Not just for beginners, poker calculators offer the online poker player numerous features that help make critical decision making much easier.
An Emprical Poker Calculator to Invest in.
If you have ever read my review of Poker Indicator, you will know that I thought it had great potential, save for a few important draw backs that kept it from competing with the market leaders in this category. Holdem Indicator now succeeds Poker Indicator and not only that, has zoomed to the top of the class of empirical poker calculators market wide.
With a lot of new calculator software being introduced rapidly, I have tested virtually all of them only to find numerous programming quirks that had to be noted so that I knew which one would work with which site, and on which computer! Poker Indicator always worked smoothly and never suffered from over-programming. Holdem Indicator does just that as well, seamlessly flowing into every poker site I tried it on. New in this software is a mini view option that just squeaks under your site window if you just want the basic information in a handy spot. Why can't all poker calculators be this flawless?
When using Holdem Indicator you get the distinct notion that the software designers actually play poker and understand layout and design, as much as odds in the game itself. Especially valuable in this software is the odds display that shows two vital things - your odds of winning the pot, and your pot odds when a bet is put to you. If you have ever had trouble laying down hands, this feature alone will save you the cost of this calculator in one .25/.50 cent session at Full Tilt Poker. Seriously. You can change the odds display to percentage or ratio whatever your preference, but for poker ratio is the way to go as it easily compares your pot odds. When a bet is put to you, and one of these indicators is significantly larger than the other, take a closer look before your next move. For example if your pot odds are a decent 4 to 1, but your odds to win are 22 to 1, then your juicy pot odds don’t really matter, and you should muck.
In general, the Mathematical and Empirical types of poker calculators are either allowed or supported to some degree by your poker website, of course depending on compatibility. If you are pondering the purchase of an Operative Poker Calculator however, you need to know there is risk involved. On the sunny side, your poker website may never know you are using one and you will not be penalized, while enjoying a distinct, statistical advantage over your opponents. That however, is optimistic.
There has also been a great design improvement in the visibility of your hole card display versus the flop. No need for color decks any more. This is as clear as graphics can be. And when you hole cards do show, they are accompanied by a convenient “out” window showing cards you will need to hit, and the familiar Sklansky hand rank system showing what groups your hole cards fall into further enforcing playing with cards of strength. Hey, there is a reason ten-deuce off suit is group 9.
Empirical means that this poker calculator can help you keep track of your opponents, even if you are not. You can actually monitor a table before you sit at it, or keep track of players while you sit out for a period. The opponent stats window will indicate a player's profile based on several calculations including VPIP, aggression, and show downs wins. After collecting 50 hands of data, Hold’em Indicator will assign a graphic image to you and your opponents. Some interesting icons include a time bomb, eagle, elephant, fish and yield sign. While the software is collecting this, it is also summing the table as a whole giving you a snap shot of the action.
With the growth of online poker odds calculators, it has become apparent that many of us actually need one. Why else would those poker programmers keep designing them as fast as online players can buy them? At least two companies have even renamed virtually identical poker calculators just to cover different angles of this fast growing market.
The popularity of these programs should be just cause for you to have one yourself, by virtue of just trying to stay even with your competition. Figure this, every table you sit at, at least 2 players have some sort of external software helping their decision process. Even for good players, that limits the profit potential. Poker Calculators have a forthrightness about them that shows you the true value of hands that you may have thought were good enough to play. If you don’t have that in your face all the time, emotions can get the best of you and cause you to make costly errors.
Here are some more reasons why you may need a poker calculator, all of which lead to the fundamental problem of losing too much money.
You know you need a poker calculator when;
-your wife has fewer charges on the credit card than you.
-you can quote the details of several reload bonuses.
-your favorite poker site keeps sending you thank-you emails.
-your favorite poker site sold your email address to another poker site.
-a select few players seem to follow you from table to table.
-your opponents often chat you up, in an over-friendly kind of way.
-nobody leaves your table before you do.
-several players always offer you a nh message when you finally win something.
-your average account balance at the end of every day is around 5 bucks.
-you feel your dog is laughing behind your back.
-you’ve resorted to black jack, and have actually done better.
-you can’t figure how many outs you have to a flush draw.
-you can’t figure what an out actually is.
-it’s hard to remember where the FOLD button is.
Some of these may seem comical, but seriously, many are very real for a lot of online players. Poker Calculators give you control, offer discipline, and improve your bottom line quickly. There isn’t one poker calculator you could pay for that will not pay for itself within a couple of hours at any $1/$2 table. Read some of the reviews on my website, choose your favorite poker calculator, and then get in the real game.