Poker hand strength calculator The Cost of Play Calculator is a useful poker hand strength calculator guide to help players understand how much they will spend on Video Lottery or non-Oregon Lottery Slot Machines in the long run (after many sessions, over a long period of time).
Which Poker Tools are Allowed at Different Poker Sites
Poker tools including HUDs (Heads-up-displays), advice engines and calculators have become an everyday part of the online poker experience.
More recently, poker sites have implemented different rules about which poker software tools can and can't be used on their sites. Below you'll see a table summarizing the current situation for the sites available for your location. Where you see a grey tick, this indicates that there are restrictions.
Remember, sites where tools are restricted have fewer 'pro grinders' – generally meaning softer games.
- Holdem Manager 2 Review:My HUD of Choice - Cutting Edge Stats Display, Personal Database With Plenty Of Advanced Add-Ons
- Super-HUD Review: From The Awesome Poker Pro Labs, This Tool Combines A Pooled Database With HUD - 100% Stars Compliant
- Poker-Edge Review: This Tool Is 'Grey Hat' And The Major Rooms Have Tried (And Failed...) To Stop It. Use At Your Own Risk!
- Tournament Indicator: Ideal For Beginners, This Poweful Advice Engine Is Based On Harrington’s ‘M’, You Can Win While You Learn
- Tournament Shark: Attaches To Your Table And Shows You Which Players Are Fish And Who Are The Pros (Approved by major sites too).
- SNG Wiz: This ICM Calculator Will Show You How To Work Out Profitable Push / Call Ranges At The Bubble Of Sit N Go Tournaments
- Fish-o-Meter Widget | Are You Looking For The Easiest Poker Sites? Our Legendary Fish-o-Meter Widget Will Help You Find Profits!
- VIP Loyalty Calculator | Find The Best VIP Rewards At The Leading Poker Sites - Make Sure You Get The Best Poker Value.
- Approved Tools | Calculators, Heads-up Displays And Beginner ‘Advice Engines’ That Are Approved By Big Sites.
Types Of Online Poker Tools
This guide shows you what kinds of poker software tools are available, and outlines the stages of your poker career which each are best suited to. I have broken the available tools into 3 main categories – calculators, databases and offline learning systems – though as you will see there is considerable overlap between them. After this, you will find information on 3 cool widgets we have right here at SNG Planet, including the Loyalty Calculator, Fish-O-Meter and the bankroll management tool.
Odds Calculators And Advice Engines: Tools which show you different poker odds and probabilities are great for players learning the game. These range from simple hand vs hand comparisons to some complex devices which take the size of the pot, chip stacks and even the known tendencies of your opponents into account when highlighting the mathematically correct plays.
Some of these tools give in-play advice by reading the screen. While this is not fool-proof, it will stop you from making big mistakes – the best of breed (for example the 'Indicator' series or Poker Calc Pro from Poker Pro Labs) will keep you profitable immediately – as you gain experience you will rely less on the calculator and be able to spend more time on finding (and exploiting) weaknesses in individual opponents.
Databases And HUDs: The 'Heads-up-Display' (or HUD) is an overlay of statistics on-screen which shows you the style and tendencies of each player. This is hugely valuable information which can give you an individually tailored insight into how to beat each player, how often they are bluffing and how likely they are to have a strong hand when they raise. Tools like Holdem Manager 2 collect this information from opponents as you play, allowing you to make better and better decisions at the table. (Read more about HM2 here!)
These databases also collect your stats, and you can analyze these after sessions to see which hands you are winning with and which situations or hands require more work – they are good for finding your leaks.
While most of these products are fine to use at the major sites, there are some variations which are considered to be cheating by some sites. These pool together the history of 100,000's of players and give you instant access to their stats – a huge advantage! Poker-Edge is the best known example of this category, you can find a review here.
Offline Calculators And Training Aids: Some tools work best for study between sessions. SNG Wiz is a great example of this type of online poker software, and is used to analyze your decision making at the bubble of Sit N Go tournaments. What I like about this one is that you can adjust the stack sizes and cards to see how the math changes. Once you see the patterns in the output, your play can improve next time. There are also odds calculators which show you the winning chances of hands against different combinations of hands you opponent might have – Poker Stove is a great example and is free to download.
- Poker Calculator Pro From The Innovative Poker Pro Labs, This Is The Ultimate Poker Calculator - Nothing Else Even Comes Close
- Holdem Indicator Ideal For New Players, Watches Your Opponents Patterns And Gives You Advice On The Best Moves As You Play.
- Omaha Indicator This Is For Players Who Love PLO, You'll Never Make A Math Mistake Based On Outs And Equity Again With This Tool.
Cash Game Tools: Sit and Go Planet mainly focuses on the Sit & Goes and Multi Table Tournaments. I realize that many readers also enjoy cash games, and have reviewed some excellent tools for this type of poker. These will help you beat No Limit Holdem or Pot Limit Omaha, and include options for advanced players as well as those learning the games. Check out the options in the table on the right, they could easily be the best investment you ever made in your game.
3 Widgets Right Here At SNG Planet! I am happy to announce our brand new widget - the Loyalty Program Comparison Tool. This compares the loyaly rewards you can get from 6 of the biggest online poker sites. You input your range of games and number of days played each month - and then see the comparison dollar for dollar. At the moment only the non-US sites are covered, and V2 is already in plan for the US sites to be added later. There are always the two existing widgets to take a look at too... Our Fish-o-Meter lead the way in giving a custom list of the easiest poker sites based on your bankroll, location and choice of games. This gets regularly refreshed as the sites shift in the rankings and some become tougher than others. Last, but certainly not least, the bankroll management widget takes a look at the levels you should be playing for different starting bankroll amounts. This depends on whether you are pro, recreational or somewhere inbetween - though my recommendation is always 'take a shot'.
Just a couple more newer articles to tell you about. First, many people are worried that their poker accounts will be banned for playing tools which are not approved. You can relax with this list of those tools which are fully approved - even by the strictest poker sites (like PokerStars). Second many beginner players are unsure the effectiveness of the poker software like HUDs or calculators and don't want to invest in them. If you are one of the skeptics, then why not try these tools for free poker software for free? The extra profits you generate will soon show you what a good investment many of these tools are. This article gives you 3 options for getting free poker software.
Printable Poker Hand Strength Chart
Online Poker Hand Strength Calculator Free
