Poker Tools

The poker industry has lots of different teaching tools that promise to make you a better player. Some will do just that, teaching you odds and giving sound advice that will make you better. But some tools just make you a lazy poker player. They do all the thinking for you, not really teaching you anything. Here’s an example of a good poker tool and a bad one.

Odds calculators are a good tool to have and use. These simple programs allow you to plug in the cards involved in a particular hand, to find out what your odds of winning were. Not only do you learn to recognize situations when you’re in a hand with the worst of it, but after awhile you begin to remember what the percentages are. That allows you to calculate your odds, based on what you think your opponent is holding.

The analyzer tools are the ones that monitor the game you’re playing in and give you advice on what to do, based on the playing situation. These tools usually cost money and rarely work at all. Most of them just tell you to fold, unless you have top pair, and none of them can recognize player styles and tendencies that opponents will display to give you an edge. You don’t learn anything, except how to listen to a program that is too rigid and tight for most online poker games.

So if you use poker tools use ones that teach you the game, not ones that supposedly do the work for you and make the same moves every time. There’s no easy money out there, you have to earn it.