I have tried as hard as I can to get along with it but I have come to the conclusion that HM2 sucks. I love HM1 but realise that it is soon going to be out of date so I am going to have to change.
I am looking at Poker Tracker, has anyone used it? Is it as good or better than HM2? I am going to download the trial but would be grateful of any thoughts about it?
Thanks in advance for your help

I find HEM2 great tbh. What sort of problems are you having with it ?

I liked the colour scheme of HM1, HM2 is too dull and I liked the way things were set out in HM1, I guess it might be old age but after 3 months trying I cannot get things set up the way I like them in HM2.
Also HM2 slows my computer down a lot more than HM1 did, my comp is old so that is why but it is still annoying.
My fav was always Poker Office, it suited me, but you have to buy a licence every year with that which is a joke.

Originally Posted by Colbefc

I liked the colour scheme of HM1, HM2 is too dull and I liked the way things were set out in HM1, I guess it might be old age but after 3 months trying I cannot get things set up the way I like them in HM2.
Also HM2 slows my computer down a lot more than HM1 did, my comp is old so that is why but it is still annoying.
My fav was always Poker Office, it suited me, but you have to buy a licence every year with that which is a joke.

I thought there was a way to change the skin(not crazy options, but some I thought) I am at work right now so I can't check, but I thought there was a way to do this.

As far as how the program slows down your computer, I am sorry to say that PT4 will most likely do the same thing. With every update to these programs, they are adding more and more features, and those features use more resources. I would say stick with HM1 for now or get a new computer/upgrade your computer(more RAM may still not help if your processor is ancient). Also, have you tried purging some of your hands? That can drastically speed up how the software works, you really don't need the details of 2 year old hands anymore, do you?

I haven’t used HM but I do find Poker Tracker does the job really well

Just my 2¢

Thanks for all your thoughts, I think I'll keep using HM1 and try Poker Tracker to see if it suits me better than HM1.

I am just starting to grind up from nada. Can you point me to some good reviews/tutorials on HUD and tracking software.

Hi Teg
I think you need to start a new post for that, I'm sure you will get lots of help but it needs to be a new thread?

@Colbefc: if you have problems with HM2 let us know and we will try to help you.
For the performance here are some tips: http://hm2faq.holdemmanager.com/ques...+Modifications
At the moment we are working on a "performance" update which will hopefully solve most problems especially on slow computers.

As absoluthamm already posted you can switch to a different skin under settings. We hope to add more skins in the future.

I have tried both HEM2 and ptr4, I find ptr4 to be way more easy and fun to work with.

I have not tried PT4 yet, but PT3 was pretty good. The main issues I had with it were trying to keep the HUD working and have it properly track my SNGs...as well as keeping it synced up with tourney tickets to display my accurate ROI for tourneys.

im running ptr3 at the moment and after using it for a year now i can say it is an excellent program , any big differences in ptr4 ??? anyone

I own HM1, HM2, PT3, and PT4 (since alpha, still in beta). Out of all of them, I still prefer HM2. I've had no real problems with it (and I've been using it since early alpha as well), other than a recent glitch with my activation key that caused some weird issues that I first blamed on bugs in the program. When they discovered it was actually a key issue and resolved that, the problems went away and it works great again. It even worked fine with no changes, including preferred seating, when Lock moved to Cake. HM1 required a patch to even work, and still doesn't support preferred seating (and may not ever). From what I hear, PT doesn't work at all either.

PT4 I like better than PT3, but nothing I've seen so far would make me choose it over HM2. If I were coming into both cold, with no prior experience with either, I might feel different, but HM1 was a clear win for me over PT3 and I'm just used to the HM way of doing things I guess. Then again I have a pretty massive PC and don't play more than 8 tables these days (used to play up to 16 but seriously cut back on volume) so resource usage hasn't been an issue for me.

You might be right Dave, HM2 might be the best of the lot but I just find it too complicated, maybe I am just getting too old for new things but I just cant get it to do what I want it too, I guess I'll stick to HM1 as long as possible.

I have HM2 and just worked through the video series that come along with it. A pause here, a rewind there and its not too difficult to get out of it what you want out of it. The little video tutorials are short and sweet and to the point and in a hour or so you have the basic config done to your liking. Then its just a matter of tweaking things until you find what suits you best. I find a limited HUD with detailed roll overs and pop ups suits me best. You can see a lot about a player just from the holy trinity and the sample size.
I tired the free trial of PT3 and to be honest, it was ok, but i never put a lot of effort into it, so I cannot really say it was great/good/bad.
Once you get into HM2, you will wonder what took you so long, I know I did.

Hi,

If you have any particular problems with Holdem Manager we would be happy to help you resolve them. Please let us know what is wrong. Does the program not work for you?

Originally Posted by dmorris68

It even worked fine with no changes, including preferred seating, when Lock moved to Cake. HM1 required a patch to even work, and still doesn't support preferred seating (and may not ever). From what I hear, PT doesn't work at all either.

PT3 works fine at new Lock and has since the switch. PT3 also released patch for Merge 6.0 this afternoon although apparently it's cash only at the moment because Merge screwed something up with the tourney hhs.

Originally Posted by WVHillbilly

PT3 works fine at new Lock and has since the switch. PT3 also released patch for Merge 6.0 this afternoon although apparently it's cash only at the moment because Merge screwed something up with the tourney hhs.

My mistake then, it must have been something else I read PT wasn't working with -- there have been so many site changes lately I can't keep up.

(Derail) And Merge 6.0 is pretty horrible. I thought Lock's transition to Cake was pretty bad with the sucky Cake software, but it's been a blazing success next to the Merge upgrade. Forget HH's, the freakin' client doesn't even half work. Makes the abysmal Cake software look pretty good now.

Originally Posted by dmorris68

My mistake then, it must have been something else I read PT wasn't working with -- there have been so many site changes lately I can't keep up.

(Derail) And Merge 6.0 is pretty horrible. I thought Lock's transition to Cake was pretty bad with the sucky Cake software, but it's been a blazing success next to the Merge upgrade. Forget HH's, the freakin' client doesn't even half work. Makes the abysmal Cake software look pretty good now.

Yeah, I haven't even tried to play yet since everyone said it was so buggy. Also read on the PT3 boards this morning that they're having an issue with some winning hands being reported as losers on new Merge so I guess they haven't got cash working yet either.

Originally Posted by WVHillbilly

Yeah, I haven't even tried to play yet since everyone said it was so buggy. Also read on the PT3 boards this morning that they're having an issue with some winning hands being reported as losers on new Merge so I guess they haven't got cash working yet either.

Man, seems like I picked a good time to take a week off from teh pokerz. Hopefully they get it all sorted soon. And, FWIW, HM1>PT3>HM2. Haven't tried PT4 so no idea where that fits.

I feel your pain, Col. I'm a long-time HM1 user, but will be taking the same path as you in downloading and trying PT4. I originally chose HM1 over PT3 for it's intuitive usage. Things just seemed to work in a straight-forward manner, as I would expect them to. Little to no learning curve. That's all gone with HM2.

Just started using poker trackers after the Carbon HUD came out which finally convinced me in this way: "Doggone it. These players are responding to my plays as... if... they... could see my hands." lol... Since then I've messed with PT3 but am currently using HM2. I've found that since, I've stopped asking so many stupid/redundant questions. Now I've got to work on avoidance of making stupid/redundant postings... I find HM2 to be invaluable on a serious note tho'...

Been using this on a pentium 4 2ghz w/ 512mb also on another which is about 1.3ghz. Aside from some some extra start-up and db initialization time it's been working out pretty well for me... The stats for your machine(s) about close to those Colbefc? Make sure that you have no non-essential bkg processes running as well... might help...

My computer is about 8 years old so like me it is getting on in years, it is fine for normal computing but I only have 1 GB of RAM so anything that puts a strain on my memory slows things down so much. I find I can get away with HM1 but HM2 slows things down way too much and I guess I just dont like the way HM2 is set out, HM1 has everything where I like it, I admit HM2 is more sophisticated but to me it is information overload and my small brain cant take it all in.
I used to like Poker Office years ago but you had to buy a license every year with that so I gave that up.
The thing I dont like about both HM1 and HM2 is that it doesnt process my sit n go's at Inter Poker on the Boss Network which is so annoying

Colin... check online. There are upgrade kits that you can throw into your puter that will make it fly. Pretty cheap too.

You can get a 2 gig ram stick cheap as well. 3gigs -o-ram and a new processor. You'll be rockin.

Speaking of rockin. I'm rockin PT3 right now and I love it.

-

Yeah, 1GB RAM is really holding you back. RAM is dirt cheap right now, so it would be a cheap way to improve performance when multitasking and playing multiple tables.

My comp is so old it uses the old SRAM which is expensive compared to DDR and as I want a new comp asap I am reluctant to buy any, but maybe I will need to
I have just checked and as I have 2 lots of 512 RAM and I need to replace it with 2 1 GB cards and this is over £250 cos you just cant get it these days and there is no way I can afford to pay that so I'll just have to put up with what I'v got

I'm pretty sure that my machines probably have lower specs than yours but most of my apps run pretty smoothly (...may be the fact that I have built all my machines myself tho'...) Until you get get a new machine might I suggest that you browse the web for how to's on otptimizing xp/vista, etc... Where I would probably start is:

Check your running services and stop and non-essential processes
Check your start-up items and disable non-essential programs
Clean out old/cached non-essential files
Clean your registry (CAREFUL... unless you have the right tools...) and even then know how to use system restore...
Defragment your machine

If you proceed with trying these I can point you out to some good freeware that will/should help w/o damaging your OS...

Originally Posted by Colbefc

My comp is so old it uses the old SRAM which is expensive compared to DDR and as I want a new comp asap I am reluctant to buy any, but maybe I will need to
I have just checked and as I have 2 lots of 512 RAM and I need to replace it with 2 1 GB cards and this is over £250 cos you just cant get it these days and there is no way I can afford to pay that so I'll just have to put up with what I'v got

Look into eMachines.

They're cheep, and fast. Perfect for poker.

-

They

Col, what exact RAM does your system use? Are you sure it's SDRAM? Give me the pin count and speed, and how many total slots you have. Also CPU and chipset if you know it.

No promises, but I have lots of old RAM from old builds. This may be so old that I won't have anything bigger than 512MB though. If that's the cheapest you can buy it's definitely not worth that when you can buy an entire computer for probably not much more than that, especially if you find a good refurb. Or preferably build your own, if you're into that.

FYI, I just bought 16GB of high-performance DDR3-1866 for $89 for my latest build.

Originally Posted by dmorris68

FYI, I just bought 16GB of high-performance DDR3-1866 for $89 for my latest build.

Damn D'... You're making my system with the 2 512MB DDRs with a 1GB max for computer memory look completely archaic... I said I built them... Didn't said I built them from NEW parts... LOL... Excuse me while I go stick my head in tha ground...

Dave, just looked up the specs for my ancient computer and 1GB is the maximum memory it will support which is a pain.
If you want to check, I looked up the specs on the net, my comp is a Dell Dimension 4550.
I know I really need a new one but have to win the lottery or a tourney first

Yeah, that Intel 845 mobo only has 2 slots with 1GB max. Bummer. If you were nearby I might be able to scrounge some parts together to get you on a slightly better system, but trial & erroring a Frankenstein build across the pond could be a challenge.

Thanks for the kind thought Dave. I'll just have to put up with what I'v got, its better than nothing.
I was just thinking I have never had a new computer, everyone I have had has been second hand. One of these days I'll get a new one.
Gonna enter the PS $11 Storm this weekend, half price entry on Sun, win my new computer money in that

Originally Posted by RDB

Hi,

If you have any particular problems with Holdem Manager we would be happy to help you resolve them. Please let us know what is wrong. Does the program not work for you?

I have had big problems converting from HEM1 to HEM2. HEM1 worked fine, but HEM2 won`t talk to Postgres. I spent ages working through the troubleshooting steps on the HEM site and finished up uninstalling my anti-virus and firewall, as suggested. None of it worked and, to be honest, I have given up. Life is too short to waste that much time on a piece of software.

I know that many users have found HEM2 good, but for me it`s been a disaster. Paid good money to "upgrade" from a program that worked to one that doesn`t.

I completely agree, I paid good money to upgrade to a progamme I dont like from a programme I do like.

I downloaded the free beta for pokertracker 4 just a day or two back to see the differences between it and HM2. The program seems pretty cool... I don't know how long it will remain active as I've seen no trial period date. Think it's been in Beta testing for awhile tho'... so far so good as I have not run into any problems with the HUD or anything else yet... Might be worth a try...

I also notice that people are still using HM1 as opposed to HM2. When they changed to version 2 did they really mess up the feel that HM1 had THAT bad? I never used HM1 and used HM2 briefly with slight problems... Seems like a lot of players think so... just wondering...

Originally Posted by Egon Towst

I have had big problems converting from HEM1 to HEM2. HEM1 worked fine, but HEM2 won`t talk to Postgres. I spent ages working through the troubleshooting steps on the HEM site and finished up uninstalling my anti-virus and firewall, as suggested. None of it worked and, to be honest, I have given up. Life is too short to waste that much time on a piece of software.

I know that many users have found HEM2 good, but for me it`s been a disaster. Paid good money to "upgrade" from a program that worked to one that doesn`t.

If you send an email to us in support we would be glad to schedule a remote support session to help solve any problems you might be having with SQL.

Please email http://www.holdemmanager.com/teamviewer. Please let us know what time zone you are in and what time/days are convenient for you.

Please read this important information before our teamviewer session. We cannot do the teamviewer session until all those issues are addressed below:
1 - Make sure you have updated your windows using the "Windows Update" feature http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/thanks.aspx?ln=en&&thankspage=5
* - Make sure windows is fully updated until 'No New Important Updates are Found' (this may require multiple restarts and multiple 'check for updates'), including Internet Explorer 9 (even if you use a different web browser) and change your Windows Control Panel > Regional Settings Format to English (USA).
2 - Make sure Holdem Manager is updated to the latest version http://www.holdemmanager.com/store/downloads-manuals.php
3 - Please make sure you have access to a good connection, we cannot provide support on really slow connections
4 - Please allow us full access otherwise it slows down the speed at which we can fix the issue

Originally Posted by Ezekiel162

....

I also notice that people are still using HM1 as opposed to HM2. When they changed to version 2 did they really mess up the feel that HM1 had THAT bad? I never used HM1 and used HM2 briefly with slight problems... Seems like a lot of players think so... just wondering...

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/45/software/holdem-manager-2-vs-1-a-1210845/ has some good info regarding the topic of 'HM1 vs HM2' as well as some good info about general HM2 performance and our plans for a major upgrade in the near future to further improve the performance.

Regards,

fozzy71



I am going to quote the 2 most pertinent posts from that thread directly into this thread:

Originally Posted by antneye

HEM 2 has been getting a lot of hate, but most of it is due to initial launch issues that have been resolved. I actively worked with both PT4 and HEM 2 over the past few months and the clear winner was HEM for me as a cash player.

There is one nagging bug that remains for me that relates to Merge LHE hands, but after that is resolved (expected to be fixed shortly) there is nothing that PT4 offers that HEM2 does not deliver and there is plenty that HEM2 delivers that PT4 does not.

At the end of the day though, it will just boil down to user preference. Each has a loyal fan base. I just thought I'd give you my 2 cents having tried both.

Originally Posted by Jim Varnon

Hi Guys.

As the previous responder indicated, the HM2 response time is much faster for the vast majority of users. This is because Hero hands are cached and then subsequently recalled from memory. This is much faster than reading hands from disk again each time a new report is loaded or a filter is changed.

The users affected by some lag are primarily either (i) users with minimal RAM available or (ii) users with extremely large databases.

We are finalizing testing on an update that improve performance for all users but the primary benefit is focused on users in the two categories above. The updated version caches fewer Hero hands when we internally identify that the user falls into either of the two categories.

This performance update will also reduce the initial launch time for HM2 for all users and addresses some lag reported by users that are multi-tabling more than 12+ tables at a time.

Lastly, although HM2 hand import speeds are already well above anything previously available before, the hand import speeds for all users after the update are even faster.

The update I am referencing will be the update that follows the one that we are targeting to release within the next 7 days.

Thanks

Jim Varnon

Originally Posted by Egon Towst

I know that many users have found HEM2 good, but for me it`s been a disaster. Paid good money to "upgrade" from a program that worked to one that doesn`t.

Originally Posted by Colbefc

I completely agree, I paid good money to upgrade to a progamme I dont like from a programme I do like.

Sorry to hear you guys actually paid for this before you found out how much you dislike it. Just curious why you didn't try the free trial before you paid for the program? Even though I'm a long-tine HM1 user, once I downloaded the free trial it was obvious pretty quickly that HM2 is NOT for me. Still haven't downloaded and tried PT4, but I can't imagine that it'd be worse than HM2, so my current plan is to stick with HM1 until it quits working then switch to PT4. If I find I hate PT4, too, then I guess I'm just completely out of luck.

Originally Posted by Ezekiel162

I also notice that people are still using HM1 as opposed to HM2. When they changed to version 2 did they really mess up the feel that HM1 had THAT bad? I never used HM1 and used HM2 briefly with slight problems... Seems like a lot of players think so... just wondering...

Yep, I would happily use HM1 forever, but the good folks at HM need to make their money too, so I'm sure they'll eventually stop supporting it. (Not being sarcastic, well not too much, just a fact of life). Anyway, HM2 is so different from HM1 that its more like an entirely new program than just a simple upgrade (downgrade?) to HM1.

As Egon said, life is simply too short to spend huge amounts of time wrestling with an "improved" program that replaces and older, but still entirely sufficient, program. The whole reason that I chose HM1 over PT3 was it's intuitive feel and ease of use. That's all gone with HM2.

So, if you want to spend huge amounts of time trying to figure-out your software and feel that you absolutely must have every new latest and greatest feature, with the huge learning curve that entails, then by all means go for HM2. If you just want a good, perfectly functional, intuitive program that gives you all the info you'd ever need, HM1 is perfectly fine (until it stops being supported, that is).

Honestly guys, I find myself tweaking and prodding HM2 a lot less than I did HM1. Maybe I use it differently than some of you, but I don't find HM2 harder to use at all -- just different. I realize some people are set in their ways and don't always embrace change, while I tend to enjoy being on the bleeding edge of any software (it's a curse of being a software developer I guess). I just much prefer HM2 over HM1, and have since the early alpha testing days when I first got involved with it. Sure, I've had some annoying HM2 quirks here and there, but so did I with HM1 and PT3. Overall I've been extremely satisfied with HM2 and really don't understand all the hate. I'd never want to go back to HM1, and had already deleted it and never looked back before HM2 was even in beta.

Originally Posted by dmorris68

Honestly guys, I find myself tweaking and prodding HM2 a lot less than I did HM1. Maybe I use it differently than some of you, but I don't find HM2 harder to use at all -- just different. I realize some people are set in their ways and don't always embrace change, while I tend to enjoy being on the bleeding edge of any software (it's a curse of being a software developer I guess). I just much prefer HM2 over HM1, and have since the early alpha testing days when I first got involved with it. Sure, I've had some annoying HM2 quirks here and there, but so did I with HM1 and PT3. Overall I've been extremely satisfied with HM2 and really don't understand all the hate. I'd never want to go back to HM1, and had already deleted it and never looked back before HM2 was even in beta.

+100 couldn't have said it better myself

Originally Posted by Big_Rudy

Sorry to hear you guys actually paid for this before you found out how much you dislike it.

I don`t know whether I like it or not, because I never succeeded in getting it to work.

I bought it because I assumed that HEM1 would cease to be supported at some point and it seemed natural to modernise. The price was insignificant as a proportion of my poker bankroll.

I am a lot more upset over the loss of my time than over the money. I expected a fifteen minute upgrade and spent half a day on it. That was very unexpected considering that, as some of you will know, I am more than averagely competent with computers (I am in charge of the IT function, among my responsibilities at my day job).

Whilst their offer of remote assistance is generous, that`s another chunk of time I will have to allocate. It may actually be a better solution for me to forget it and just buy something that will work out of the box. I haven`t decided yet. I will report back in this thread.

To be honest I wont be using HM1 much either from now on. 95% of my play is now sit n go's at Inter Poker on the IPN network and neither HM1 or HM2 auto import the results of these and I play so many that to imput them by hand is impossible

Originally Posted by dmorris68

Honestly guys, I find myself tweaking and prodding HM2 a lot less than I did HM1. Maybe I use it differently than some of you, but I don't find HM2 harder to use at all -- just different. I realize some people are set in their ways and don't always embrace change, while I tend to enjoy being on the bleeding edge of any software (it's a curse of being a software developer I guess). I just much prefer HM2 over HM1, and have since the early alpha testing days when I first got involved with it. Sure, I've had some annoying HM2 quirks here and there, but so did I with HM1 and PT3. Overall I've been extremely satisfied with HM2 and really don't understand all the hate. I'd never want to go back to HM1, and had already deleted it and never looked back before HM2 was even in beta.

Congratulations. You are just the type of person HM2 is perfect for. For those of us who prefer to spend our time actually playing poker instead of futzing with software, not so much.

Originally Posted by Big_Rudy

Congratulations. You are just the type of person HM2 is perfect for. For those of us who prefer to spend our time actually playing poker instead of futzing with software, not so much.

Did you miss the part of his quote where he said he spends LESS time tweaking HM2 then HM1. I for one also prefer HM2. It just has more features to offer than HM1. It took me like a week of using it before I liked it more than HM1. But that was simply because I didn't understand it completely at first. Much like I didn't appreciate HM1 fully until I got used to it.

Originally Posted by Colbefc

To be honest I wont be using HM1 much either from now on. 95% of my play is now sit n go's at Inter Poker on the IPN network and neither HM1 or HM2 auto import the results of these and I play so many that to imput them by hand is impossible

I play inter poker and get auto import working on sngs and mtts no prob, did you get the latest update from the forum?

Thanks Dan, I'll make sure I get the latest update, It is good to know that someone has got HM to auto import with Inter, I thought it only worked on ring games there, not sng and mtt's, thanks.

Originally Posted by Big_Rudy

Congratulations. You are just the type of person HM2 is perfect for. For those of us who prefer to spend our time actually playing poker instead of futzing with software, not so much.

Yeah I think you misread the point I was making, which was about embracing change. Some hate to see their beloved software change and will resist it to an almost irrational degree, while I look forward to and enjoy software change. Especially if it's an improvement. IMO, HM2 is an improvement over HM1, and I don't spend more time "futzing" with it, as I pointed out in the very first sentence.

Hm2 relaly is terrible. What's the best substitute? I can't handle this. Am I just goign to have to get rid of it?

you really have to upgrade the ram, the standard on a 32bit system is 2G , 64bit system is 4G...but i do love pokertracker cause it work well with me other then poker office. but i fav, tracker more then office

They changed things so much that HM1 and HM2 might as well be by different companies and I wanted an improvement on HM1 not a completely new program, but I guess thats just me. I am too old for new technology, I used to love it but not these day, I am using a 10 year old mobile phone cos though I want a new one dont want to have to learn how to use it
I still cant get HM1 to work with Inter Poker sng's and mtt's, they auto import but all the numbers are wrong

Originally Posted by dmorris68

Yeah I think you misread the point I was making, which was about embracing change. Some hate to see their beloved software change and will resist it to an almost irrational degree, while I look forward to and enjoy software change. Especially if it's an improvement. IMO, HM2 is an improvement over HM1, and I don't spend more time "futzing" with it, as I pointed out in the very first sentence.

Agree with this. Also agree that there are plenty of people out there who embrace change just for change's sake. Absolutely nothing wrong with HM1 and upgrade was only needed to put more cash in the hands of the people at HM.

Originally Posted by Colbefc

They changed things so much that HM1 and HM2 might as well be by different companies and I wanted an improvement on HM1 not a completely new program, but I guess thats just me. I am too old for new technology, I used to love it but not these day, I am using a 10 year old mobile phone cos though I want a new one dont want to have to learn how to use it
I still cant get HM1 to work with Inter Poker sng's and mtt's, they auto import but all the numbers are wrong

No, it's NOT just you. Plenty of people, yes- myself included, are unhappy with HM2. At the end of the day things will break into two groups; those who like the change and will embrace it, and those who hate the change and will dump HM altogether when HM1 quits working and find an alternative. If there's any question, I'm among the latter.