How Software Has Changed the World of Poker

Part of my excitement when I was invited to be a part of PokerSoftware.com came from the way that software has changed the world of poker. Eight years ago, we never would have guessed how tough the games would get, how much we would learn, and how many things would be altered by the ability to look at millions of hands. Looking at a database of millions of hands can tell us things about the game that we could never have found out any other way.

When I first started playing poker for a living six years ago, the best knowledge we had of pre-flop hand selection was from Sklansky’s hand groups in “Hold’em for Advanced Players” or the chart in the back of Lou Krieger’s “Hold’em Excellence.” Authors and experts back in those days had reasons for their recommendations and they were much better than those that the casual player would ever come up with. They were also badly flawed in comparison to the starting hand standards of today that take advantage of huge databases from proven winning players.

PokerTracker changed our thoughts on Texas Hold’em when it first appeared a few years ago, allowing us to find out exactly what worked and what didn’t. We had a chance to compare hands from different positions in a huge sample size objectively and determine, for example, that Ace-Jack actually wasn’t profitable from early position in a tough game or that open raising with a pair of deuces from the small blind was a bad play against a tough opponent in the big blind.

I was shocked when I looked through my first 100,000 hands in PokerTracker and discovered gaping holes in my game. I was losing money playing Ace-Jack in early position in No Limit games. I was over defending my small blind. I was even losing money calling raises with small pairs in middle position when I thought I was getting the odds to call and look for a set on the flop. The mistakes were everywhere and most of them were very easy to correct.

I did a few calculations that day and discovered that if I stopped raising with Ace-Jack under the gun, I could save myself $280 per year at the limits I was playing. That meant I made a nice profit on PokerTracker from discovering just one hole in my game. I also discovered that I could save $450 per year if I stopped calling raises with small pairs in middle position and I figured I could save even more if I just stopped doing it when my opponents were strong players and instead call raises against weak players when the time was right.

The effect that this kind of software has had on the game over the last few years is hard to describe. As players like me learned how to make their games stronger and wrote about it in articles and on forums, the average player learned as well. The average player was able to look at a starting hands chart that no longer included Ace-Jack in early position and as we learned more things, the whole poker world was able to benefit from them. The games got tougher and we kept learning to try to stay ahead of the curve.

As we got stronger, we broke the new players faster. The sharks got bigger and stronger. Even a fairly weak online player was strong enough to beat any kitchen table game and most of the live games played in casinos around the country. There was a debate for some time as to whether online players or live players were stronger, but that debate is effectively over. A $1/$2 no-limit game online is as tough as a $2/$5 game in a live casino these days and tougher than many $5/$10 games.

The education of a poker player used to come mostly at the tables, with the most dedicated students of the game putting in the time to read a few books. That was all it took to become a long-term winner. There is still a lot of money to be made for a serious student of the game, but now it requires putting in the time to study and work with software programs that help you find holes in your game. To make a good living in cash games these days almost requires a player to be a software expert or at least read lots of forums and join a training site.

In five years, the game has changed so fast that I can’t imagine where we’ll be in another five. I wonder just how tough this game can get.

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