Cake Hand Converter Allows for Proper Record Keeping

Cake Poker is one of the few sites in the online poker world that doesn’t allow players to datamine or track their play. For some, this is the reason that they play there, but for others, it has posed a problem to their own record keeping and analysis of play. Some entrepreneurial poker players have solved this problem, though, through the creation of a program that addresses these issues, Cake Hand Converter.

Cake Hand Converter was developed by a member of the TwoPlusTwo forums a year ago. Unable to track his win/loss rate at Cake accurately and have information that could point out potential holes in his game, "MewsicLvr" developed a program over a span of a few weeks that would convert the hand histories from Cake into a PokerStars format that would be accepted by some of the popular data tracking software that exists today, such as Poker Tracker. In April of 2008, “MewsicLvr” transferred the developed software to another TwoPlusTwo poster, "OPP," who created a website where the software can be downloaded.

Over the past year, players have downloaded and used the Cake Hand Converter and to help to fine-tune the system. In addition to eliminating bugs, "MewsicLvr" and "OPP" have also been able to advance the program well beyond its original development. It now covers both Texas Hold'em and Omaha along with the variations that players can participate in (Limit or No Limit in Hold'em and High or High-Low in the Omaha disciplines).

If you're more of a visual person, here's a representation of the process, as taken from the program's website:


The developer of the Cake Hand Converter also has expanded beyond only Cake. It is also compatible with the skins that Cake offers, Red Star Poker and PlayersOnly. With that said, though, there are some issues which make using the Cake Hand Converter difficult.

Due to issues regarding the Cake hand histories themselves, sometimes not all of the information will transfer through in a hand. For example, if a losing player's hole cards are not displayed, the program will not transfer what they held and will instead put in "A-K" as a random hand.

The Cake Hand Converter is not meant to be a datamining tool that will present information while you are playing. As stated on its website, the Cake Hand Converter is a program that will allow you to transfer the information from Cake after you are done playing into a format that is compatible with many informational tracking programs available, which can be easily used to log win/loss rates and information on your opponents. Because Cake doesn't allow HUDs, the Cake Hand Converter will not help you there either.

Finally, there is some confusion over compensation rates. "MewsicLvr" accepted transfers upon his original development, but since he turned the software over to "OPP," the site now requires a membership into certain rakeback programs in order to open up all of the features. While it still may be possible for players to avoid the rakeback situation, having that as a caveat for opening the full versatility of the program is important to note. Attempts to speak to the current operator of the Cake Hand Converter software were unsuccessful.

Until Cake decides to allow for programs to track an individual's play, the Cake Hand Converter seems to have been a useful tool for many who play on the site. To get more information on the software itself, visit the Cake Hand Converter website.