Online Poker - Poker Tracker and Other Programs

[Black Panther]

G'day All

I have been doing some research on this forum and on the net, and as far as poker programs are concerned, it appears that people have a very high opinion of Poker Tracker.

I have been trying to learn as much as I can about poker tracker, however I am struggling to fully understand how it works. I have only recently started playing poker, so I want to concentrate on my basic poker skills before purchasing any program, however at the same time, it cant help to research programs in the meantime.

Is Poker Tracker a a program that has benefits during play, or is it more of a program that allows you to analyse your peformance and history after the game?

Does Poker Tracker provide you with live percentages of your hand winning, and live odds, considering the size of the pot and the number of competitors etc?

Also, are there online poker sites that offer live odds and percentages as part of their normal play, or do you need a seperate program such as Poker Tracker for this?

Thanks for your time and any assistance is appreciated.

Cheers

BP

 

[aliengenius]

G'day All

I have been doing some research on this forum and on the net, and as far as poker programs are concerned, it appears that people have a very high opinion of Poker Tracker.

Yes, it's an excellent tool. I will go so far as to say that it's indispensable to serious players.

Pokertracker basically records every hand you play, including your opponents cards should they show or the hand gets to showdown.

This information can be sorted in numerous ways. You can go over hands where you lost the most amount of money, you can see the % of time you are voluntarily putting money in the pot, how often you raise, you can see how well you are doing with any given hand (aces, for example), or how you are doing in different positions (button, big blind, etc.). Pretty much any stat you can think of is reviewable.

PT also makes for an excellent bankroll tracker.

I have been trying to learn as much as I can about poker tracker, however I am struggling to fully understand how it works. I have only recently started playing poker, so I want to concentrate on my basic poker skills before purchasing any program, however at the same time, it cant help to research programs in the meantime.

Is Poker Tracker a a program that has benefits during play, or is it more of a program that allows you to analyse your peformance and history after the game?

It has benefits during play if you use it in conjunction with what is typically referred to as a "heads up display" (HUD), such as the free program "Gametime+" (note: only works for ring games, not tournaments) or the separate for sale program PokerAce (typically abreviated "PAHud" or similar). PokerAce has more features than Gametime; in addition to use in tournaments, it can overlay many more stats on to your table should you so desire.

Typically people put up at least vp$ip (voluntarily put money in pot) to show how tight/loose an opponent is, and preflop raise percentage, and post flop aggression rating to show how aggressive/passive the opponent is.

Of course, you don't have to use a HUD if you don't want, PT will still record all your hand data for review later.

Does Poker Tracker provide you with live percentages of your hand winning, and live odds, considering the size of the pot and the number of competitors etc?

No. It can't play for you. I have heard there are programs that attempt to do this, but also that they are fairly inaccurate and potentially harmful (at minimum to one's game develpment).

Also, are there online poker sites that offer live odds and percentages as part of their normal play, or do you need a seperate program such as Poker Tracker for this?

Most sites have a "My Stats" type of recording, but it is usually not very helpful because it is so limited and simple. See this recent thread for an example. People interested in their stats should buy pokertracker for any type of serious analysis of their game play.

As noted above, there are programs that attempt to give you how likely you are to win your hand, but as I said, they don't generally get good reviews. Also, some of these programs may violate the various sites' terms of use.

Thanks for your time and any assistance is appreciated.

Cheers

BP

Here is the cardschat PT reference thread-- read through some of the articles linked there to get an idea of the kind of information that PT can give you and what it is capable of.

Pokertracker has a 1,000 hand free trial, so you can give it a shot at no risk if you want.

Also note that PT is coming out with a new version early in the new year, which I understand will have a HUD built in (thus eliminating the need for a separate program). New upgrade will be cheaper for clients who buy the old version close to the new release date (i.e., now), so don't let that delay your purchase of PT.

Hope that helps.

 

[Gladders27]

Poker Office is another program similar to PT, it only has 300 hand free review however and it is more expensive.

But whereas PT requires another program for a hud, Poker Office includes its own livetracker hud and poker odds calculator.

If you want an all in one i recommend Poker office, if you just want to analyse your stats after playing i recommend Poker Tracker

 

[Boltneck]

There are a number of odds calculators out there. When I first started playing, I bought something called Poker-Pal. Basically, it calculates the chances of hitting your outs and also purports to give you odds on whether your hand will win or not. I used it for a very short time, but would definitely not recommend that (or anything similar) for several reasons.

1) It could make you lazy, and that can never be a good thing. It's easy enough to work it out for yourself, so get into the habit at the outset of working it out yourself. The easiest way for a novice is to count your outs, then double it. The result will be your odds of hitting one of your outs. So, if you have 2 overcards that's 6 outs. Your chances of hitting one of them on the next street is therefore approximate 12%.

2) These programs are not very clever, and will often mislead you. Lets say you have AJo and the flop comes 89T. The odds calculator will show that you have 12% chance. If you were getting pot odds of 10:1 you may be tempted to play the hand. Probably not a good idea, because if your J comes on the turn, you make well be drawing dead to a straight. What looks like 3 outs to a machine, doesn't (or shouldn't) look like 3 outs to a human!

3) The odds calculator takes no account of who you are playing against. That is often as important (if not more so) that what you are playing.

4) Many of these devices are banned by some sites. Before you buy, check with the site(s) that you are likely to play at.

AG has already made a very strong case for Poker Tracker and Gladders has mentioned Poker Office. Having used PT for quite a long time myself, I would definitely recommend it, it's been invaluable to me and it's also cheaper than PO. The new version of PT (due for release in January) looks even better. I would also add that PT support is outstandingly good if you need it, and there are many people who use this forum who also use PT and would be able to give advice. There is also the sticky that Chuck has prepared giving information and advice on PT's use.