Ovidiu ArdeleanTracker Setup & Room Policy Reviewer

HUD Rules 2026: Poker Room Tool Policies and Where HUDs Are Allowed

The hud rules on one room rarely match the next room, and that gap is where accounts get closed. A tracker that's fine on one client can get you banned on another, so the room's own terms are the only source that matters. This page indexes how each major operator treats HUDs and related tools, and how we verify that stance before publishing it. Passive HUDs are one category of poker software; in-hand assistance tools such as NZT Poker are a separate and riskier one, covered in more depth on our dedicated RTA page. (see online poker).

hud rules concept: laptop screen with poker table and small stats overlay window

How HUD Allowed Status Differs by Room

PokerStars has a long-standing, published position: heads-up displays are permitted, but only when they draw from PokerStars' own hand history files rather than screen-scraping or third-party data feeds. This is the clearest example of pokerstars allowed tool policy on the market — the room names approved data sources directly in its help center. GGPoker sits at the other end, and its hud rules are the strictest of the major rooms we track. GGPoker legal terms prohibit third-party HUDs entirely, and the client's own note-and-stats system is the only tracking layer players get. Anyone weighing ggpoker legal software options should start from that baseline rather than assuming parity with PokerStars.

Crypto Rooms and Asian Club Apps

CoinPoker's terms of service group HUDs with other third-party software under a general prohibition on tools that give an unfair advantage, so its hud rules end up stricter than coinpoker tos wording alone might suggest to a new reader. The club-app ecosystem — PokerBros, PPPoker, ClubGG, and similar union-based platforms — is less centralized again: policy can vary by club operator, not just by app. PPPoker banned third-party software outright in 2021, and PokerBros stepped up detection in 2025. We cover exact compatibility per room on the individual room pages, including our GGPoker review — this index exists to show the pattern across rooms, not to repeat that room-level detail here.

HUD and Tracker Policy Snapshot by Room (2026)
Room	HUD Policy	Key Restriction
PokerStars	Allowed	Hand-history data only, no screen-scraping
GGPoker	Prohibited	Third-party HUDs banned; built-in stats only
CoinPoker	Prohibited	Grouped under general third-party software ban
PokerBros / club apps	Varies by club	Detection enforcement increased in 2025

How We Verify Each Room's Policy

In my experience checking these policies for this site, the terms-of-service page is never the only source worth reading — support tickets and help-center articles often carry the operative detail that the ToS only gestures at. I cross-reference the room's own published rules, its support documentation, and, where available, its account-security or fair-play statements. When a room's wording is ambiguous, I treat that ambiguity as a reason for caution, not permission. Real-time assistance tools sit in a different category from passive HUDs entirely — they're prohibited almost everywhere, including on the club apps, and the mechanics of how detection works are covered on our dedicated RTA page rather than here.

Read the Current Terms Before Installing Anything

Poker room policies change without much notice. Always check the room's live terms of service rather than relying on a policy snapshot, however recent — a permitted HUD today can become a banned one after a client update.

It's worth separating the two tool categories clearly. A HUD displays historical stats and leaves the decision to you; that's what's being discussed above. Real-time assistance software, by contrast, reads the live hand and suggests fold, call, or raise while you're in it — a fundamentally different risk profile that even permissive rooms don't tolerate, and it's prohibited on club apps like PokerBros and PPPoker just as it would be anywhere else. Solvers such as PioSolver and trainers like GTO Wizard sit on the legal side of that line entirely — they're used away from the table and build skill that survives once the tool is closed, which is a meaningfully different trade than in-hand assistance offers.

Want the Full RTA Risk Breakdown?

If you want to understand how in-hand assistance tools actually work, NZT Poker's page covers the mechanics and account risk.

See NZT Poker Details

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Is ClubGG legal?

ClubGG operates as a club-based app rather than a single centralized room, so its status depends on the operator and jurisdiction you're playing under rather than one universal answer. Its own terms prohibit third-party assistance software regardless of legality, and using a HUD or RTA tool there carries the same account-ban risk as on comparable club platforms.

Is WPT Poker legal?

WPT Poker is a licensed, regulated real-money platform in the jurisdictions where it operates, so legality isn't the open question — tool policy is. Like most licensed rooms, it restricts third-party software that provides an in-hand advantage, so check its current terms before running any tracker or assistance tool.

Is PokerBros legal?

PokerBros itself is a legal software platform; the legal and account-risk questions arise around the private clubs that run on it and the tools players bring to the table. PokerBros stepped up detection of prohibited software in 2025, and getting caught with a banned tool typically means account closure and blacklisting across affiliated clubs.

Is Hijack Poker legal?

Hijack Poker functions similarly to other club-based poker apps, and its legality follows the same pattern: the app itself is software, while the legal status of real-money play depends on the club operator and your local jurisdiction. Third-party tools are typically restricted under its terms, so verify current policy directly before using a HUD or tracker.

Ovidiu Ardelean Tracker Setup & Room Policy Reviewer

Ovidiu Ardelean has been fixing poker software since the first time his own installation broke. He started playing online from Timișoara in the mid-2000s, a low-stakes grinder on a second-hand PC, and when his first tracking database corrupted itself mid-import he learned to repair it because he could not afford to lose the hands. The repair took a weekend. The reputation took ten minutes — his study group never installed anything unassisted again. What began as favours became a trade. For most of the past fifteen years Ardelean has configured trackers, HUDs and hand-history databases for other grinders: migrations between tools, custom stat sets, per-site import quirks, popup design, and the slow unglamorous work of keeping databases holding several hundred million imported hands from eating themselves. He still plays small-stakes online cash — enough, he says, to keep his popups honest — but his real seat time is inside the settings menus. That work is also why he watches room policy the way other people watch results. A configuration is only worth building if the room permits the tool it serves, and the permissions differ far more than most players assume, so he reads the rules pages first and builds second. On this site he writes the software reviews — trackers, HUDs, database tools — and the room coverage from exactly that angle: not which room has the softest games, but what each one lets you run beside them. Ardelean is plain about his boundaries. He does not write strategy and does not claim his stats make him a winning player; his authority is the tooling, not the results. And on the category of software that plays for you or advises in real time, his position does not bend for traffic: it breaches the terms of nearly every room, the account and the balance carry the risk, and he will describe such tools without ever helping anyone hide one.

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