Using poker hand tracking software

Upon recommendation from a friend, I decided to download hold-em manager, a hand tracking and analysis tool used to assist in online poker play.

It is really two different tools, one is the HUD that hovers over the players heads displaying in game data as it happens. The other is a data analysis tool.

So, I decided to perform an experiment. Over the last 6 months, I have played the 4.40 buy in 180 person tournament almost 20 times, placed twice, for a loss of over 60 bucks. My biggest overall loss in money has come from this tournament size and buy in.

So, I reasoned, if I could play at these tournaments using the hand manager tool and improve, then maybe there is something to this. And I also wanted practice before the weekly 11$ tournament. I decided to try the tournament 4 times.

It did help. It identified nicely the two extremes of players, the "Wait for the nuts" players and the "I want to see every flop" players. I was able to be a bit more wary of the tight players as I was more sure of the reads, and more likely to keep following a second pair or weak draw on the very loose players. Other stats around CBetting and post flop aggression also assisted in making correct decisions.

So, in those 4 tournaments I placed twice, both times higher than I ever had before, and I ended up with a net profit of almost 20 bucks. Not bad!

Played it this weekend on the $11 dollar buy in, and liked the additional information it gave. Didn't place higher, but, in combination with other information, such as player stack size, position, prior betting habits, amount of time they take to bet, and perhaps a read on their current "gear", I was able to make some choices I was confident in.

Did recognize however their are some dangers to using this tool.


Dangers of the HUD


While I recognize that this tool organizes my reads a bit better, and is able to remember players that leave the table and come back later, I also have to watch out for the pitfalls:

1. This tool does NOT replace good reads. It supplements them. Just like the multi-table grinding, using JUST this tool for your reads may result in slow profit at lower levels over time, but I don't believe the profit is optimized.

2. This tool represents much of the data as AVERAGES over time. You still have to be very aware of when a player changes gears. Just because they are in 40% of the pots doesn't mean that right now they aren't holding a strong hand, perhaps a recently called bluff has tightened them up, or a strong bet from you gets called when they typically fold to real aggression.

3. And you still have to be very aware of the CONTEXT of the actions of the other players. Sure, a player who is in more than 50% of the pots has a lower range, and if they always CBET, then it is much more likely that they are not holding a strong hand when they do continuation bet, but, if you JUST use the tool, the context is lost. So if that aggressive player pre-flop raises, then CBETS after the flop, you also have to consider who they are playing against, what position they raised from, etc. Because an aggressive loose player who is also skilled will not be aggressive loose against a conservative player who is calling their action, they will tighten up. The tool won't tell you that, good reads otherwise of players habits will.

4. This tool cannot be an excuse for not paying attention to the game, such as surfing the net, watching TV or whatever. I have found over time these to be money loosing activities if combined with poker.

So, so far so good, probably buying this tool, but wanting to be wary that it doesn't replace other important sources of information.