A Look at Poker Tracker - Professional Poker Software

By Thomas Kearns

The best software for evaluating your game and that of your opponents is PokerTracker. This remarkable software will make a record of each and every hand of poker you play online and sort them into a user friendly database so you can see your plays exactly, and even better, your opponents play. The pros use this, why not you? How it works:

Online poker rooms will automatically store detailed hand histories on your hard drive for every hand of poker that you play. PokerTracker will then import those hand histories into a database and allow you to compile stats on yourself to help to plug leaks in your game.

The software also lets you see your opponents strengths and weaknesses so you take advantage of the flaws in their game. Since PokerTracker is such a great tool for record keeping, you will know how many hands you have played, for how many hours, how many you have won and lost, give you a rate per hour of your play, and whether you have a net profit or loss to show for all that. It actually does more than that, too, but the statistical capabilities of the software is what makes it such an essential tool for the serious poker player.

The software will let you look at how aggressively or passively you play your hands and how loose or tight is the play. Again, you will get all this information on your opponents as well. It will zero in on those times you get too relaxed with your beginning play and when you start playing too many hands. This is one area that you probably have not looked into yet, and PokerTracker finds it and brings it to your attention immediately. It will also keep stats on your checkraises, showdown wins, how often you go to showdown and a number of other vital statistics of your game.

With this software you can look at and judge the performance of every type of starting hand that you have played. These hands can then be sorted by position so you can see the places where you are making money and those where you are losing. Obviously, you want to cut out the losing hands and play only the winners making you a more profitable (and more formidable) poker player. If you cannot look at a history tracking the hands you have played in what position, you also cannot tell which hands are making you money and which ones are costing you. Most of us remember the outstanding winners and the big losers, but it is the not so memorable hands in between that separate the professional poker player from the amateur. Don't be an amateur.

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