Regarding Poker

If you haven’t heard already there are some big changes coming to thepokerdb starting on August 21st, 2007 that was initiated by PokerStars mandate for a change for all online poker tournament database sites.

PokerStars mandated that websites displaying player’s rankings and ratings require players to opt-in before displaying certain data. Within thepokerdb this only pertains to PokerStars data.

PokerStars’ Policy Regarding “Rankings/Ratings” Services

To ensure player privacy regarding certain player statistics and financial information gathered by websites (hereinafter “Service Operator”) that collect and organize PokerStars players’ results by various means, PokerStars has devised the following rules with which such Service Operators must comply:

1) No player profitability data (i.e. ROI, net profit, etc) may be displayed on any player unless the player has explicitly opted into such display by transferring $0.03 to a prominently published PokerStars account owned by the Service Operator. This request must be acknowledged by the Service Operator by sending the $0.03 back to the player as confirmation within a reasonable time frame not to exceed 5 days.

2) Any player may choose to completely opt out of having any information about them displayed on the Service. To do so, player will transfer $0.01 to the service operator’s PokerStars account. This request must be acknowledged by the Service Operator by sending the $0.01 back to the player as confirmation within a reasonable time frame not to exceed 5 days. Note that the amount here is different, in order to distinguish an opt-out request from an opt-in request.

3) The use of the “transfer from user to Service and back again” method for opt-in and opt-out is required. This method permits these requests to be handled privately and securely without the disclosure of the player’s Email, real name, or other private information. Only the player’s PokerStars User ID is required.

4) Both the opt-in and opt-out options must be prominently displayed on the main / front page of the Service (at minimum, a normal-sized link on the front page to a more complete description elsewhere).

5) If the service’s operation pre-dates the establishment of these guidelines (December 2006), there shall be no “grandfather clause” for existing data. 100% of historical profitability data must be removed from view until such time as a player explicitly opts in as above.

Any Service Operator found to be in violation of these rules risks having their access to PokerStars’ game client restricted and/or the service impeded, including but not limited to the warning of players who access the Service while the PokerStars client is open.

For more information on this please visit thepokerdb website.

Poker-Spy

I came across a very interesting online poker tool, Poker-Spy. This tool offers many of the same features that most online poker tools offer, but it offers one extra feature that I think can dramatically improve your poker game.

Poker-Spy can show you, and only you, the mucked cards from your opponents if the hand went to Showdown. Think about this; it shows you their mucked cards! This can give a player a huge advantage and information about your opponents that no one else has privy to.

Imagine, you play a hand with one or more players till Showdown; now you get to see what hands they were playing with. Now you’ll know if they play Ace/rag in early position, how they play suited connectors and small pairs in early and mid position, if they are Calling Stations or River Rats. This kind of information is potentially worth a lot of money.

So I asked myself if this program is considered cheating or illegal. So I visited the PokerStars web site to see if it is indeed illegal to use there. To my surprise PokerStars lists the Poker-Spy tool as “acceptable”, meaning you ARE allowed to use this at PokerStars.

Well, if PokerStars says that Poker-Spy is ok to use, then why wouldn’t a player take advantage of this software? The way I see it is if you are playing for real-money poker then you should take advantage of any legal online poker tool you can get your hands on. Programs like these can only help a player to win more pots.

Poker-Spy Features:

Game Tracker

Game Tracker monitors all the action at your table:
“ Recently played hands
“ Opponents mucked cards
“ Player information and statistics
“ Player Alerts
“ Table Conditions

Game Tracker also gives you one click access to key information:
“ Review of recently played hands
“ Alert Window
“ Player Analysis Report
“ Hand Review Report
“ Player Graphs
“ Player Statistics

Alerts & Alerts Review Window

Real Time Alerts notify you of opponent behavior so you can immediately determine how your opponents are playing. The Alerts Review Window shows you, in detail, what happened and with what cards.

Questionable Hand Selections:
“ Algorithm factors number of opponents, whether the hand was played first-in, multi-way or in a pre-flop raise situation. 

 Aggressive Plays:
“ Player raised with unconventional hand. Algorithm factors if raise was first in or a steal blind situation (see below)
“ Hands re-raised and call-raised 

 Passive Plays:
“ Player did not raise a hand normally raised in that situation
“ Calling and cold calling two or more bets 

 Plays involving the Blinds:
“ Player attempted to steal blinds with unconventional holdings
“ Player defended blind with unconventional holdings
“ Player called a raise with unconventional holdings
“ Player completed the small blind with unconventional holdings

Post flop behaviors and observations : Alerts on plays that occur in post-flop situations.
“ POSSIBLE BLUFFS your opponents may be making on the river by betting.
“ POSSIBLE BLUFFS your opponents may be making on the river by raising.
“ Loose calls on the river opponents are making with weak holdings.
“ Incorrect value bets and raises opponents are making on the river.

Reports

Analysis Report (new):
“ Categorizes pre-flop play in over 15 categories
“ Shows predictable patterns in opponents
“ Highlights hand selection errors

Hand Summary Report:
“ Identifies losing hands
“ Identifies hands performing below expectation.
“ Identifies winning and losing players

Player Report:
“ Detailed statistics on all players
“ Compares how you are performing relative to opponents.

Additional Features:
“ Easy to navigate; works just like a web browser
“ Print, copy, send to Excel or email to friends

Hand Review

Hand Review Window let’s you review any hand you have on record. Key features:
“ Play by Play of previously played hands
“ Hand Analysis
“ Opponent’s mucked hands

The Hand Review Window also gives you one click access to:
“ Player Analysis Report

Graphs

“ Graphs are available for all players
“ Colors highlight current session versus historical performance
“ Six zoom levels to view information detail
“ View player graphs in same window to save screen space
“ View player graphs in separate windows for side by side comparisons

Odds Calculator

“ Automatically reads hole cards
“ Odds of winning or splitting
“ Odds and percentages of completing poker hands
“ Odds of your best opponent holdings
“ Pocket Rank
“ Pocket Group
“ Color coded for easy reference
“ Supports multiple simultaneous tables

Click here to learn more about Poker-Spy.

Supported Online Poker Rooms:

PokerStars
Absolute Poker
PartyPoker
FullTilt Poker
Doyle’s Room
TruePoker
William Hill Poker
Caribbean Sun Poker
Empire Poker
Littlewoods Poker
Multi Poker
Poker Fun Club
PokerNow
PokerPlex
ProCappers
Ritz Club London Poker
Score Poker
totalbet poker
ukbetting poker
Poker Host  New!
Blue Square
Golden Palace Poker
VC Poker
High Rollers CardRoom
Paddy Power Poker
World Poker Arena 
Poker In Europe
Pocket Rockets Poker
Bowmans Poker
Racing Post
Poker Daddy
RedRoom Poker
UK-Poker.net
RealPoker.co.uk
Proper Poker
Vegas Queens Poker
PayDay Poker
Tiger Poker
Good Gambling Guide
UK Pokerstars
Poker.fr
Blue Lizard Poker Room
Wide World of Poker
Thanks for the Action
Fish Pond Poker
Avalanche Poker
GamTrack Poker
Victory Poker
Royal Blue Poker
High Stakes Poker
W Poker
Francite Poker
Pure Gold Poker
Crazy Parrot Poker
Casinos of Mayfair Poker
Page 3 Poker
Skin Poker
City Poker
Gaming Floor Poker
Aspinalls Poker
Platinum Poker
EasyOdds Poker
Ladyrose Poker
Poker Aces Club
Winners Only Poker
Street Legal Poker
World’s Best Poker
Trish’s Room
Platinum Poker Club
Commodore Poker
Daily Star Poker
Jennings Poker
Poker Republic
Premier Bet Poker
Svenska Odds Poker
Vertical Poker
Viking Bet Poker
World Super Poker
Blue Diamond Poker
Loveable Rouges Poker
Hacketts Poker
Poker Barkada
All-In Canada
Arsenal Poker
BetUS Poker
Full On Poker
GG.com Poker
Gamble Poker
House of Deeb
Jazz Poker Room
Jonny Texas Poker
Liverpoolfc.tv Poker
Maximus Poker
Ministry of Sound Poker
PokerInAmerica
The Rivercard
Rob’s Poker Room
Southern Cross Poker
VC Student Poker
The Sun Poker
Score Poker
Times Online Poker
Bruce Betting Poker
Blonde Poker
College Rivalry Poker
Dollarclub Poker
GoodLot Poker
Love2Play Poker
My Poker Dream
University Poker League
Pokerola
Ubet2win Poker
ZPokerClub
Cigar Room Poker
Jill Ann Poker
BetSafe Poker

Click here to check out the online poker tool: Poker-Spy.

I’ll keep you posted on Poker-Spy… If you have any comments on this program I would love to hear from you.

I want to mention two great online poker tools that can help your game in more ways than one.

The first one is a website called thepokerdb. This website is a free tool that lets you search any known poker player’s tournament results from PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, UltimatePoker, PartyPoker, and Bodog. Although it is limited to only showing you the winnings of any given player and not the losses, it still gives you enough information on the looked up player to get an idea of their overall tournament performance.

The information given is the type of tournament they entered, how much they spent on the buy in, their results, the amount of entrants and other useful stats.

Use this tool to look up players when you are in a tournament and use it to see your own online poker tournament stats.

Click here to visit thepokerdb.com.

The other online tool I want to share with you is called Sharkscope. This tool covers: PokerStars, FullTilt, CryptoLogic, Ongame, Pacific Poker and Poker.com networks. Support for Party Poker is in Beta test.

Sharkscope allows five free database searches a day, and if you need more than that, then you can buy additional searches.

Sharkscope is similar to thepokerdb.com, but is specifically for sit and go tournament results. When you do a player search in their database it will give you their wins and losses. Sharkscope will also provide charts and graphs, which gives you detailed stats on any sit and go player.

Click here to go to Sharkscope.

Try these tools out, search your player name to see what your stats are and use them when you need more information on the players at your table.

You can refer to these online poker resource tools under Pages > Poker Resources in the right sidebar for future access.

Arm yourself with knowledge!