Holdem Manager 3 is a fantastic and cutting-edge poker heads-up display and database software product, available for PC. Holdem Manager 3 offers a two-week free trial of their full software, which you can access directly on their website. Let’s take a closer look at the software with our Holdem Manager 3 Review.
Alongside Pokertracker 4, this product dominates the niche market in which it specialises, and this is in part because they have been in the industry for so long and are regarded as being highly reliable for in-game use, and also because they support the use of a huge number of poker sites.
In fact, the two products HM3 and Pokertracker 4 have merged, although they will still provide both products separately and provide support and updates as well as new releases for both packages.
Whilst these two pieces of poker kit provide a similar level of functionality, they do have their own unique style and user experience, with accompanying loyal fan bases of users, and this is surely a big part of their decision to continue to bring both products to market after the merger.
It is true that some major poker sites have fairly recently shut the door on the use of heads-up display software (HUDs) such as this product, citing the desire to keep the games appealing to all players, recreational and professional alike. The most significant sites to do these have been GGPoker and Party Poker.
Despite this, Holdem Manager 3 remains highly useful across numerous other sites, and a required part of a cross-platform player’s poker toolkit.
While the sites mentioned above won’t permit use of the heads-up display which appears transparently over your table with opponent statistics while you are playing, the software can still be used legitimately for post-game review even for these sites.
Let’s take a quick tour of the top features of this software package, HM3. If you’re interested to find out more than we cover in this review, Holdem Manager 3 has excellent user support on its website.
Installation & Import
HM3 is designed with its users’ comfort and quick-fire play in mind, and as such, the software is extremely well designed and beginner-friendly. However, it is worth noting that since the product does require the storage and organisation of huge amounts of data from player hands, it naturally does need to incorporate database management to function, a product called postgres. This shouldn’t present any complexities in installation or daily use, however, but databases can require clean-up or other maintenance over the years of use as your database grows.
Holdem Manager 3 functions with a huge range of poker sites, including the big ones such as Pokerstars and iPoker skins such as Betsson to the smaller sites. There are also add-on packages provided for tracking certain lesser-used sites or mobile apps that have PC functionality, such as some of the so-called Asian apps.
The software provides functionality for the real-time import of hands as you play them, as well as the capacity to import old hands stored on your computer for later review.
Heads Up Display
Holdem Manager’s heads-up display is the core and most regularly used feature which consists of a semi-transparent overlay which layers over your tables when you play poker. Assuming the site permits usage, and you have it correctly configured (a simple matter of clicking through a few settings per site) this will then provide you with real-time statistical guidance on your opponents’ play-based hands which you’ve played with them or directly seen them play previously.
The most basic HUD stats seen in pretty much every HUD ever used would include VPIP (voluntarily put money in pot), PFR (preflop raise), and 3bet %, as well as simple facts such as the number of hands you’ve observed them play.
HM3 actually also offers a graphical HUD feature, which indicates some of these key statistics as coloured circles around the player logos, saving you time glancing at numbers in an overlay. These have limited complexity compared with the fully customisable numerical HUDs.
Hand Analysis Reports
The reports section of Holdem Manager 3 is very useful for quick or extended analysis of your own game, and is laid out in such a way to be less daunting to players starting out working on their game. This comes equipped with useful quick filters, which can be used to dive straight into any key area of your game and pick it apart.
For example, you can dive into spots where you 3bet preflop and then c-bet the flop, or indeed where you chose to check the flop in position or out of position. The software will then offer you a range of scenarios further distinguished by situation, for example, based on board texture or considering only certain holdings or spots with a certain number of players seeing the flop.
This is a huge time-saver for working more deeply on your game without the hassle of preparing your own custom report filters (which you can of course still do if you wish).
HM3 has also updated its settings for detailed filters which can now be arranged using elegant and helpful AND, OR and NOT qualifiers to stack and combine the ways in which you design a specific filter. For example, you could consider only situations where you had raised preflop AND continuation bet the flop, but NOT seen a two-tone flop.
The Hand Replayer function of Holdem Manager has always been a staple feature and very useful for doing full session reviews, and has been updated to be graphically more pleasing to the eye in the latest version, as well as having the option to display your stack in big blinds rather than in chips.
One feature that is really special about Holdem Manager 3 is the Opponent Analysis section, where you can look at a specific opponent of your choice out of any in your database, or compare two opponents of your choice in detail. This will show you that player’s overall stats, biggest pots played against them, as well as give you options to go on a deeper dive into statistical analysis of their game.
Comparing two opponents’ games (including your own) will show horizontal bar charts which gauge whether one player or the other makes certain moves with higher frequency, such as continuation betting, raising flop, folding to a river bet, and so on.
Final thoughts on Holdem Manager 3
Holdem Manager 3 is just one of those software packages that you could literally explore for months of detailed usage without exhausting all the possibilities. Even though it has this near-endless complexity, the software is still a really good choice for less-experienced players, since it is so quick and easy to get started using it to good effect.
If you want to improve your poker game and you aren’t already using a HUD, HM3 is an excellent option. If you’re playing professionally, or have immediate ambitions to do so, you really shouldn’t be without it.
Don’t forget to check out all the other excellent guides available in our PokerDeals Strategy Section, and be sure to hop in the PokerDeals Discord if you’d like to ask anything, or just talk poker.
