Online poker has now become an ever-changing beast. Gone are the days when you could profit from Sit & Go tournaments with a single table. Today’s online poker players win in multi-table games, usually in tournaments of six or more tables. This guide is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the strategies and styles used by the best online poker players. It offers tips for beginners, advanced strategies for intermediate players, and detailed information on the hands you should always try to win. It also includes a section on the best players in online poker.
Your poker training strategy is one of the most important parts of your poker career. With your skills, you can’t get so many tables and so many players for no reason. The statistics available in today’s online poker rooms include millions of hands of history and what those hands tell us about player strategy. Then you can start building statistics for each player. Back in ’03, the discussion was all about understanding player types, their habits, and how to change your style to fit theirs. In modern times, it’s more about understanding the numbers of the game. With so many tables in play, you will feel free to look at the poker software left for you and make a judgment based on the statistics you provide.
You can never settle for second best when playing poker in a casino, so why would playing online be any different? There are many things to consider when choosing the best online poker tracker software, and there are many different options to choose from. We will take you through all the available online poker software and tell you which one we would choose to help you make an informed decision. It should be exactly the same when choosing the best online poker software tool to help you with your game. Keep reading for the major players in the online poker world, and frankly, you shouldn’t be without these tools.
PokerTracker
PokerTracker and Hold’em Manager are indeed the top dogs. With the latest version of PokerTracker, you can call up an incredible array of data about your opponents’ playing tendencies in real time, meaning you can compare their 3-bet ranges and donk-bet percentages in a matter of seconds.
The way most people benefit from PokerTracker 4 is through this in-depth flat screen display (often called a “HUD”). While PokerTracker 4 will add data to your game layout in almost any format you can think of, it’s actually a very useful tool for viewing your game as well.
Finally, everyone likes to know how lucky they are, and this is where the Luck Bell Curve comes in handy. Choose the session you want to evaluate, give PokerTracker a few seconds to process the statistics, and you’ll get a good laugh or some small consolation, depending on the size of the chart you drop into.
All major poker networks are covered, and installation at your local casino is just a hand or two away, which means you don’t have to be your own tech wizard to get the full functionality. The good news for Apple lovers is that Poker Tracker 4 is also compatible with the Mac.
Manager 2
Working with Poker Tracker 4, which is at the forefront of online poker software, is Hold’em Manager 2. While the two packages look the same from the outside, there are some key differences that set Hold’em Manager aside.
The sleek new dark interface may be the most immediate change to Texas Hold’em Manager, but under the hood is where the real goodies wait. The built-in report suggestion tool is perfect for those who like to check their stats with a fine-tooth comb, offering over 1,000 different stats. HEM also benefits from faster processing times, meaning those with a strong database can cut through key hands almost three times as fast as their predecessors. This is a remarkable achievement considering that Hold’em Manager has long been considered the leader in large online poker databases.
Another handy application in the Hold’em Manager 2 product is the “Table Finder 2”. This add-on allows you to launch Hold’em Manager 2 while opening the poker software and it will start searching the tables to see which players you have data on. If it finds a good table for you, it will highlight the tables you should join and provide you with statistics on potential donors. It actually helps you shoot poker fish in the online bucket, and that alone is worth the investment.
Other great poker tracking software
Sharkscope
Sharkscope will give you a snapshot of a player’s profits and losses in tournaments or Sit & Go tournaments, and show you the average buy-in of that player. It may sound basic, but these are the basis of game selection; if you have a player at your table who is playing above his normal buy-in, he is likely to be scared out of his money. Sharkscope basically helps you choose your battles selectively – oops, if you’re vain, you can even check yourself!
Icmizer
Like Pokerstove, Icmizer is a tool for those with a good mathematical foundation in poker, although after simply trying Icmizer, you can certainly get an idea of the range of hands you should use. Another similarity is that both Mac and Windows users can enjoy both equally. Icmizer is actually a website that offers a subscription service, and the $79.99 one-year option is the most economical option, allowing you to run any number of calculations. Icmizer is a great way to see how great it really is.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many options to analyze hundreds of millions of hands. Let your fingers do the work and store important statistics at your fingertips. Other features include unlimited notes, a detailed history of all MTTs, and a handy player manager to keep track of the performance of every player you play with and encounter. With over 30 million players tracked from over 500 million tournaments, you can display a player’s ROI, average buy-in, win-loss record and finish position in seconds.
If you are a budding MTT star or someone who wants to crush the cash game, then the resources are there and hopefully this article has pointed you in the right direction.
