Posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 11:08 pm by Philip Devitt
Those who know me are aware that I do have a weakness for the odd game of poker. I don’t consider myself to be a great player, or for that matter even a lucky one, but I do like the ambiance of sitting around a poker table with a few friends throwing chips at each other. Over the years I’ve discovered that the most effective, albeit haphazard way of playing the game is do so while getting increasingly drunk — all too frequently there have been sessions when the player who is the most drunk (or in some cases stoned) has taken home everyones money. I’ve tried online gambling, but the games never seemed as much fun when you couldn’t intimidate your opponent from behind a pair of menacing mirror sunglasses, and I always reckoned that someone somewhere was making a fair amount of cash from the rakes taken by the “house” — this seems a little unfair to me with my “friends around a table” mentality.
Poker Calculators
Those of you who have played online poker will undoubtedly have been exposed to a breed of software commonly known as “Poker Calculators”. If you aren’t a user of such software, then, rightly or wrongly, you have probably already played against someone who is using it to gain an advantage. Recent estimates indicate that up to 40% of online poker players use such tools to aid them while playing the popular “Texas Hold ‘Em” variety of poker, but how do they work and why should you use one?
Poker Calculators contain a complex array of algorithms which are used to calculate the strength of your cards and your chance of winning based on the past hands and the actions of the competing players. The simplest of algorithms are able to provide you with a decision by running the odds of your hand being the best on the table. Despite the seemingly large number card combination all professional poker players are able to quickly ascertain the value of their hand.
The first generation of Poker Calculator were standalone applications which required manual input of all known cards, the main drawback was the speed in which the user could enter the data. These were soon followed up by applications which could hook into the poker software and automatically “scrape” the cards. Future iterations could monitor every detail of the game, including how long it took for players to respond, with some programs being able to examine several tables at once, allowing the software to build up a profile of every player on the site.
Should you use these tools? In an ideal world no-one would use them as they could be construed as being a little unethical, but they do help to even out the playing field when you’re competing against the professionals and those who are mathematically gifted. While most poker sites frown upon the use of such tools, most of them do turn a blind eye and consider the simpler calculators to be acceptable 3rd party software. The poker services however, find that player profiling software to be unacceptable, especially if you have gathered statistics on players that you’ve never player before.
Hold’em Pirate
First up is a Windows utility called “Holdem Pirate” which will attempt to indicate the strength of your hand based on the information is has available. I’ve seen several reviews which compare Hold ‘em Pirate to Poker-Spy, and I’ve got to agree with the general consensus that Hold ‘em Pirate does seem to have the edge when determining the state of the table as a whole. As their website indicates, sign up and try out their poker hand analysis software and play a better game by knowing the true power of your poker hands.
| Download this awesome PROFIT MAKING POKER TOOL right NOW ! |
| Click here to try Hold’em Pirate |
How to make a living from poker
If you don’t trust the software or just want to learn a little bit more about online poker and how to improve your winning potential for No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker and Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em Poker then take a look at the “Play Online Poker As A Business” e-book from the great Dane poker player Kim Birch. His tips will help you maximise your winning potential and reduce losses from “lucky handed” players and try to show how by following his simple rules you too can make a living from online poker.
| Learn how to beat the poker aces at their own game for FUN and PROFIT by following the advice of Kim Birch ! |
| Click here for a new career in online poker |
Thinking yourself lucky
I’m not quite sure if I believe this guy, I’ll leave that judgement up to you, but those people who regularly visit real-life casinos may be interested in learning how you can make and control your own luck using only the power of your mind.
| Click here to control your own luck! |