I see nowadays pro poker players using some kind of program that is attached to their pokerprogram. What is it?what does it do ? i heard it helpes them take decisions,if so i want it too .Can you recomend me a program like this ? ty.
It's called a HUD (Heads-Up Display). It makes it easy for them to read their opponents. It collects every hand you played against that player and then spits out numbers related to that (how many times they folded to a c-bet, how many times they tried to steal, how many
hands they tend to play, etc). It
tells them, for example, how much they fold to a c-bet. If the percentage is 80%, then you can make a c-bet with 72 if you are Heads-Up regardless of what the flop is.
It also tells you pot
odds and the odds you have to win, and some will tell you if the call is profitable or not if you aren't good with maths.
As far as I know, there aren't any free HUDs out there. There used to be Elephant but this kind of software require constant patching and they need profits and large teams, so there isn't, and there never will be, a free HUD.
The ones that are more pronounced in the market are
Poker Tracker and
Hold'em Manager. Manager (or PT but I think it was Manager) recently added a patch where it would tell you all the starting hands your opponent was likely to have. Be careful though, because this has been banned at
poker stars and will likely be banned at Full Tilt since the advantage was unfair for non-users. They will make you pay extra for every little thing or for different stakes, so before you do, check out the room rules of wherever you play at.
I've never used any of these but you can go for their trials and check out video demos.
Another one is
Hold'em Indicator. This one will even label the players (rock, fish, TAG, LAG, Calling Station) for you and put a little icon next to them so that you know who you are dealing with. It seems more of a "newbie" HUD than PT or Manager but ehh whatever strikes your fancy.