Poker Software

Do you guys use any poker software like PokerTracker or PokerOffice and stuff?

I wish I was that good. I use both PokerTracker and PokerOffice

no software for me...although if I had it..i think I would do beter than I am now...although I have adapted to not having it quit well

I use pokertracker, it software help me in my games; I cannot play without pokertracker, information in poker it is essential to made decisions.

ganjvelo said:

how pokertracker helps u and u cannot play without it? if its so good i think i will try it.

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pokertracker bring information as voluntary put in pot(VPIP), preflop raise...etc
you can categorize your opponents based on hard evidence, you can find fish, bully the rocks, too exploit the maniacs players with pokertracker.
I need it information to play.

Do any of you guys who use this software play live poker? If so, do you think it has had any effect on your play in live poker? Has it helped you notice things when playing live that you might have missed otherwise? I am new to all this online play, but, like anyone, would love to find something that might give me an edge on the tables whether live or online.

tertip said:

i have some pokertools but usualy dont use it, the best tool is your brain

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I play 8-10 tables. My brain's not that good. PT3 for me.

I dont see how using poker software can help you win at the poker tables.I think the best thing do do is play your cards to the best of your ability.I mean i wouldnt trust it espically with money involved and that is what makes poker such a great game that you can control every situation.

bill75460 said:

I dont see how using poker software can help you win at the poker tables. ... I mean i wouldnt trust it espically with money involved and that is what makes poker such a great game that you can control every situation.

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You don't let the software make decisions for you -- you use the data to (hopefully) make better decisions based on it and other applicable factors.

WVHillbilly said:

I play 8-10 tables. My brain's not that good. PT3 for me.

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Yeah, if you're multi-tabling, a decent HUD can make a huge difference!

bill75460 said:

I dont see how using poker software can help you win at the poker tables.I think the best thing do do is play your cards to the best of your ability.I mean i wouldnt trust it espically with money involved and that is what makes poker such a great game that you can control every situation.

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One of the biggest advantage to online poker is the fact u can multi table,to multi table properly a software like PT or HM is essential.
It simply tells u who is playing LAG,TAG,NIT,maniac ect and gives u info on leaks in your game.
You shouldnt be playing just your cards you should be playing you oponents,every one get the same cards in the long run so playing your oponent is the way u make money.

Are there any statistics as to how many people are using poker software to help them makes decisions?

I mean, if I'm playing a SnG and 60% of my opponents are fully infomred on when i raise when I call and how often I win... the I really should invest.

I had to uninstall PT3 (because I think it sucks) and install Hold'em Manager.

edit:

I dont use it to make any decisions. I use to to see when (how often) someone bets, c-bets, 3-bets, etc. It is obv that the more tables that you play, the harder it becomes to remember this info. It becomes impossible at some point (not very many in my case lol).
Once you obtain a sizable database, you can pretty much pick out the way that regulars play. If you miss the flop but your opponent c-bets every time, you know that you may be able to steal the pot. If your opponent always folds to a re-raise, you can see that. If your opponent always wins his showdowns... well you get the point.

I think that alot of people see these programs as a "bot" type of thing that says fold here, shove here.
These types of programs exist, but that is not what most of us are talking about.
The next type are the basic types that tell you what kind of hand you have, what kind of hand that you can make and the odds that you will make it. These are really only valuable for beginners.
Then finally are the types of programs that most of us are talking about. Some are made for you to go back after the game/tourney is completed and check your action against the recommended action. Late in a tourney with the shortstack and not sure if you should push K9? These programs tell you that. Then there are the database types. The sites allow them, because it is all info that you are already given. (except the public datamining programs which Stars prohibits - for the reason that although you could had mined that info, you didnt) Really all it does, is make your memory perfect (if you could in fact remember what every player did on every table, every hand lol)

Wow i dont use poker tracker or any other program but, i knew they existed but i never knew how much people used them. But does the program detect a great player who always changes up his game and changes gears all the time in there play. I dont know man i guess if so much people use it than it has to be good. How much do one of these programs cost?

Mr.Flushee said:

Wow i dont use poker tracker or any other program but, i knew they existed but i never knew how much people used them. But does the program detect a great player who always changes up his game and changes gears all the time in there play. I dont know man i guess if so much people use it than it has to be good. How much do one of these programs cost?

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These programs are only as good as you know how to use them . . . and none of them are perfect, unfortunately, which is why I still have to use my own spreadsheet to track my monthly play in addition to using PT2/PT3. PT3 is an excellent program, I think, but it's not yet compatible with some of the sites I frequent, so I still use PT2 for some sites (i.e. Absolute Poker), and even PT2 isn't compatible with many popular sites.

The other thing is, even though a program like Poker Tracker will be an immense help in collecting, grouping, filtering, etc. stats, it does require a certain amount of time and work on the user's part to really get it to show you what you need, not to mention correctly analyze the data. Moreover, if you play a lot of tourneys - I'm about 50-50 personally - it requires even more work, because the program can only import the tourney HHs, but it usually won't know how many total players were in it, where you ended up, whether or not you cashed, and if so, how much your winnings were.

Costwise you're looking at anywhere from $20-$100, mostly for a one-time fee, but in some cases annually, and usually you can download a free trial version before you spend any money, which I would definitely recommend.
I have looked at and/or tried many of them (PT, PPA Bookkeeper, Poker Academy, Poker Office) and ended up settling on PT, mainly for the much-improved design of the new version, its relatively low cost, and the excellent support I've experienced from their website.

luckydog_reno said:

Do any of you guys who use this software play live poker? If so, do you think it has had any effect on your play in live poker? Has it helped you notice things when playing live that you might have missed otherwise? I am new to all this online play, but, like anyone, would love to find something that might give me an edge on the tables whether live or online.

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For me, Poker Office (which I use for my HUD) use does not effect my live play. In live play the action is so much slower that it is easy to get a mental picture of the table and keep that picture. A HUD, for me, just keeps a 'picture' of the table for me when I move my focus to that table from another one. And a HUD will give me a 'picture' of a player if I have already played with them before, I mean how many of you would remember that you have played with FumbleNutz18 before as compared to a FumbleNutz16!!

HEM

Pretty bad/pointless poll if you don't include Holdem Manager...

Can't participate in this poll. I know about poker software, but I don't use any. So what answer should I select?

I find that when I use them its only at times of a hard decision. I don't keep my eyes on the stats all the time.

I wish i could understand how it works to use it.
It's sadly not easy for me to understand the way to use it as all the tutorials are in english.
Oops i'm wrong i found out one in french, but it was canadian comments and i couldn't catch a word, pretendly in french, lol.
Though, i'm playing without this useful tool but i wish one day to find a french tutorial or why not a software in french, we all can dream, lol.
:icon_sant
I should first buy a second screen to place it nor i won't be able to check it with my present equipements. It's all a way of living.
C ya, without the softs, at the tables.

bill75460 said:

I dont see how using poker software can help you win at the poker tables.I think the best thing do do is play your cards to the best of your ability.I mean i wouldnt trust it espically with money involved and that is what makes poker such a great game that you can control every situation.

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I'm new to poker and was leary about getting the software for fear that it would make me over-reliant and worse at live games.

I've been using it for 2 days now and it makes a huge difference in my play. It allowed me to track how I was throwing money away limping marginal hands and calling for draws. And I think having the stats on players helps you focus your reads.

It's not magic, you still have to make all the decisions. I'd recommend at least using the trial, I think you'd be surprised at how well it can improve your game.

for sure pokerdominator next to essential with number of sites-games-tournys these days LOL

I use poker indicator and tournament indicator.
That's very handsome when calculating pot-odds.
Disadvantage is that it makes you lazy as you're not used to do the maths yourselve when you're playing live.

After reading this thread I feel like I am at a big disadvantage for not using any poker software. I know I won't go out there and buy anything, so are the free software versions really worth trying?

I have used the demo version of poker-edge recently. It is so-so. The advantage vs. poker-tracker is that it uses some existing data-base with hand histories. You can actually profile a player based on this existing data by just typing the player name on poker-edge.com.

Poker-edge also provides a hud similar to the one provided with pokertracker. It will classify the opponents based on their histories.

The disadvantage of poker-edge is that you do not know when and where it gets its information. For example, if you profile me you will find that I am classified as a bomb - a common classification for somewhat experienced players. It means you are semi-loose preflop and aggressive/aggressive both pre and post flop.

On the other hand, the first time I used this software I came up with a red fish next to my name. This dismayed me somewhat (!) and I started looking into what was happening. I have yet to figure out exactly why the fish/bomb classifications differed, but it obviously was due to a different source of data. In the hud classification, it appeared that the (red) fish classification was based on a relatively short hand history, where, one presumes, I folded a fair number of hands post-flop.

The relevance here is the following: It is dangerous to classify people based on short hand histories. Consider the following example: You have a 40 hand history on two players. They both see 10 flops. One folds/calls 8/2 after the flop and the other calls 8/2. In this situation the poker-edge software may classify the high call postflop guy as a calling-station and the other guy as a red fish. This is not good, because there very likely could have been random variations in the quality of the hands of these two players that caused the difference in post flop behavior.

In conclusion, poker software is cool and you can learn a lot about other players that way. You still have to be carefull to put too much faith into the various classifications until you have a long history of the particular players. In the case of poker-edge, I don't think this software is really worth the price tag but that is just my personal opinion.