Poker Forums

Been awhile since I've started a new thread so I thought I'd post some info on really useful software that I use to make me a more profitable player. And by all means if there is anything that you don't see here that you'd like to add go right ahead, as I am really not familiar with the tournament software available.

Okay first item is Pokertracker/Hold'em Manger. If your the least bit serious about your game and improving this is a must. PT has a 60 day trial so if you download it and use it well, it should easily pay for itself by the end of the trial. I'm pretty sure that HEM's trial period is only 2 weeks but both programs are excellent. For those who do not know, tracking software imports each hand you play into a database. A wide variety of statistics are extracted from all the information on each action, by each player in every hand. You can then configure the HUD(heads up display) to show specific stats by each players name right on the poker table. The software is also great for keeping records of all your sessions and you can run different filters for isolating specific situations to analyze your performance or the performance of others.

Pokertracker 3 is available at PokerTracker - Online Poker Tracking & Analysis Software Tool
Hold'em Manger is available at :: HOLD'EM MANAGER :: Online Poker Tracking and Analysis Software

Okay next on the list is TableNinja for Poker Stars players.

TableNinja is a really nifty program that will make multitabling a breeze for you. If you already play 4 tables it should enable you to easily handle 8. Before purchasing it for $25 I was playing 18 tables and it was often tough to keep up with the action because of all the clicking, not to mention I'd often have a sore wrist after a long session. Now, I barely use my mouse while playing and 24 tables is a breeze for me. TableNinja allows you to configure hotkeys to perform just about every action you will need while playing, and opening tables. All your bets, checks, calls, folds, and raises can be assigned to a hotkey. You can set hotkeys to increase or decrease your bet amount as well. You can also set predefined bet amounts on each street. I make my open raises 3x the big blind and add 1bb/limper and tableninja automatically does that! I have my post flop bet amounts automatically set to 70% of the pot. If I want to raise or lower that amount I just tap the appropriate key a few times. There is a hotkey for leaving tables, sitting out next big blind on selected table or all tables, adding yourself to the waitlist or joining tables. You can set tableninja to automatically sit you at the table when it opens and buy you in for a predetermined amount. One of my favorite features is that it automatically clicks your timebank for you.

A new addition to this software is the sit-n-go sensei which is still under beta testing but looks pretty good for sit-n-go players. From what I can tell it can open up sng's for you automatically, and some sng specific betting patterns. This program paid for itself in my first session with it.

TableNinja does have a trial version and is available at TableNinja - Hotkeys and Utilities for PokerStars.

There is a similar program for Full Tilt users called PokerShortCuts and is available at Windy Hill Technology LLC. I've never used this software but it seems pretty good. It is now compatible with pokerstars as well, which is very interesting as it could make playing both sites simultaneously quite easy. Hmmm... 48 tables... ahhh!!!!

Okay my next program is PokerStove. This is a great piece of free software and its useful to cash or tournament players. Pokerstove allows you to enter in your cards, the flop turn or river cards, and your opponents cards. You then hit evaluate and it pumps out your equity in the hand. Its really great for analyzing your play.

You can also assign ranges to different players in a hand. This is the bread and butter of this tool imo as it has taught me to think in terms of ranges and evaluate where I stand against my opponents perceived range of hands. Its very rare that we're ever able to put our opponents on an exact hand, but you can put them on a very narrow range.

When you look at your HUD and see a player at your table with a pfr of
3% do you know what that really means? PokerStove can help you with that. There is a cool slider bar, so you just slide it on over to 3% and 99+ and AQs+ get highlighted. Its not that intuitive though, so sometimes you may want to substitute some hands that you feel belong in that players range. For instance, you might decide that player would probably just limp 99 and raise AQo+. You can then key in that range for a player, key in your hand and see how well you stand up against that range.

Get it now for free at
PokerStove: Poker Software and Analysis

Another cool program I just recently found is called All-in-Expert. Its kind of similar to pokerstove in that it deals with ranges but its just for preflop play. You put in the amount in the current pot, the amount you have to call all-in and define your opponents range, and the software pumps out a grid of all possible hands and tells you whether you should fold or go all in with each hand and it gives you your ROI against your viillains range.

This tool has helped me a lot in dealing with those super tight shortstack players that only play premium hands. I was raising them all-in with hands like AK and JJ which was actually a mistake. The only hands I could profitably raise them with were QQ+. Even when I raised first in to 3xbb and they pushed all in for 20bb I found that calling with AK was a mistake. The better your pot odds get, the more hands you can profitably add into your calling range.

All-in-Expert is free and available here ALL IN Expert.com

Going to check out the 2nd hot key program and the all in expert. Thanks JM. My wife paid for 1 month of DC as well for fathers day, so I'm trying to download all I can right now.
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Will you be able to play them after the membership expires?

I got the 7 day trial and downloaded like 15 videos and I can still play em. I'm pretty sure that Cardrunners has a licensing feature that doesn't allow you to do this but DC doesn't yet as far as I know.

Btw Zoe, you said you sent me a PM awhile ago but I didnt receive it.

not seen AIexpert before, I will definatly have a look (right now) - this could be very interesting with sng's - will see how it looks with icm etc.

PT3 or HEM - if you dont have this then nearly EVERYONE at your table has an edge over you!
pokerstove I use daily

on party, stars and FT anyone that plays sng's should check out sngegt , which was a powerful 'live' icm calculator but is now freeware. and very educational

I only play at sunpoker at the mo (has an excellant loyalty program!) on ipoker network.
For this site you must have minimaxmod or else the mini view tables will tilt you before you start. (it also has basic hotkeys)

I'd like to expand on this topic if I could... ( First for Zoe, the vids are yours for life, and can be DL either wmv or MP4. Some vids also have ipod ready format. Also, I signed up for the monthly membership, but will cancel after that one month. Already emailed DC, and that was their susgestion, very nice folks.)

Anyway, my question is, I hear some of you talk about your daily use and training/review...what is your tipical day like? When and how do you train/review? I ask because I think it would be good to mimic and/or use to adjust to my life.

Thanks!
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I spend about 10 hours per week reading poker forums and participating in discussions. I like to review my play at the end of each day but sometimes I just go through the big pots lost and stove some ranges and see if I played a hand badly so that I can try better next time.

I run a lot of filters in my PTDB on my play to make sure I'm improving in different facets of my game. The two that come to mind are my play out of the blinds and when I'm facing a preflop 3bet.

train/review - damn I keep meaning to....
i work full time, baby blah blah. only get to play 2 hours a night after all gone to sleep so not much time for review/learning ( i just wanna play!!!!!!)

I have pokerstove and a quick pot odd calc open at all times, and go over really 'hard decision' hands just after they have been played ( i dont have 21 tables open!).

on PT3 you can set a marker to review a hand, I mark 'awkward' spots and set time once a week to review most reviewable hands.

hope that helps

How does the mark hand for review feature work? I've tried it but I don't know where to find it in my db.

Good info, thanks again.

On HEM, you just have to click over the "won last pot" stat on your hud, which brings up the HH , which can be marked for later review. Just fyi.
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