Suggested Software for Fixed Limit Hold'em

Fixed Limit Hold’em can be a grind. It can be formulaic and to beat the games for enough money to make a living, you have to play multiple tables. In fact, if you aren’t one of the best in the world playing for high-stakes, you may need to play four, eight, or even 12 tables to make a good living. Luckily, some of your opponents will not have the right software backing them up, so it might be your biggest edge in a game where the edges tend to be very small.

The first recommendation we have is for tracking software. If you aren’t using software to track your hands and your opponents, you are definitely leaving money on the table. You can get valuable information on your opponents in the Heads-Up Display (HUD). In addition, without being able to find the leaks in your own game with one of these programs, you may not ever be able to truly refine your play. As your sample size gets larger, the changes you can make in your game to increase profitability with a good tracking program become more and more evident. To help you decide among the three major programs, we recommend downloading the free trial of each to see which one you like better and which one works the smoothest on your hardware setup.

If you are playing on four tables or fewer, you will probably want Holdem Manager or PokerTracker 3. Both programs will perform perfectly on most machines with a small number of tables and a small database, so the best program for you will be whichever interface you like the best.

If you play on eight tables or more, you will be making a lot of decisions quickly and will want to consider using icons or colored notes to give you information on your opponents. With just a few seconds to act in each case, reading a line of stats can be a little much for each decision. Poker Office does a great job with the icons in its HUD and there are many custom ones available. PokerTracker 3 doesn’t include icons and Hold’em Manager is just now introducing auto-rate rules and colored notes icons.

AHK scripts will make your life much easier as well. When playing four tables or more, having a few programs to perform tasks for you will make you more money by allowing you to play on more tables with fewer mistakes. PokerStars players will love Table Ninja, while Full Tilt Poker multi-tablers should check out Full Tilt Shortcuts from Windy Hill Tech. Check out our AHK script section for more information.

For beginning Fixed Limit players, a poker odds calculator will probably be very helpful until you get used to calculating pot odds on your own. Poker Sleuth is our favorite right now; it’s easy to use and does a good job of helping you to learn on your own instead of just providing you with numbers. 

Having a large sample of hands will help you to know your opponents, which is very important in Fixed Limit Hold’em games. Having a large sample of hands before you even get started will also enable you to find the sharks and see what their stats are like, allowing you to model your game accordingly. We have reviewed a number of data mining subscription services including HHDealer, HandHQ, and HHSmithey, all of which do an excellent job and provide a large quantity of hands at a reasonable price.

Fixed Limit Hold’em tables vary greatly from one to the next and your profit per hand will vary just as much. Table selection software is important and we like Smart Buddy a lot. Check out our table selection software for more programs if Smart Buddy doesn’t suit you. PokerTableRatings.com is also a great resource and while it’s not quite as slick as Smart Buddy, this free program serves a number of useful functions.



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