TheHoldemPirate

Bob Sermon asked:


The future may not have personal jetpacks and flying cars, but we do have some pretty amazing technology. Every day the world is a little more connected, thanks to mobile phones, wireless internet, and other technology. Every day, the computers get faster, the signals get clearer, and the parts get smaller.

How do you keep up?

Sometimes, it seems like as soon as you get the latest and greatest thing, it is obsolete five minutes later. The Magic holdem calculator design team is working hard to make sure that they’re never obsolete!

What is MagicHoldem?

MagicHoldem is a poker odds calculator for online Texas Hold’em poker rooms. The program was designed by an international team of poker players and statistics experts based in Goa, India.

This sophisticated odds calculation engine instantly reads the table parameters in virtually any poker room on the internet. You’ll see real-time odds and statistics that can help you become a more confident poker player. Knowing the odds means you can bet with confidence and win more consistently. When you can’t see the other players’ faces to learn their tells, MagicHoldem gives you the advantage of numbers.

Don’t worry that MagicHoldem is playing the game for you. You are still in control — you are still making all the decisions. Think of this program as a poker pro at your side, guiding you to make the best choices.

You can download a free trial version of MagicHoldem at www.MagicHoldem.com. Play one hundred hands with MagicHoldem for free and see how knowing the odds can improve your game.

You can also discover the most reliable and easiest way to play poker using our poker calculator.

How does MagicHoldem Keep Up?

The world moves quickly. You either keep up, or you get left behind. The MagicHoldem design team is keeping up. Did you know that an updated version of MagicHoldem was released on January 12th? And it’s not the first update available.

Visit the online Support Center at www.MagicHoldem.com/SupportCenter.aspx to get all the latest information — plus troubleshooting tips, FAQs, and how to make your copy of MagicHoldem run perfectly in your favorite poker room. If you need them, you can find step by step instructions with actual screenshots from the different poker rooms — so you can make sure that MagicHoldem works right at your favorite table.

Did you know that the list of supported poker rooms is continually growing? As of January 15th 2008, there are more than one hundred and fifteen supported poker sites. All the top poker rooms — all compatible with MagicHoldem. New sites are added almost every week, so if you don’t see your favorite site on the list of supported rooms, it may appear soon. Send an email to the design team and they’ll add your favorite poker room in no time!

Keeping up with the fast pace of modern technology isn’t an easy job, but somebody’s gotta do it. The minds behind MagicHoldem are keeping pace with the future.

Are you?

For more information visit www.MagicHoldem.com



poker odds calculators

Jamie asked:


The most visited poker software is usually the one with a good quality material in it. Poker software is more than just the poker odds calculator software. The poker software should offer real time game analysis, statistics, and other related information that depicts the true disposition of the player in the table. The poker software can be the copyrighted product that is designed and owned by the site or it can be that, which has been licensed for use from a third party site.

Award winning tracking poker software is making a record breaking figure in terms of number of downloads and number of sales too. This is because the need for trackers is becoming increasingly in demand for players to analyze their playing skills. Poker software that offers session tracking along with a comprehensive custom chart and detailed analysis is available as free poker software that is easily downloadable from the internet.

Before making a purchase or download of poker software it will be best to compare the software offering the same kind of material and usage in the other sites. Some of the poker software programs that are embedded in the poker calculators tend to be robots and bots. There is a wide restriction for the usage of such bots in money plays. And one will have to make sure that the kind of software that they are employing for playing is not robots. If the site is going to figure out that a player is making the plays and winning with robots, the consequences can be a lot of penalty with retaining of pay outs from getting released to the account any further.

The poker software is not only those that help to play the game, the programs that help to maintain the database of the traffic that comes in to the poker site for playing is also listed under the poker software heading. With the growing number of traffic to poker sites, there will be a need to update the site with a poker software database that will support to store the many thousands of player information in it.

An ordinary database server program is going to provide with the information storage space for just 100 to 500 players, but comprehensive and custom designed database server poker software can support more than 100,000 data based on the structure of the program. Summing up, poker software is an ocean in itself.



poker calculators

Jack m asked:


Poker has always been a popular party game. One who enjoys playing poker constantly looks for new ways to play it or wants to add more fun to the game. It is not about playing the game only but also about accuracy and adding some skills to it.

Popularity of the game has resulted in new software like partypoker calculator, party poker calculator, poker trainer etc. to help its players. These party poker calculator and other softwares have been made after much research by intelligent brains. These party poker calculators are easy to understand and use. Those who have developed these softwares, they also update them time to time to provide you the best of the game. It is not the work of one or two professional but many technical people are behind it and they are there for round-the-clock support to customers worldwide.

A partypoker calculator is formulated with comprehensive features that simplifies your game and sharpens your skills. You have an option of activating the bot mode and let Party tool will play on up to 4 different tables. This partypoker calculator is also great for novice who wants to learn the basics of the game.

Basically these party poker calculators calculate the bets and pot size while measuring that against your position, hole card strength and drawing potential. Partypoker calculators extract basic readings from your poker window automatically. This is the fundamental function of a party poker calculator.

With party poker calculator, you can play as many times you want at one go. The Partypoker calculator is designed to help you manage your real and play money, keep track of any bonuses or Party Points you have collected, or check where you stand in tournaments and other competitions. Partypoker calculator keeps all your money, bonuses and your Points of the game in a secured and simpler way. You don’t need to worry for remembering you points and all.

There are different types of partypoker calculator:

Mathematical – In this type of party poker calculator, based upon your basic readings, they quickly interpret the exact math and probabilities and offer a raise, call, check or fold recommendation.

Empirical – these party poker calculators also do the same work as of mathematical calculators but in addition, these partypoker calculators monitor and record the behavior of your opponents. This type of partypoker calculator can really help and support you on the basis of information available.

Operative – this type of party poker calculator has the combination of some of the features available in each of the Mathematical and Empirical. But it uses a different way of getting information and readings. This is also called as the “black hat” of partyPoker Calculators. It extracts information on your future opponents, by monitoring your poker website’s table action. Then this party poker calculator builds a player database even if you are not at the table. Then you can see the information from that database to view your opponents’ hand selection, playing styles, raising habits, bankroll fluctuations, experience, and a host of other factors.



Poker Tournament Strategy

Sean Moronse asked:


Poker calculators: don’t knock ‘em ’til you’ve tried them.

If you are a novice player, online poker calculators are one of the best tools on how to calculate Texas Holdem odds easily. This is actually a great way of understanding why stakes go very high quickly, and why very often, even the most notorious players fold at the peak of their rounds. Obviously, the pros know more about odds; otherwise, they won’t be sitting at the high stakes table with that huge stash of chips before them. You know with all certainty that you cannot bring poker calculators at the playing table, but you can use these as a way of gauging when you need to fold or go for speculative hands during practice runs.

Your main objective when it comes to knowing how to calculate Texas Holdem odds revolves mainly on speculative hands. I mean, if you have a Royal Flush in your hands, you can certainly jump the gun and go for the pot. The opposite is true if you have a high card, but there are still so many remaining players and so many remaining cards. You need to fold (and fold early) when your chances of winning or even just breaking are low to nil.

Computing the Pot Odds

As you know, speculative hands are quite tricky. A 2 Pair hand in the middle of the round is an example of a speculative hand. You need to know how to calculate Texas Holdem odds with that against the other players at the table. Say you already have a 2 Pair, and the current pot is already at $100. Your next bet is a solid $20, just so you can see the next card; then your odds at this time is 100:20, or 10:2, or 5:1 (choose whatever works for you.)

Computing the Unseen and the Potentials

The next step on how to calculate Texas Holdem odds is to calculate your chances of improving your lot. A 2 Pair is not so bad, but the hand is not exactly great either. A flush is better, and a royal flush is best. So, you need to consider the number of outs that you already have versus the unseen cards still on the deck. Say, that there are already 4 outs plus your 2 hole cards. That’s 6 cards to your name and 46 unseen cards (standard deck contains 52 cards, remember?) Of the remaining 46 cards, only 9 will most likely give you a royal flush. You can improve your chances if your hole cards and outs already have a few cards that show a flush potential.

In any case, this is how to calculate Texas Holdem odds when the board still has 46 unseen cards. You have to minus the 9 potentials from the 46 unseen, which gives you 37. You pair that with the 9 potentials. So you have a 37:9 or 4:1 chances of making a desirable hand.

Comparing the Odds

Now, you need to compare the pot odds versus the unseen / potential odds. If the pot odds is far greater then the unseen / potential odds, then you can make the call and still come out on top during this play. If latter is greater, then it would be best to fold, since this will only lead to major losses. If both odds are almost even, or even to a point, then your chances of winning the pot is actually very low. This too should be an indication of you folding before the game peaks.

So with the example above, your pot odds is 5:1 while your unseen / potential odds is 4:1. Then you can comfortably continue with your game. If the reverse becomes true with the unseen / potential odds becoming greater, then it would be best to fold.



Poker Tournament Strategy

Marty Smith asked:


As the ingenuity of third party program designers continues to challenge poker sites that need to ensure security for their users, along comes an upstart poker site that has changed one simple rule which could essentially solve a lot of problems for any player concerned about their long term statistics being examined by ruthless competitors.

Firstly though, let’s define data mining for those who may not be sure what it is exactly. Data mining is the exchange of shared profiling information amongst a community of other players. As a player on most any online poker sites, it’s quite likely you have been tracked through banned programs like Poker Sherlock or Poker Edge or had your information handed over via hand histories in another program called Poker Tracker. Although Poker Stars and Party Poker make this much more difficult (scanning your hard drive for such software) there are round-about tricks that enable them to work but you wouldn’t want to describe them as smooth by any means.

Now the advantage of having access to a shared database of information about opponents is that if you happened to join an online table using this software, one or some of your opponents may be displayed via HUD some valuable, historic playing style statistics that may help your decision making during hand. Let’s say for example that you are in a hand with a player named WrecklessJoe55. You are holding Th9h and the board shows Jc8cQc Ac and 2d. There is a big river bet put to you for the remainder of your stack to call. We will ignore the odds situation here for now, because either way, it’s not the easiest call in the world.

Now let’s say that through a purchased exchange of 100,000 hand histories via Poker Tracker you actually have some historical information on WrecklessJoe55 which clearly makes him a maniacal LAG player. Well that information would be leading towards a call. Just the opposite, if WrecklessJoe55 had a VPIP of 11% and PFR% of 7% along with a WSDW% of 72%, then these TAG statistics would be leading toward a fold - in fact I’d be almost sure of it.

The disdain poker sites have for these types of software is that you have never played with WrecklessJoe55 and you shouldn’t know that information until YOU have ascertained it, not someone else. Yes, just like a regular live poker room. The Poker Stars security staff basically once told me that that is the guideline with which they want to emulate and all security policy emanates from that thinking.

Now we get to Cake Poker, an upstart network that is actually accepting USA player online! They came up with a policy that would essentially crush the inherent value in any data-mining program. It’s rather simple too, as stated on the Cake Poker website: “CakePoker players will be granted the option of changing their Poker Nickname every 7 Days. By allowing players to change their Poker Nickname often, CakePoker thus negates the effectiveness of shared or prolonged poker data tracking. “

I wonder how much time and resources Poker Stars and Party Poker would save in their overall security budget if they adopted the same policy? Allow the players to change their name! It’s simple! Big kudos to CakePoker for allowing this defence, in the name of protecting its players. Now although it no longer emulates a real live poker room, it definitely makes for a level playing field, and that’s something to think about for the major players to be sure.



poker calculators

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


The internet is such a far reaching communication tool and such an economical one too that it is the location of choice for all the online casinos. And every casino in the world has an online presence. This means that they have a web site that players from all over the world can use to play their games just as if they were in Vegas playing away their money and having fun doing so – well most of them are anyway.

Online poker is having all the fun you would have n Vegas right there in your bedroom or living room depending on where you computer is. You can take part in a poker game through the internet and win or lose real cash. The only problem here is you never know if you are playing real people on the other side of if you are playing a robot programmed to win.

Now, when it comes to playing a computer well virtually every online poker player is using one so why don’t you do too? If you go to any search engine and search for a poker calculator you will come up with so many you will never be able to choose one. But go ahead and make a random choice and install it on your PC. When you log onto the net to play a game of poker you will find this poker calculator really useful.

A poker calculator will sit at the top of your browser and watch you as you play. It will also observe the other players tactics and inform you of developing hands and scenarios. The fact is, that in the fast paced world of virtual poker rooms the poker calculator can think faster than a human and use real complicated mathematics in the process – something few poker players can.

There is some scope for cheating in online poker room as there can be no guarantee that the cards are dealt with properly. However, despite this many people still play and win a lot of money from online poker tournaments so there must be some resemblance of truth in the game. However it is not a difficult task to identify if a player or a few players are resorting to unfair means. The online poker administrators can easily tell if a few players are collaborating against other players and these players can be banned from the game instantly with a provision to prevent them from playing in the future. This is done by IP mapping of all the players.

It is possible for players to conspire over the phone and expose their hand just to give their player a hand over the other. This can only be done, however to spite one or two other players and then share the spoils. We do not know how the administrators of the game pinpoint the cheaters but they do and that is what makes the game safer and more fun to play.



Poker Tournament Strategy

Marty Smith asked:


About half way through a sit and go tournament, you should have a rather accurate profile of your remaining opponents. Whether you do this by intuitive observation or using a poker calculator like holdem indicator which tracks players’ key attributes for you, the information can be used the same way to train your opponents in the latter stages of the tournament, especially when the action becomes heads up.

If you have played yourself into heads up contention, then that is good for you. You have out-lasted 7 or 8 others with a bit of luck, fortune and hopefully some skill as well. The thing is, now the stage is set for dynamic play in that a good number of the hands won from here on in, will simply have little to do with your hand strength, as opposed to position, stack size, and blind levels.

If the blinds are high and your stack is low, you are essentially looking for an all in opportunity. I would wait for Sklansky Group hands of 4, maybe 5 or better, essentially strategizing for live cards and an undominated match up. In this spot, it is an excellent practice to know what some key match up scenarios.

When short stacked, I play passively, either folding or checking to aggression. If you allow your opponent to be aggressive most of the time, you can trap him into an underdog hand. Whether you win or lose the hand shouldn’t matter to you. You have done your job as the little stack that could. It’s kind of like holding a pocket knife under your leather jacket. He can’t exactly see what you are up to, but just at the right moment, you scare him out of his wits, then he will be more cautious of you in latter hands.

When you are a big stack, you should be raising most hands, especially from the button. And I mean - most hands. Which inherently means you will be playing weak, even senseless hole cards. Hand strength therefore, should only come into play when your opponent chooses to call your raise, or reraise your raise.

If he just calls and the flop gives you some hope, like say a draw or pair, then you will be using your chips here to take him out of the pot, or use your odds and math skills or your poker calculator to determine your chances of winning the hand should you need to call your opponent’s all in bet. Your main strategy here is to essentially take your opponent’s breath away. Sooner or later they will be all in with an inferior hand, and you will have done your job as the commander in table.



Poker Tracker

Marty Smith asked:


Almost all poker players, even those who have just started playing have heard of David Sklansky and his tour de force writing on the subject of poker. Given Sklansky’s propensity to devour the math and numbers of poker (and many gambling/casino games as well), it’s no surprise that he was the first to come up with a ranking of (hole card) hands in hold’em poker and assign them numerical strength based on their long term performance.

This numerical association as players know, was further simplified into groups where for example, strong hands like AA and KK were put into Group 1 where easily identifiable as the most powerful starting hands in holdem. These 9 groups in total, give quick reference to playing a hand or not, betting or not, calling or not, or even letting your tournament ride on your given hole card strength. The groups are handy training for newcomers to be sure, but whether to play a certain hand really does depend o many factors, not just the group ranking.

We should really be talking about another group of hands when it comes to tournaments, and that group of hands may be a cluster, so to speak, of hands that you played while building your image at the table, playing good position moves, or taking advantage of others’ errors.

This group of hands may have included, K9os, 55, ATs, even 23os which may not have pure strength, but more relative strength to the given situation.

A nice group of hands can really come out of nowhere. This is why when someone emails me with a hand history and they ask “What would you do Marty?” It’s the same old answer all the time… It depends of course. “It depends” is actually the best answer every time because new players have to get beaten in to them that there are usually more factors at issue than they realize.

Now, yes some of these hands noted above like the32os were high risk, but if you know what you are doing, sometimes your hole cards just don’t matter too much. You could be making a nice defensive bet there, or you “training” this guy to give you his stack and ultimately fortune may smile on you when you have him dominated, and he willingly gives you his stack. His poker calculator may be telling him that you are a gambler, when really, it’s the opposite profile more connected to you.

Therefore a certain group of hands can create opportunity in a poker tournament, and together can tell a nice story here with which you always plan to have, a very gratifying ending that allows you to play free poker for a long time!



poker calculators

Marty Smith asked:


The game of online poker is undoubtedly getting tougher and tougher. While new players continue to be introduced to the myriad of poker sites that seem to launch every week in hopes of carving out a niche, there are fewer now, compared to the amount of established and experienced players waiting to take their share of newcomers’ money.

Part of the reason is because the huge amounts of new players that came online over the last 2 or 3 years is waning although still significant as a growth industry. Another reason though is that many of those players have found it rather difficult to win consistently online, and just stop playing or play with insignificant bankrolls on a leisurely basis.

Understanding how tough this game can be is one of the reasons why designers and owners of software like Poker Tracker are pursuing new versions and updated products, because they understand that the rounders online are always looking for that extra edge over their opponents.

Poker Tracker can be thought of as the software for in depth after play analysis and on the fly help and statistics that may very well lead you to making more and more correct decisions at the table. Some players (especially new ones) will think it’s some sort of magic formula for winning instantly. It is certainly not that, but it will, however, present you with information on your own play and your opponents play to enable you to make the best decision in hand to hand combat situations.

Poker Tracker addresses two main components for study of your game which are self analysis and opponent analysis. You will need to delve into both aspects at some point, although for new players getting to know your own strengths and weaknesses may be a priority.

Not only does Poker Tracker help you with both of these vital areas of your game, but it has grown so much in popularity that other software designers have built poker calculators and software programs as add-ons to poker tracker to further enhance its effectiveness. Some of the more popular add-ons are Idleminer and Spade Eye which to a large degree automate the collections of data from your opponents, even with you not playing at the table. (This is known in the online poker industry as data-mining). Data-mining can get you into trouble with your poker client like Poker Stars in particular so be careful as to what you actually choose to use.

Poker Tracker does collect tournament information, but really this software is meant for cash and ring game players, as data collected for extended periods of time can be relied upon as an actual trend or style. If you are in doubt about Poker Tracker take it from the thousands of rounder pros who run this software as much as you and I might turn on our computer.

As for the learning curve with Poker Tracker, it is daunting, but that also goes along with how much of a business-like attitude you are bringing to your game.



poker calculators

Marty Smith asked:


There are many times in an online poker tournament that your opponent makes questionable plays with sub-par hands that leave you asking yourself things like: “What on Earth was he thinking?” Of course in the online poker world that is a very charitable way to rephrase it, but I hope you get the meaning. It’s usually even more astounding when such seemingly poor plays get rewarded, and all of a sudden, donky boy in seat 4 is the tournament chip leader, poised for a nice payout.

The reasoning of this article is not necessarily justification for the all the questionable plays that you see, but to perhaps enlighten you as to why some of the plays are made as a result of certain players really knowing and understanding the payout structure of a tournament.

Let’ take for example the 180 player multi-table sit and go tournaments at Poker Stars. This tournament pays the top 18 players or 10 percent of the field no matter what buy in you select. For the $4 buy in tournaments, first place can win you $216, a whopping ROI of 4800%. If you make the final table in 9th place you make about 300% ROI, nice but paltry compared to first, nonetheless a profit.

Here is where payouts get a little more complicated or for some, more simple, in this tournament. From 18th place to 10th place you earn $8.64 prize money or 100% ROI. All of these positions pay exactly the same.

Now making the money is no simple task, but it can be done on regular basis with a solid strategy behind you and a good hold of your emotions. That’s a good strategy for building your bankroll, but it’s not going to elevate your game level too soon either, by just inching into the money then fading away.

It’s during the in-the-money (ITM) stage that your risk window should be wide open, especially when the payouts for half the field are exactly identical. Shooting for that 4,800% ROI should much more analysis with regard to your poker tournament M and Q, as well as your hole cards. In fact, you can say that sitting in 14th place of 17 players left, while you are in the Orange MZone, your hole cards can actually matter very little compared to other factors.

This is also true if you were actually in 1st of 17 players left with a very healthy Green MZone stack and are faced with an all-in bet from a Red Mzone stack. In this spot should call with a wide array of hands like King-x suited, all kinds of connectors, any ace, any pair, and any two face cards. Some will call with any King or Queen as well. There is a poker calculator called Tournament Indicator that has a very unique feature called Match cards that lets you know how your hand measures up to potential hands your opponent may be pushing with.

The point is, in tournaments, you need to be aware of all of the indicators as well as the payout structure and marry that with your bankroll expectations. If you are able to do that with some precision, you may in fact realize that the donkey knew more than he let on.



poker odds calculators