Whats the big deal with trackers

What do these pokertrackers do for you. what are the advantages and disadvantages to them? i have never got the point what all do they tell you. thanks for any advice? oh and one last do they usually cost moneY?

They database (is that a verb?) stats on players you encounter in ring and tournament games. You can separate your databases accordingly. You can get them for Hold 'Em, Stud, Omaha. They allow you to see patterns in your opponents, analyze how aggressive they are, what types of decision they make in certain situations, etc. They cost around $70 bucks or so. Definitely worth it. Great fun to look back at a session and figure out what you did right or wrong, where you might tweak your own play in the future to improve your wins/minimize your losses.

I'm currently using the Pokertracker free trial and find it really useful, i was wondering if there are any others like this or better?

The main competitor is Poker Office.

Poker Office is a newer and arguably more sopisticated program. However, it does not yet have anything like as many users, so you will find that most of the online discussion and advice (such as on forums like CC) is geared towards Tracker rather than Office.

I was considering downloading the free version but wanted to know are there any poker sites that consider them illegal? And what sites does the Poker Tracker work really well with?

thanks for any info.

Wish I had taken Computer Science at University instead of Psychology. If I were a programmer, I would write an anti-stats device that would block you from seeing my stats. Hmm, bet some programs like that are out there already.

Have you ever encountered a player for whom you couldn't get any stats and yet they werent new to the site?

The stats come directly from the sites hand history file. The program just compiles and interprets the data. You can't block your hand info from being seen in the hand history...

what else can you see? can you see what cards they muck and things like that?

Yes, displayed on the screen for you during the next hand (shows board cards and anyone who went to showdown). Very nice feature. To do this with PokerTracker, you purchase the optional PockerAce HUD (Heads Up Display) -- that's about $25. Actually I included that in my $70 price above, since you should definitely have both if you purchase PokerTracker.

is it a one time fee or is it monthly or something?

One time fee and they frequently update the software (always checks automatically for updates) -- definitely a worthwhile purchase.

hum ok thanks buddy i will look into that i dont have the money now but if i ever plan on playing more i will definatly get one

Oh and one more question are they able to see your cards if you dont go to the showdown for example they call until after flop and fold after bet on flop?

No, you still gotta pay to see the cards. You can request to see any mucked hand that makes it to showdown. This is true for a live game as well. However in a live game, be careful -- this is poor etiquette if you have the winning hand and the other player mucks. Furthermore, he may be ignorantly mucking the winning hand (and your request to see it makes it live if it hasn't reached the muck).

oh ok so you actualyy have to go all the way thanks skold