PokerTracker Reference Thread

[FryGuy14]

How much does these "poker trackers" actually improve your game? I know there is some math involved with poker, but with the purchase of one of these programs how much of a difference in your game can you expect to see? I am just curious before I actually break down and buy one. I have read some good things about texas calculatum, any thoughts?

 

[Pothole]

The program helps ring players pick soft tables, ie players with a high percentage of putting money in the pot, eg a calling station, stats also show how much a player has won/lost, too many stats to list.

 

[SavagePenguin]

The program helps ring players pick soft tables, ie players with a high percentage of putting money in the pot, eg a calling station, stats also show how much a player has won/lost, too many stats to list.

What program? PokerTracker doesn't help you pick soft tables, though others do. And from what I can tell, most of these programs are banned because they use a public database.

Basically, if you collect the stats yourself it's OK to use (so PokerTracker is fine). If the program collects stats and shares them via a public database, it's banned on pokerstars. I know Poker-Edge is such software.

• In general, what kind of programs are acceptable?
• The following types of programs are generally acceptable:
  1. Programs (or charts) that simply tell you odds, starting hand recommendations, etc.
  2. Programs that profile your opponents, but make use of only information which you have accumulated by your own play.
  3. Macros and Hotkey programs that don't have any bearing on gameplay logic. For example, you can use AutoHotKey, MacroExpress or AutoIt3 to make it such that you "bet the pot" when you press the 'P' key, but you cannot use these or other utilities to create an autofolder that folds poor starting hands, or that automates advice or actions from any other program.

The only real con I see with PokerTracker is that you might start using it as a crutch. That is, instead of observing a table someone might watch TV and then rely only on their collected stats to make decisions. The stats you see are more reliable than your own memory, but there's more to it than that.

But being able to see *how* people have played is a huge advantage. If someone has a huge aggression factor, you can make bigger moves with less of a hand. And if you see that someone is weak post flop you can steal steal steal.

PokerTracker comes in handy when you're playing several tables and someone who you don't remember acting yet has raised under the gun. In that situation the first thing I do is look at his VP$IP (voluntarily put money in pot) percentage. If it's high, then he's an idiot and I have nothing to fear. If his VP$IP is 8% then he's very tight and I'm only getting involved with something big.

 

[Pothole]

The last paragraph of your post was my whole point, pick tables where the majority of players has a high VPIP %. Poker Tracker has an available add on that data mines the poker site, PS allows PT as long as the user does not use data mining software, other sites allow it.

 

[FryGuy14]

So for a guy who is mostly a tournament player would it help me increase my ROI? Also do these programs calculate all of the stats for you or is it something I have to do after every hand?

 

[YoungGee]

thanks for this info is going be helpful as im a newbie with this pokertracker program once again thanks

 

[KacieNicole]

Sorry to be a noob but can anyone that has it explain how it actually works...? Is it just some software that you download and run and it works for itself....like analysing hands n stuff or is more complicated?
I am just wonder before I take the step into purchasing it.

You could also direct me to a diff. thread if there is one.

 

[Richard7787]

Guys was wondering if anyone had any links to a guide on creating graphs with PT, im hopeless with them cheers.

 

[dj11]

While this thread was originally prepared primarily for PT2, with the emergence of PT3 it should be included.

As of this post PT3 has actually gone back into beta after its first commercial release. I have beta12 running, and it seems quick and pretty stable.

I am primarily a tourney player. So I can not speak about multi-tabling ring games. The folks who developed Poker Tracker have shown a tendency to prefer ring over tourney during the beta period, so this might hold true for ring game play. I follow the forums at PT and the gripes have slowed considerably since beta 12 came out. I expect either build 3 or beta 13 in mid June, but have no reason to expect that other than personal observation.

This product is damn close to being indispensable.

For a tourney player at this point I have found that the most important thing to me is tracking my money. PT is doing a great job, still needs refinement, but I have improved my game via a much better understanding, and with more control, of bankroll Management. I know when I'm stretching it, and when I'm not.

The HUD, which is built in to PT3 is functional. Up until beta12 it was flaky, with many problems. Most of those are solved. Again, there will be more refinements with each improved release, but it is very useful as is.

Currently they are supporting 6 online poker sites or networks. With any new release they will be adding sites/networks.

I can't imagine not having it now. I resisted it, or any poker program for a long long time. Boy what a personal blunder that was!

There will be a 2 month trial period after it goes back to commercial release. In the mean time you can use it in its current unlimited beta stage.

If I had to choose between PT3 and HoH (Harrington on HoldEm) I'd go insane as to which offers the better value.......

EDIT add for Richard; experiment with PT3 and in particular with the filters. Once you have chosen any particular filter, like games played since xx/xx/xx or size of buy-in, or site or whatever, then when you hit the graph tab it will be a graph of that filtered data. Remember to clear your filters as a routine move. You can save particular filters if you find they are extra useful. The filters will likely be the most important thing PT3 has to offer.

At the top of the PT site there is a banner for a StoxPoker video giving a pretty good overview of both what PT3 can do and how it might be used and configured. At this point that video is free. I think perhaps it may always be free, but have no proof of that assumption. I know Stox does coaching, and charges for it. But this may be a case of that video providing so much relief to the PT folks that they are paying for it. Again, speculation.

 

[Richard7787]

Thanks DJ will take a look

 

[telboy]

i need help please

i down loaded pt today but when i try and go inyo it, it keeps saying that a version of poker tracker is already running
What can i do

 

[Makwa]

go to pokertracker.com and message support, they are very helpful...

 

[AUen Boi]

i down loaded Poker Tracker today but when i try and go inyo it, it keeps saying that a version of poker tracker is already running
What can i do

I had that problem as well. Only re-booting cured it.

 

[SavagePenguin]

I played a few play money tournaments. PokerTracker thought they were real money so it have me down for some incredible losses.

Any way to manually fix this? (For the record, I won 2/3 of those play money tourneys)

 

[Makwa]

I played a few play money tournaments. PokerTracker thought they were real money so it have me down for some incredible losses.

Any way to manually fix this? (For the record, I won 2/3 of those play money tourneys)

There is no cure for wasting your time with play money tourneys, except stop it!

 

[dj11]

Beta 14 is fresh off the press.

Savage, purge your database (this should wipe it out), then download and install install beta 14, then re import all your processed hands, it is likely the play money games will not process. Otherwise there is no way to manually manipulate individual results yet.

 

[bob_tiger]

ok excellent thread, exactly what i needed, i will have to look at this tommorow, since im going to bed

 

[my3sons]

Ban the trackers

Ibelieve all these poker tracking systems should be baned on all sites why should someone with a few bucks be able to see my pattern of play an betting an stats,for instance if your in the wsop in Vegas when you register do they give a profile on all the other registered players no they don't it's up to you to take your own notes an thats how ot should be online. I think this is another form of cheating.Just saying thats what i think.

 

[bob_tiger]

Hi spomebody knows that the poker tracker is accepted at rooms like poker stars and full tilt.

if you are asking if pokertracker is accepted at tilt and stars then the answer is yes.

 

[dj11]

Beta 15 released.

Beta 15 promises many refinements, and improved performance, especially for multi-tables.

WARNING. the update process will convert something in the database and a warning when restarting B15 for the first time suggests it could take many hours!

I'm mainly a tourney player, and this may explain why my 40,000 hand database was converted in about 3 seconds, but many of you might be having million hand ring game databases and this could be a serious issue for you. Reading through the PT forums, I see that many are getting very fast conversions, 4 seconds for anywhere between 50K hands and 700K hands, so this warning may be primarily cautious pessimism. The cluster was much faster, and this time the vacuum after the cluster took the longest. Analyze was seemingly faster as well.

I suggest we gather times vs primary type (ring or tourney and approx % if mixed) vs database size (in hands) for this conversion, and we can then pass that along to Poker Tracker. They get a lot of useless stuff over there and a group effort could bring a smile to their faces.

It did not add any new sites, but states it improved performance at those it already imports.

I have not used it yet.

 

[BelgoSuisse]

Just downloaded beta 15. DB conversion was instantaneous. Clustering is a bit long (minutes). Vacuuming and analysing very fast. I'll now try multitabling FTP and see if it's really improved in terms of performance.

 

[Makwa]

Just downloaded beta 15. DB conversion was instantaneous. Clustering is a bit long (minutes). Vacuuming and analysing very fast. I'll now try multitabling Full Tilt Poker and see if it's really improved in terms of performance.

Did you win?
Im still confused about whether to download new version with or without 'PostSQL database,' if anyone can explain what this means I would be grateful. Have a PM into PT support but no answer yet.

 

[BelgoSuisse]

Im still confused about whether to download new version with or without 'PostSQL database,' if anyone can explain what this means I would be grateful. Have a PM into Poker Tracker support but no answer yet.

PostgreSQL is the database engine used by PokerTracker. It's an open source project ( PostgreSQL: The world's most advanced open source database ), so it's not developed by the PokerTracker people, and it should not change between PT releases, so you would only need to download it once.

 

[BelgoSuisse]

Just downloaded beta 15. DB conversion was instantaneous. Clustering is a bit long (minutes). Vacuuming and analysing very fast. I'll now try multitabling Full Tilt Poker and see if it's really improved in terms of performance.

I played for a couple of hours using the HUD on 6 FTP tables with the "Enhance Hud Performance" option selected, which apparently just makes the HUD solid instead of transparent. Didn't have any trouble with it.

 

[babyreid]

i think this would be useful for a very serious player, someone looking to actually make a noticeable living from poker. i like to judge my play by the results i see, i dont worry about stats and all that, i am more concerned with each table and how the players there act. each table is so different you cant always go by probability and all that