More often than not, players fail to understand that the same way they use casual conversation with opponents to sharpen their intuition, poker software tools can help them improve their mathematical intuition. Since you found yourself here, we will assume that you are familiar with the concept behind poker strategy software. Understanding the benefits of these specialized tools can give you a tremendous edge over your opponents. However, taking these tools as your main strategy would completely miss the point of their creation. Another good way to put it: if you rely entirely on these hefty tools — you will most certainly fail. These software tools can only improve your current poker strategy, not help you become an instant-made poker pro.
Moreover, if you are not familiar with any poker strategies out there, you will have troubles with understanding how these application work in the first place. These tools are made to help you distinguish your thought processes during the game and see more clearly. They can help you understand some aspects you were missing and radically minimize the time you spend thinking about your moves. Now that we made these things clear, we can move on to further introduce you to the most popular poker tools in the industry at the moment.
PokerTracker 4
All stories about poker tools begin and end with this one. The PokerTracker franchise has been going strong for a long time, but PokerTracker 4 turned out to be the most successful version so far. One of the most important benefits of this program is its compatibility with the majority of online poker sites.
The major selling point of this poker tool is its ability to review a vast amount of data of your gameplay. This way, you are just a button away from a detailed analysis of the way you’re playing poker along with the reports about your productivity, profitability, and losses. Besides the detailed analysis of your productivity, you will also get suggestions on how to improve your current strategy that you’ve been using thus far.
On top of that, PokerTracker 4 will keep track of information your opponents have as well. This will surely help you bring your game to an entirely new level since you have compiled information about their every move in one place.
This information can be sorted into graphs or different sort of tables that will help you analyze your gameplay even faster. There, you will be presented with variance and exactly where it plays an essential role in your game so you can make a better plan for the coming round.
The installation of this tool is set up automatically after you download it, so there will be no issues with the installation process of this program. Moreover, it comes fully integrated with the vector hud engine feature to make your life even easier. We are extremely familiar with the fact that poker is a game of information, and PokerTracker 4 is there to help you become a master of it.
Equilab Calculator
This program will suit both beginners and pros, and it would be beneficial if you included it in your poker tool support. This poker tool will provide you with an opportunity to analyze the equity against a specific hand and against a range of poker hands. But what is equity, really? Long story short, equity is a term used to define your chances of winning the pot in a particular situation. This tool analyses the range of hands your opponent will most likely have, and according to that information, the software gives you equity figures so that you can deduce the possibilities of success in any given situation. You would agree, this odds calculator could come in handy.
What this app has to offer too is the ability to check the equity of your pre-flop strategy, and using this analysis, the software provides you with all the cards that could potentially come and calculates the equity of those cards as well.
The Equity Trainer is another excellent feature that allows you to prepare yourself and test your equity knowledge. When you start your Equity training, you will be practicing in a stack of different quizzes, after which, you will be provided with a certain amount in percentages, showing the knowledge you’ve accumulated about equity thus far. So, it would be good to start a ‘free trial’ before you delve deeper with this poker training software.
This is not an ordinary Equity calculator, and for that reason, it has found its way to the hard drives of many serious poker pros.
Hold’em Manager 2
This tool belongs to the family of the most used poker tools on the market; and for good reason. No matter if you are a beginner building their reputation or you are a tournament pro, this product will most certainly cater to your needs. If a poker hand history tracking program doesn’t ring a bell to you, this tool will lead you into this subject with ease. Basically, this program reads all poker hand histories and saves them to a particular database. After careful analysis, the system delivers useful information back. If you want to use it at a basic level, we can guarantee you that you will successfully keep track of all of your profit vs. losses and get an accurate statistic. Upon further examination of this data, you will get all the figures you might need, along with suggestions for your possible improvement.
But, if you wish to get the most of this tool, it might be good to use its HUD feature (heads-up display) which will surely help you beat your opponents. What’s more, this tool comes with built-in table information that will let you know which player is playing ‘loose,’ ‘aggressive,’ or ‘passive,’ helping you improve your current approach. Also, this information is displayed instantaneously and updated after every hand, making it one of the most useful poker training software tools during poker tournaments.
Poker Copilot
For the last decade, the online poker market was dominated by previously mentioned software tools, but there is always a new kid on the block. The Poker Copilot proved that they could quickly fill their rival’s shoes. The first thing that you’ll notice is that, unlike the rest of the poker software tools, Poker Copilot doesn’t require installation of additional database software, meaning that it will run straight ‘out of the box.’ The reason behind this excellent feature is that Poker Copilot was initially developed for Mac devices only, so you can expect only the best experience if you are an Apple user.
The developers also included one of the more mandatory features nowadays — the software is running while you’re in action. There will be no need to switch anything on as long as you are playing at a poker table.
The same as its rivals, this tool includes a large variety of advanced poker HUD stats — 3Bet%, Fold to 3Bet%, Attempt to Steal, Fold to Flop CBet, River CBet, and many, many others. It will be up to you, but we strongly suggest including as many HUD stats as you can.
Another exciting feature of this tool is the Leak Detector — a feature that carefully analyzes your gameplay. The analysis includes a wide array of possible scenarios, including Preflop Aggression, Blind Stealing, Suited Connectors, and Pocket Pairs. This can be especially helpful to beginners since they are not aware of their ‘leaks.’ With this poker training software, they will get a “final grade” for their every move with suggestions on what to improve. Even though the same tasks can be performed in both the Poker Tracker and the Hold’em Manager, this software is better suited for beginners.
Aside from these features, Poker Copilot provides support in tournaments and offers session reviews afterward.
For somebody who might be looking for simple-to-use software and Poker Tracker is a tad bit too complex for your taste, we would warmly suggest Poker Copilot. It doesn’t matter if you’re just looking to play some free poker or you actually want to play for real money, it will still help you improve your gameplay overall.
Final Thoughts
This was but a small sample of the ever-growing market of software tools that players find more than useful.
If you have hopes and dreams of one day becoming a professional poker player, follow in their footsteps and pack yourself with some additional weaponry.
Using this advanced poker software you can keep track of your game history, your records, but more importantly — keep track of your opponents’ hand history as well. This could help you throw that curve a ball that will get those winning odds in your corner. These tools will make all the hard decisions for you — whether to fold or play more aggressively; all you need to do is listen to them and work on improving your skills. Good luck!