Is a poker tracker a must?

prepare said:

Also DJ, you asked about poker books. There is a way my argument could also make me "anti-books" but since you have to extract the information yourself and put it in practice yourself, its not the same. Also, books mainly tell you whats wrong with your play, not what is wrong with your opponents play.

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Good post, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I completely understand that, but many people(like few above) are just very misinformed.

The one area where I disagree with your post is the part above. You were right in that books help you tell what's wrong with your play, they do also tell you what to look for to notice big issues in your opponents play as well. Also, just like you stated that with books you have to put the information that you gather from the books into practice yourself, it is the exact same way with a HUD in that if you don't understand what a number means or what you're looking at, it isn't going to help you. I have seen some people with HUDs that have 20+ stats on them and they barely understand how to adjust for an opponent's VPIP and Agressiveness. And nowhere near all cases are that extreme, but nonetheless, you still need to be able to put those numbers into context, otherwise, it's just taking up screen space, which is why when these arguments come up, you always hear "A HUD alone won't turn a bad poker player into a great one".