Poker Articles

By Fox | Published Dec 16 2005, 05:32 AM
PokerTracker - Simply the best stat tracking software out there especially for the bigger sites. It's always nice to sit down at a table and see that you already have a thousand hands logged on two of your opponents and you know that one of them is a huge fish. It doesn't get better than that. While PT (as we call it) can be a little tough to learn at first it is an invaluable tool once you get used to it.



PokerTracker has three primary uses -

Improving your own game - Once you can sort all your hands and see where you are winning and losing you can begin to plug holes in your game and immediately improve your win rate. When I first got Pokertracker I discovered that I was losing money calling raises in middle position with AQ. Once I stopped doing that I started making money on every position with AQ and my win rate improved. It was the first of many lessons I have learned from PokerTracker , and my game has improved drastically because of it.

Tracking your opponents - When I tell civilians (non-poker players) that I play online for a living they always ask the same question. "But how can read someone's face online?" Let's look at an example of a hand and what kind of tells we can get in live and online games.

You are on the big blind with 67s and the small blind raises. Getting good odds against a possible steal with no other opponents you call the raise and see the flop. The flop is 67J rainbow and you bet out after the small blind checks and he calls. The turn is an ace and the small blind checks again, only this time when you bet he raises you.

A check raise here leaves you in a tough situation. The pot is giving you pretty good odds, and you have to be at least 80% sure that you are beaten to fold here. Playing online you almost always have to call if you don't have any information on your opponent because you may very well be ahead of a hand like AQ. In a live game it would be tough to get a tell that was strong enough to allow you to fold profitably as well.

If you have PokerTracker and a large number of hands on your opponent your decision becomes easy, and almost always correct. If you have two thousand hands logged on this opponent and they have only check raised on the turn 4 times and won the hand all 4 times you can let your two pair go quite easily because you are certainly beaten. If you see that your opponent has check raised on the turn 40 times, and only won 23 of them, you can certainly call profitably.

Finding the fish - If you keep tables open for a while before you play you can easily find the tables with lots of fish and know who they are before you site down. We call it "data mining" and it can be incredibly profitable to have the ability to sit down only at tables that are well stocked with fish. I leave 4 tables open any time I am not using my computer, and when I sit down to play I can easily pick the best two of the four tables by looking at the statistics of the players. PokerTracker is the best fish finder there is, and like 2cents said (once he took my advice and bought Pokertracker) - "Dude this isn't even fair! It's like stealing!"



I highly recommend an add-on program called PAHUD, which can be found at www.pokeracesoftware.com. At $25 it's a steal to have your opponent's PT stats displayed right on the table for you all the time. Gametime+ is a lesser product that does the same thing as PAHUD and it is free, but the $25 investment in PAHUD is certainly worth it. With PAHUD and PokerTracker you don't need to see your opponents face, you can see his whole game displayed right there on the table next to his name.

For information on using PokerTracker check my blog for entries with Pokertracker in the title or check out the forums on PokerTracker.com . My blog entitled Stats Week for Fox will also give you a jump-start to analyzing your own statistics.

If you are serious about raising your game to a new level then it's time to give PokerTracker a try!