds by default.
• 3-bet/4-bet sizes (x raise): 3, 3.5 and 4 times the raise by default. Preflop, a pot-sized raise is offered as well.
• HUD size: Auto (follows PokerNow’s table), 100%, 125% or 150%. Auto, the default, keeps the HUD at 100% up to a 1280 by 800 window and makes it bigger on larger windows, up to 150%; under 1,100 pixels wide it uses compact badges. Anything that would cover PokerNow’s buttons at the size you chose is drawn smaller.
• Stats from: all tables, or this table only.
• Round amounts: tidy (auto), half big blind, whole big blind or exact.

The popup also shows how many players, hands and tables you’ve recorded, and has a button to open the player database.

Take notes and look players up

Click the notes button on an open badge to open the player panel: their type, reads, key stats street by street, how often they open from each seat, your notes and the hands they showed. To add a note, type it in the box under your notes and click Save.

To tag a player, click a tag in the tag row of their player panel, or of their page in the player database; click it again to take it off. New tag makes one, with a name and one of 8 colors, and gives it to the player. Each player has one tag, and it follows them across names and tables. In the player database, the Tags tab lists your tags (you start with Reg, Fish, Whale, Nit, Maniac and Tilter) and lets you make, rename, recolor and delete them, and the player list filters by tag. Tags stay in your browser and aren’t sent to our servers.

A read is a stat that’s clearly outside its typical range, put into words with what to do about it, such as “Overfolds to 3-bets: 3-bet bluff more”. The panel lists up to four, strongest first. On your own badge, they show what other players can use against you.

The hands a player showed are written out street by street, with the telling ones first. These count as telling:

• River bluffs
• Raises on the flop or turn with no made hand
• Light river calls, with no pair or a weak pair
• Big hands slow-played on the flop or turn
• Light 3-bets, 4-bets and 5-bets
• QQ+ or AK limped, or KK+ just called
• Opens far bigger than usual
• Hands shown after the hand

All stats opens that player in the player database, in a new tab; you can also open the database from the toolbar popup. There you can search players by any name they’ve used and see all 139 stats with breakdowns by position, pot type and number of players, plus their type, reads, notes, the hands they showed and recent hands, and the tables you’ve played.

Share a screenshot without names

Turn on share mode in the toolbar popup before you take a screenshot. While it’s on, the HUD calls each player by their seat, such as “Seat 2” (your own seat is “You”), your notes are hidden, and PokerNow’s name plates, chat and the table owner’s name are blurred.

Your tags, player types, numbers and tooltips stay. The HUD draws at 125% or larger where it fits without covering PokerNow’s buttons, so it reads well in a screenshot. The panel by those buttons ends with a line that says “PokerNow HUD Advanced” and “Share mode · Turn off”.

Share mode turns itself off 6 hours after you switch it on, and the popup shows until when. To end it sooner, click Turn off on the panel or untick it in the popup; names and notes come back at once, without reloading.

It doesn’t blur PokerNow’s log and ledger, its list of spectators or pop-ups such as winner announcements, so close those or crop them out. While the HUD is switched off in the popup, it blurs nothing. The player database page still shows names. Share mode changes only what’s on your screen: recording goes on as usual, nothing in your player database is renamed, and nothing new is sent.

Back up your data

Your player database lives in your browser, and uninstalling the extension removes it. In the player database, open Data and click Export backup to save a file. Backups include your tags. Restore adds a backup to what’s already there without overwriting anything. Recompute stats from the log rebuilds every stat from the stored hands.

If the HUD doesn’t show

If the HUD doesn’t show, the tab usually isn’t a game page, the privacy policy hasn’t been agreed to, or the HUD is switched off in the popup. Check these in order:

1. Open a game page. The address must start with pokernow.com/games/.
2. Agree to the privacy policy. If the table shows a card saying PokerNow HUD Advanced is off, click Review and agree.
3. Turn the HUD on. In the toolbar popup, tick Show the HUD on PokerNow.
4. Check that the extension is on at chrome://extensions.
5. Reload the tab. After an update, a banner may ask you to reload to reconnect.

A dash instead of a number means there are no hands yet with that player in that spot. Still stuck? Go to Support or use the support form.

Questions