Throughout my poker training videos, I use two important poker tools that I believe are crucial to every poker player. One of them will cost you a small amount of money up front to use, but the other one is totally free of charge. If you want to become a serious poker player even at just the micro stakes, you will be at a great disadvantage without either of these at your disposal.
PokerStove
I am going to start with the free poker software known as PokerStove that can be downloaded here. PokerStove will be your best friend throughout the entirety of your poker career. You can use PokerStove to analyze the equity your hand/range has versus another hand/range on different boards. For example, you want to know what the chance of winning if you get it all in with 6d 7d against QQ, KK, or AA on a 4d 5d Jh flop? No problem.
PokerStove Equity Calculation – Click to Enlarge
I will also use PokerStove to estimate my opponent’s hand range based on knowing what % of hands he or she is playing. For example, you either know from stats or estimate from playing with someone that they raise about 20-25% of their hands preflop. You can go to preflop range settings set the slider to that percentage of hands or create your own range of hands until you fill out 20-25%.
PokerStove Preflop Range – Click to Enlarge
PokerTracker
The first software that I open when I’m about to play and the last one I close when I’m done playing is called PokerTracker. It takes all your hand histories and imports them into a database on your computer. This was you can easily see how much money you have won or lost during each session, but it does so much more.
PokerTracker has changed a bit since I played this session, but the idea is still the same. Click to Enlarge
PokerTracker can tell you an enormous number of stats from these hand histories that have been imported. Things such as your preflop raise percentage, the number of times you folded to a flop check/raise, to the times you 4-bet after being the preflop raiser. All of this information is available to you at your fingertips with the ability to find your leaks and ways to fix them.
Not only can you find out your own statistics, but these numbers will also be available for all of the opponents you played during the hands. You can use this information to spot weaknesses against your regular opponents and exploit them next time you see them at the tables. PokerTracker has a built in system to display your opponent’s stats for you while you are playing at the tables called a HUD (heads up display). You will see me using a HUD in a lot of my early Full Tilt Poker videos.
My HUD stats during the Trikkur 6 video
Buy PokerTracker
PokerTracker has a purchase price of $99.99, but there is a 30-day free trial that you can use to get accustomed to the software before you make your final decision. They have generously created a small stakes payment tier that works up to 50NL for only $59.99. This will purchase price includes a lifelong license to use PokerTracker and the associated HUD that comes with it.
