SNG’s (Sit and Go’s) are one of the mainstays for dedicated PokerStars players, and a new HUD has appeared (a HUD which has incidentally been endorsed by the likes of super-grinder Nanonoko) that aims to streamline and improve your decision-making. With some very good HUD’s already on the market, how does Jivaro match-up? And what extras does it bring to the HUD game?
Having recently released their Premium package - which builds upon the Basic version which is available for free - the Icelandic designers and developers claim to “offer more advanced statistics and functionality so you can get a more accurate and detailed view on your opponents. This will allow you to better manage critical situations.”
Free Basic -Try before you buy
If all you need are the basic stats on your opponents, the FREE Jivaro basic package will do the trick quite nicely. Their cleverly-designed colour coded display (featured in the pic above) is geared towards giving you the right numbers at the right time, and is a big improvement on the basic versions of the other HUD’s which are on the market.How will Jivaro help my SNG play?
If we move on to the Premium Jivaro offering,the most significant feature which the designers have introduced is a nifty Command Center, a perfect over-lay to the traditional PokerStars one.
The Command Centre - Taking control of the information
This is what you will see (above) at the start of your SNG, and here’s a more detailed view of the Command Centre (below)
Compare this to the pre-Jivaro PokerStars interface where I would go for the same information...
You just can’t see all the info without extra effort clicks, scrolling, or going to a different part of the screen altogether. I’ve yet to find it at all on my other HUD softwares (Including Hold’em Manager and PokerTracker).
You will also notice that the blinds are integrated into the main window (in the top right corner) again negating any need to go looking for crucial information, particularly if you have 2 or 4 (or more) tournaments on the go at once.
The Command Centre looks, and is, very simple – something which pervades all of the HUD features Jivaro have released.
When does the bubble burst? The top 2 lines of text should be obvious enough, but the column on the left hand side should be noted. 1st prize is shown and underneath that we see the lowest ‘In the Money’ prize, followed by the number of players needed to bust out before we reach it. In the pic above I can see instantly that when 4 more players go, I’m cashing.
Below that, we see what we have earned so far ($0, we’ve not recahed the money-places yet) The positions auto-update in real-time, no need to refresh- a fantastic feature for anyone who has had to continually refresh a separate window to see what’s happening - and on the right hand side we see the top/average and low stacks left in the SNG.
This data is particularly useful for players engaged in larger-field SNGs, with 20+ players.
When you are playing multiple SNG’s at once, there is a personal Command Centre for each event (which can be minimised/maximised by clicking on the X at the top right).
This is a vast improvement on the multiple windows we need at the moment to view all of this info – see below.
Also note the small ‘card-shaped’ icons on the top line of the Command Centre, which is an integral part of Jivaro’s new product - the real-time ‘Street Awareness’ concept.
Street Awareness - The stats you need at the right time
Rather than having to search manically for the stats you need on each street, Jivaro automatically displays the relevant numbers as the hand progresses.
So when I am UTG pre-flop I really don’t need to know what the BB’s fold-to-steal % is – I’m more interested in someone’s 3-bet %.
But, when play is folded around to me on the cut-off or button then that obviously changes dramatically –I really need to see their fold-to-steal % as well. Let’s see what this looks like in practice….
When we get to the turn, I now don’t care about the pre-flop %. Jivaro know this, and their system changes to show C-bet/Fold to C-bet and AF numbers. Like-wise for the turn – it automatically happens.
Extremely simple and a massive boon – the traditional tables of figures have been cut to the very few important ones. Look at my Hold’em Manager version when I want to see fold-to-steal stats…
Colour-coded display
The most obvious difference we can see in the Jivaro screenshots above is the colour-coded circular displays, but what do they signify?
Basically, they are an ingenious method of showing 3 of the major stats you need when you’re using a HUD in SNG’s (or any other type of event).
Hover your mouse over the circle and the stats change to show VPIP/PFR and AF. Move the mouse away and you’re taken back to whichever ‘street relevant’ stats you need right now. The colour-coding means that you don’t even NEED to use your mouse – which is perfect for multi-tabling, or concentrating on your actual play – something which traditional HUD’s are often lambasted for.
Although not user-configurable as of yet, the colours are distinct enough to see what’s what even at a glance. The display below explains exactly how it works, but it is a very intuitive system and not too difficult to grasp quickly.
Conclusion
So, the positives of Jivaro in SNG’s (and also MTT’s) are quite simple. The Command Centre basically negates the need for any other tournament info; its integrated format covers everything and is not even remotely distracting.
Coupled with the colour-coding, the ‘street awareness’ %’s and the ‘cloud-based real-time tracking’, what you’re seeing on-screen is exactly what you need/when you need it. This will let you concentrate on the tournament itself and for multi-tabling it’s a vast improvement on anything else out there.
If you’ve gotten used to one of the bigger HUD’s (bigger as in display size and also back-end databases, etc). Jivaro will come as a shock to the system. It is an extremely clever and very welcome addition to the HUD market.
With regard to price, Jivaro offers a premium service for $5.99 per month. It's a modest price, and with Jivaro you are investing in a system which will be updating new features every week based on what users ‘wish for’. You're also paying for outstanding, around the clock support.
