Poker Stats Software
Poker
statistics software can be an essential tool in any player's toolbox. Smart
poker players review their stats to find leaks in their game.
Poker Statistics Software for Cash Game Players
A cash game player needs different statistics than a tournament player or a sit n go player. For example:
- A cash game player wants to know how profitable it is to raise with a certain range of hands from the button. Poker statistics software can provide actual profitability numbers for this situation.
- A cash game player wonders if it's worthwhile to aggressively defend blinds with certain hands. Poker statistics software can provide actual numbers for this situation.
- A cash game player decides to be more or less aggressive pre-flop. Poker statistics software can provide actual data about how many river bets paid off with 2nd or 3rd pair.
Poker Statistics Software for Tournament Players
A tournament player needs different statistics than a cash game player. For example:
- A tournament player wonders what places she's most likely to bust out in. Poker statistics software can provide hard data about her usual busting-out place.
- A tournament player wants to know if she's switching games at the right times in a tournament. Poker statistics can look at results based on blind sizes and stack sizes.
The most important use of poker stats software is to learn from the hard data and to improve your poker game. Poker software should be used to learn how to make better poker decisions.
Popular Poker Statistics Software Packages
Poker Edge: Besides being an odds calculator, table selector, and a heads up display, Poker Edge also tracks important statistics for both you and your opponents.
Poker Edge provides many of these stats before you even play a hand with your opponents. Poker Edge data mines information from all the major poker sites and stores the data in its database. Poker Edge makes this info on the players at your table immediately. Some of the information displayed includes
- How often an opponent steals blinds
- How often an opponent folds blinds a steal
- An opponent's BB/100
- An opponent's PFR
- An opponent's VPIP
As
of January, 2010, Poker Edge offers 3 different subscription packages,
Micro, Silver and Gold. Prices range from $4.95 a month to $40.00 a month.
Before you invest in this subscription, make sure the room you're playing at allows use of Poker Edge. Many rooms (like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker) ban the use of data mining software programs.
Poker Office: Poker Office is a subscription-based service that provides an odds calculator, a heads up display and a hand replayer. Poker Office users can also view graphs covering ranges of hands over a period of time, profit statistics, PFR statistics, and VPIP statistics. Poker Office also filters combinations of data and graphs those.
Other statistics available include:
- How often you see the flop
- How often you check/fold
- How often you check/call
- How often you check/raise
- How often you do each of these things for a specific kind of hand
- How much money you won/lost with these hands/actions
As of January 2010, the cost to subscribe to the Poker Office statistics software is $99 per year.
Poker Tracker or Hold'em Manager: Poker-tracking programs like Poker Tracker or Hold'em Manager provide the option to view the following statistics:
- River aggression
- Steal percentage
- How often someone folds to a c-bet on the flop
- How much you win or lose against a specific player
- How much you win or lose with certain hands.
All of this information is provided in the form of a spreadsheet. The data can be filtered and graphed.
As of January, 2010, both of these two tracking systems cost from $50 to $100 for a lifetime license. (These are not subscription services; they're available for a one-time fee.)
Poker Charts: Poker Charts provides poker statistics with no frills. Poker Charts is one of the most affordable poker statistic tracking software packages available. As of January, 2010, Poker Charts is free for the first month. After the first month, the subscription fee is $8 for 3 months, $12 for 6 months, or $20 for 12 months.
The Poker Charts is easy to use. All you need to do is log in and enter a "new session." A new session consists of information like where you played, what game you played, what your buy in was, how much you cashed out, and how long you played. You can also enter player notes and what place you finished in.
Poker Charts information is also easy to read. Once the information is updated, the Poker Chart stats tell you your overall stats including:
- Earnings
- Win rate
- BB/100
- ROI
- Total time played
- Averages of all these stats.
Over 40 graphs can be viewed as line graphs, bar graphs, or pie graphs. Some of these include:
- Total earnings
- Win rate by location
- Earnings by opponent
- Time spent at each location
Poker Dominator: Poker Dominator is a free service that mirrors the Poker Charts service. With Poker Dominator, players can add different sessions. Information that can be input includes where they played, what games they played, and how much they played for.
Poker Dominator takes info and then provides several different stats with it. You can look at your overall totals (for everything), your best/worst day, streaks, hours played per day or session, and win amounts per day, week or month. All of this information can also be filtered so you can view the exact stats that you need.
This is only a small list of poker stats software for poker players. A few other poker statistics software packages include:
- Poker Sharpener
- Sharp Stats
- Poker Score
- FreePokerDB.
These poker statistic software packages include many of the same features: odds calculators, HUDs, or bankroll.
Whatever program you choose, make sure it's not banned at the online poker room where you want to play.