Tools for playing online

Imposter

From things i've been hearing and reading the past few weeks it seems that there are a lot more tools out there to 'help' with online play than I know about! Some of the tools are banned by the sites and some aren't. Like a lot of things some of these bans make sense and some don't (especially if considered against what is allowed).

I am not looking for information on Bots here. I am talking about tools that display information or automate certain tasks using information that is available to everyone.

A good example of what I mean is datamining. Party have recently changed their software to prevent people who are not in a hand from recording the hand. Pretty much instantly software popped up that can now grab this info.

So what tools are out there and what might an opponent be using against me?

Here's a start on what I know is out there (and a brief description of what they do):
- Pokertracker/PokerOffice - records hands and allows for later analysis of your own play as well as possibly using it with PAHud (PO does this itself) to gain more info on opponents
- PAHud/Gametime - displays info about opponents from pokertracker in real time
- Various datamining tools (other than the poker site software itself and/or PT/PO) to record hands
- Fish finder - for locating the tables where fish are sitting (the fish are got from your PT/PO db depending on rules you have set)
- Autohotkey - uses scripts to do multiple things at once that make it easier to multitable
- Stud Up-card recorders - records the up cards in stud in real time
- Odds calculators - shows the odds of you hitting various hands based on what you have and the cards that are out

So does anyone know of more tools that are available, what do they do and what do the sites think about them.

Mods, I know this thread might be threading a fine line but I would like to know what tools are out there and how widespread there use is.

I've just read an old thread on 2+2 about the stud up card recorders (even though none are mentioned by name) and as someone who's playing quite a bit of stud online i'd like to know how widespread there use is! I'd also like to know what else might be out there.

I know there's also a question of ethics with regard to a lot of these too so feel free to discuss that side of things too.

luckylucky

One piece of info for you you can datamine on party still thanks to fphg - free party hand grabber check out 2+2 the direct link to the guy's site is http://www.jukofyork.com/freephg.htm


As for ethics all these things give you an advantage - no doubt about it.
As for being unfair - personally I feel the only unfair thing online is if there is collusion involved so winholdem is definitely not morally defendable.

if somebody has gone to the effort of checking out posts like this and purchased the nominal fees for most of the other software and put them to use then they are just becoming properly tooled up to play.

The stuff the poker sites particularly party want to put a stop to are the big datamined databases like pokerprophecy - this is perfectly understandable from the poker sites point of view - from the individual though it's hard to feel like you're doing anything too bad I mean you have just got extra info it's not as if you can c da guy's cards - so this for me is at worst a grey area - still people have got banned from party over stuff like this. I think what actually really ps's-off Party is that some third party is making money from party data without their consent and from a business point of view it makes sense for them to clampdown.

Mellor

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but from what I was told banned software overstep the line.
Ones that use shared information for example.
Say you are playing in a cash game, 5 players. You aren't using any software. The other three players all use the same software, one that shares information. After a hand is played, they all can see what each other had, agreed it doesn't give them any benefit in knowing what a person has in a curent hand, but they'll never call just to find out. they WILL know the tables range very accuratly. It defo puts you in a tough spot.
These is a discription a software that was discribed to me, it may be a little harsh view, software might not do this, if im mistaken let me know

Imposter

I'm not sure you're talking about Mellor. It could be PAHud which is ok or winholdem which is definitely cheating.

After doing some more digging:
- 2+2's Software forum sticky - this lists a lot of software
- Pokerstars view on what's allowed and what's not

luckylucky

Mellor wrote:

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but from what I was told banned software overstep the line.
Ones that use shared information for example.
Say you are playing in a cash game, 5 players. You aren't using any software. The other three players all use the same software, one that shares information. After a hand is played, they all can see what each other had, agreed it doesn't give them any benefit in knowing what a person has in a curent hand, but they'll never call just to find out. they WILL know the tables range very accuratly. It defo puts you in a tough spot.
These is a discription a software that was discribed to me, it may be a little harsh view, software might not do this, if im mistaken let me know

This sounds like winholdem to me and yes as I mentioned already this piece of software is banned certainly on the big poker networks and rightly so - you are quiet correct it is blatant cheating and cannot be condoned as acceptable.

There is plenty of other great software out there which is acceptable and which the poker sites have no problem with such as pokertracker and pokeroffice.

And there are some bits of software that are in a grey area - some sites allow them and some sites don't - they tend to be data sharing type software like pokerprophecy - note this is not like winholdem which you can see your collaborators cards supposedly but you just have information on your opponents past performance and or habits - a bit like the data you can get from pokertracker except it's not data you have gathered yoiurself but stored on some central server(I presume), party poker for one are deadset against this kind of thing.

I guess the equivalent would be going into a B&M poker room and knowing how they all play without ever having played them before - to be honest I still haven't made up my mind one way or another whether that's unfair or not - it's not downright cheating like colluding is but it certainly would give you an edge and I guess from your opponents eyes if they knew they certainly wouldn't be happy about it -hmm defo open for debate that one I can understand why some sites don't allow it.

At the end of the day however I think the simplest thing to do at the end of the day is just stick to legitimate software after all you have signed up to the sites terms you have played on and they can ban you and have banned many people when they detect(by fair means or foul) this type of software on your pc - you can check out party poker terms on their website - if it matches their terms since they seem to be the strictest - chances are it will match just about any other sites' terms.

Lafortezza

I use PT and PAHUD.
I'd be careful about what software you use just in case the poker site decides to clamp down.
As luckylucky said, Party seems to be the strictest and you rarely have any come-back since Party's customer service is very difficult to reason with.

Scotty #

Sorry, a bit OT but I play Sng's 98% of the time, is it worth my while getting pokertracker.

I downloaded the Sng record sheet from that software thread on 2+2. Its excellent.

luckylucky

pokertracker is great full stop - i do think it's more valuable for cash games but still yes defo - it's worth your while getting it

CoD

I have poker tracker but dont use it much.

Just wondering if the tools such as hud's etc. that display the stats on the tables etc. work on Tribeca? Or which tools that make PTs stats on others at your tables work on Tribeca. (I finish work in a few days then im off until uni in september and going to become a multi-tabling grinder, and i think these stats could be very useful)

Many Thanks

slegs

what are the best tools for Tribeca tourney and STT play...dont play cash games but would like to have something for analysing at least my own play..

wayfarer

CoD wrote:

I have poker tracker but dont use it much.

Just wondering if the tools such as hud's etc. that display the stats on the tables etc. work on Tribeca? Or which tools that make PTs stats on others at your tables work on Tribeca. (I finish work in a few days then im off until uni in september and going to become a multi-tabling grinder, and i think these stats could be very useful)

Many Thanks

Gametime+ is what you want. There may be others but this is free!

http://www.pokerdominion.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=9cf7cfa3452a3ef449f8da1080007228