Play Poker

There are a few poker tools that are so powerful that they are actually essential. At the very least, you need one tracking program like PokerTracker or Holdem Manager. Either one will do you just fine – just make sure you get one. The price looks expensive at first but these programs pay for themselves many times over. The money you earn at the poker tables because of these tools will more than make up for the up-front cost.

1. PokerTracker

PokerTracker is an incredibly sophisticated piece of software that saves every single hand you play poker and stores it in a database. From that database, you can see the playing styles of every single opponent you’ve ever played against. You can see how often they raise preflop, what hands they’ve shown down and much more. The software also provides a heads-up display that you can use at the tables. Above every player’s avatar, PokerTracker displays a customizable list of statistics on that person. You can also view your own stats, create earnings charts and use it to aid you in table selection. PokerTracker is a very powerful tool and every serious poker player has a copy of it.

2.Holdem Manager

Holdem Manager is a direct competitor to PokerTracker. It’s a great program as well and it also saves every holdem hand you’ve ever played to a database. You can view old hand histories, get all the stats on your opponents and use a customizable heads-up display at the table. PokerTracker has been around for a long time but a lot of poker players have made the switch to Holdem Manager. A major selling point for Holdem Manager is that low stakes players can get a copy of it for cheaper.

3.PokerStove

This powerful piece of software is 100% free of charge so get a copy of it right away. PokerStove is an advanced poker odds calculator that can run the calculations better than any other piece of software on the market. PokerStove isn’t a piece of software that you use at the tables like Holdem Manager or PokerTracker. Instead, it’s best used after your poker sessions when analyzing hands and seeing how different hands match up against each other. The best thing about it is that it allows you to work with hand ranges rather than specific hands. For example, let’s say you want to know what the odds are that your JJ will win against an opponent’s range of likely hands. You know that your opponent is willing to go all-in preflop with AA, KK, AK, QQ, JJ and TT. Well, all you have to do is plug in your poker hands and the opponent’s range of hands and PokerStove will tell you what your chances of winning are based on the hands your opponent is likely to have.