PokerTableRatings.com Launches New Site

In the George Orwell classic novel “1984,” society was constantly under watch by "Big Brother."  With sophisticated scrubbing technology, websites have turned into a version of "Big Brother,” gazing into online poker rooms and delivering real-time information on users.  PokerTableRatings.com, which was among the first to track cash game results, recently re-launched its website offering new features and an upgraded database.

PokerTableRatings, a popular piece of table selection software, offers the following features: Online player search, real-time table finder, buddy lists, and high-stakes action updates.  Once you've logged in and used some of the features, PokerTableRatings displays the "Boost Your Database" advertisement, where players can download hand histories for a fee.  It is of note that some poker rooms have expressly said that using the site and other data mining programs is against their Terms of Service, which could potentially lead to a ban.

The online player search allows a user to enter in a screen name into the "New Player Search" box.  Once the program has identified the player, an "Overview" page is brought up along with tabs for Analysis, Hands, Sessions, and Opponents.  Included on this overview page is a player's earnings, hands, rake paid, big bets per 100, and custom stats such as tilt score, hot or not score, and bot score.  Comparing my personal database figures to the database on PokerTableRatings, the numbers look fairly accurate for earnings, hands, and BB/100.  The custom stats of tilt score refers to the player's likelihood of tilting, the hot or not score to their current state of play, and the bot score to the likelihood that this player is actually a bot.



The graphical update from the previous version of the website is a welcome one.  The graphs are very well designed and make good use of a diverse range of colors.  The graphs displayed include a poker timeline that shows profits over a date range, profit versus game stakes, and profits versus hands played.

On the Analysis tab are three main graphs: Looseness analysis, aggression analysis, and a showdown analysis.  Although exact figures of the player's statistics like one would find in Holdem Manager or PokerTracker 3 are not given, graphs are provided that give a general placement of player's data in relation to the entire poker playing population.

The Hands tab provides information specific to the largest pots won and lost as well as the ability to bring up specific hole cards from a "Known Cards" chart. If clicked on, it brings up hands that can be viewed in the site's custom hand replayer.

The Sessions tab brings up a spreadsheet-like document where approximately the last 30 sessions are displayed along with columns sorting by hands, stakes, net ($), start, and end.  A "+" symbol is next to the number of hands, which when clicked brings up all of the tables played at during that session and displays sub-stats.  Another "+" next to the table name, when clicked, brings up all of the hands played at that table.

Finally, the Opponents tab shows the player's best friends (the people they have won the most money from) and their worst enemies (people they have lost the most money to).  Players that are listed are linked to their PokerTableRatings profile pages.  Within the profile page, there is a button to add that person to your buddy list.  When clicked, a dialog box opens up informing the user that the specific player has been added to your buddy list.  On the right-hand column of the website is a call-out button for "Launch Buddy List" that brings up a new browser window.  In this window are two "folders" for online buddies and offline buddies.  The buddy list is pretty straightforward and doesn't allow for any other folders or sub-folders to be created.  If a buddy is on, you'll see what site they're on and table they are sitting at.

The real-time table finder can be found in the "Tools" dropdown menu or on the homepage at the bottom left corner.  Simply pick the site, stakes, structure, and number of players (full ring, six-max, or heads-up) and the site immediately brings up a list of suggested tables to sit at by giving them a rating based on the players' VPIP, long-term losses versus winnings, and total amount of data recorded.  The chart can be sorted by table name, site, players, rating, VPIP, PFR, and Aggression Factor.

The site is free to use and browse for all registered users (registration requires no payment at this time).  The only feature that requires a fee is the hand history file downloads, which are on a sliding scale according to the number of hands. The new version of PokerTableRatings.com is a very slick, and somewhat scary, re-launch of a popular poker information website.