In-Game Poker Software Revealed with Josek

We picked the mind of Polish poker tournament enthusiast Josek, who not only has over $250,000 in online tournament cashes, but also is consistently one of the top advisors in the Poker Advice forum on PocketFives.  When not playing poker, Josek is a financial analyst and does his best to find time to make his girlfriend happy.  Read on to learn how Josek uses a variety of poker-related software to help him during and after his sessions.

PokerSoftware:  What poker software do you currently use or have you used in the past?

Josek:  I do not feel I am a hardcore software type of guy, but obviously you need a database, so I am, and have been, using PokerTracker 3 for five years.  I am also using PokerStove, Universal Replayer, ICM Nash Calculator, and last, but not least, one of the most useful poker tools: Skype.

PokerSoftware:  It sounds like you use plenty of software.  How is your HUD set up?

Josek:  I think that there are a lot of great HUD stats out there, but if you are multi-tabling, the more stats you have in your HUD, the more you are overwhelmed with the amount of the data on your monitor. I used to have a lot of stats in my HUD, but I decided to change that and just use the simplest ones. For now, I have VPIP/PRF/3BET PF and one of the most important ones: the number of hands I have on my opponents.

I think that these stats are enough to classify players into certain groups most of the time while not taking too much space and still letting you focus on a lot of other factors than just HUD stats. I'm not saying that the other stats are irrelevant, though. To the contrary, sometimes they are essential. But, I can access much more detailed statistics in just one click in case I need them. I think that the most important ones would be Fold to 3bet %, Continuation Bet %, Fold to Cbet %, and all of the standard ones applied to given positions (PFR % from early position, for instance).

PokerSoftware:  Are you utilizing PT3 for any post-game review?

Josek: Of course. Going through your database is just as important as analyzing your hand histories. There are some leaks that you won't find by simply analyzing one, two, or even 20 tournaments. This is where the database will highlight it for you. Look at how you do in general from every position, see how you are achieving the results from those positions, what hands you are winning the most with, and what hands you should play better or even eliminate from your range.

You may find, for instance, that in theory you know how to outplay others with your funky suited connectors being deep, but in reality you are losing a lot of chips from early position with them. When you're done analyzing how you do with certain hands from every possible position, start looking at how you do in different situations. For instance, how do you do with Q-Jo when you're 20 to 40 big blinds deep?

The possibilities are endless and can really profit your game. So, if you're only using your poker database for the HUD part, I suggest you change that, as your database is probably the easiest tool to help you find spots in which you might need some help. And it really doesn't take much more than five minutes a day.

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