If you don’t play at Partypoker or GG, it’s likely that more than half the players on every table have artificial intelligence tracking your every move. Poker Tracker 4 and Holdem Manager 3 are the most common. This may sound daunting if you’ve never played with trackers. I don’t mean to discourage your poker dream, but I thought you should know a few things about the reality of online poker.
Beneath is a list of reasons why having a tracker will make you more money:
- Without a tracker you risk losing vs players who know your playing style through data tracked on you aka a Heads Up Display (HUD).
- Players have access to over 50 different areas of our game tracked.
- You can mark hands for later review. One of the best ways to improve our game.
- We become less exploitable by interpreting our own data and we get to interpret other players, which gives us opportunity for solid counter strategies.
Why you risk losing more without a tracker vs players who do
Trackers retrieve data from every hand played, storing information to a large database as well as live data in the form of a HUD. Every hand you play is being monitored by AI. It’s your opponents job to interpret the data for accurate strategies against your playing style, to know the types of hands you play from each position and how aggressive you are pre and post flop. This barely scratches the surface. The best players analyse this data to make high level complex decisions for big money in high stakes and it’s so intricate that another article would suffice to go deeper. The complexity grows as your understanding of the game does, but players of all levels can read data to make better decisions as soon as they start.
Just imagine that everyone at your table has a tracker because it’s most likely that they do. It appears to be a disadvantage, so there are sites who ban the use of HUDs if you prefer, or you can invest to put up a better fight. They look complicated initially, the nuances of poker likely had a similar effect at first and probably still confuses you on some level, but it’s the same with every new thing in life. Driving a car when you’re young seemed outlandish, then comes test day and you barely need to think about what to do.
What costs more, a small one off fee or being exploited by every regular and a good portion of recreationals?
You might think, well I’ll just play on sites that don’t allow them. Fair enough. You might be different, but I like variety, and some of the biggest tournaments in the world are on sites where they’re legal. Plus tracking software extends way beyond HUDs.
Players have stats for over 50 areas of your game
How often you limp preflop, the amount you raise from each position, how much you continuation bet the flop and how often you 3bet preflop are some basic stats that players use every day to hunt you down. Every move you make, off every stack size, from every position has it’s own stat. It goes into the hundreds I’m sure. I won’t confuse you too much, my wish is for you to see the value in having this tool in your arsenal. Poker is war, everyone in survival mode aiming to lose the least while winning the most and it doesn’t matter who their villain is. When it’s game time the battle is on and your job is to leave no gaps for the enemy to exploit.
The first step is becoming aware of your own gaps so you can protect them. One of the best uses of trackers, is the depth of information available to improve our own game. It seems overwhelming but the army general doesn’t focus too much on the larger campaign because he has this little battle to win right here in front of him first. Take it one step at a time, focus on one little area of your game first, build your reserves, then expand into new territory when you feel competent.
Marking hands
Marking hands for review is one of the most effective ways to improve. You can check the hands that troubled you in game to look later on when everything has calmed down. You can do a tremendous amount of work with just one hand, for example, the use of third party study tools, seeking opinions from friends, working with coaches and simply asking yourself how it could have been played better.
If you’ve just started or have been playing for a while but want to give poker a serious shot, then tracking software is non-negotiable. If you don’t play much but enjoy it once in a while, I reccommend it still so you can put up a better fight for your wager. Forget about HUDs. You can still play at PartyPoker and GG, but you still need to work on your own game, find your biggest leaks and look for patterns in the competitions playing style to exploit.
The HUD is a massive bonus that we can use to our advantage in game, but the learning tools for our own game is immense to any players evolution up the learning curve.
Trackers help us become less exploitable
If you only play poker once a week, it makes logical sense to prevent yourself losing while looking for better ways to win. Sure, the game is enjoyable and it may not matter about the money. Don’t kid yourself! If it wasn’t about the money on some level you’d play without money. Losing money is never fun, winning is always fun. No matter the amount, it adds a new dimension of competitiveness to the game. You wanna win and you sure don’t wanna lose!
One of the common excuses I hear from new players or recreationals, is that they don’t know where to start, there’s too much information. “I’d rather just play.” Valid excuses, but one hour a week reviewing your game or studying the competition will decrease your chances of losing and increase your ROI.
Poker Tracker 4 and Holdem Manager 3 are designed to help players find leaks to improve on, packed with tools to crush the competition.
It’s your armor and artillery in one. They are designed to make us lose less and win more.
I always tell people to think of it as an investment. It’s an asset not a liability. What appears as a cost is disguised as an ally. It’s your choice if you want to ‘buy’.
There’s no need to wait! Click here to download Poker Tracker 4 and take advantage of the 14 day free trial today to begin improving your game immediately! Worry about navigation once it’s yours and I promise it will all start making sense. Don’t forget to send me a portion of your winnings for recommending this must have tool 😉
Joke, you keep all the winnings, but if you buy through this link, I do receive a share of the purchase for recommending you.
You can continue losing as much as you do or you can invest in yourself and watch your game grow with your bankroll!
Click here now to buy PokerTracker4, my personal favourite. Start saving money now.
Good luck out there champ, I wish you many triumphs,
Thepokermindset