HM2 sucks, is Poker Tracker any good

[Ezekiel162]

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...

 

[JusSumguy]

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

 

[dmorris68]

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.

 

[Ezekiel162]

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...

 

[Colbefc]

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

 

[dmorris68]

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.

 

[Colbefc]

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

 

[Egon Towst]

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.

 

[Colbefc]

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

 

[Ezekiel162]

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...

 

[RDB]

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 hm2support@holdemmanager.com, with a link to this thread, and your forum name, so we can schedule a Teamviewer session. Download the Teamviewer Quick Support Module - 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

....

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...

This thread 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:

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.

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

 

[Big_Rudy]

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.

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.

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).

 

[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.

 

[absoluthamm]

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

 

[Egon Towst]

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.

 

[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

 

[Big_Rudy]

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.

 

[danprince10]

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.

 

[danprince10]

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?

 

[Colbefc]

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.

 

[dmorris68]

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.

 

[andrewsz1991]

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?

 

[Dreams of Tragedy]

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

 

[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

 

[Big_Rudy]

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.

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.