The 5 best poker programs to beat limits in 2019

Many poker enthusiasts at the beginning of their careers experience considerable difficulties in moving from the status of a very small fish to a more conscious and meaningful player. They heard that in poker you can win quite tangible money. If the game is at least somehow interested, then they have a reasonable question, formulated as follows: "How to learn to play poker?"

A search query on this issue will demonstrate many effective and not-so answers to it. There will be poker rules, educational videos, books of famous players, mandatory training for a tidy sum, links to specialized resources. Nevertheless, the most useful way to increase the level of poker skill has long been considered hand analysis with the help of auxiliary poker programs. But, even having come to an understanding of this thesis, a novice player will almost inevitably be at a crossroads and will encounter a new-fangled psychological phenomenon - “Paralysis of choice”.

Online poker has been around for almost two decades. Along with the development of the game on the Internet, poker software also developed in parallel. Now it exists a great variety of disciplines and directions. We will try to clarify and build the programs in the order of need for their acquisition as the game's skills and evolution grow: from a green beginner to a seasoned professional.

1. Programs for tracking and analyzing statistics

The first and most important step, which, in essence, serves as a watershed between the fish and the regular is the acquisition of tracking software that saves every hand you play online. If you have Holdem Manager 2 or Poker Tracker 4, an abyss of opportunities will open before you:

• Tracking the trends of the game of opponents with the subsequent use of their weaknesses and increase their own profit;

• Detection of leaks and problem areas in your own game;

• Publication of questionable distributions in a convenient format for subsequent analysis among like-minded people on a specialized poker resource or in a conference;

• Accurate accounting of profits and losses without using advanced scientific methods (pens and papers);

• Demonstrating your own bad luck with other players and comparing your evil rock with a curse placed on your colleagues.

Trackers are quite an expensive pleasure for a warrior starting his poker career. But there is always an option that will allow you to use all the benefits of the work of poker software developers at no cost. And no, we are not talking about torrents, as you might have mistakenly thought.

Everything is much simpler and more prosaic: each poker program for collecting and analyzing played hands has a trial period, carefully envisaged by visionary creators. Most often, you can use the tracker for a whole month absolutely free. The competition among such software is high, which will allow you to “try” each of the proposed options for 4-5 months (the trackers mentioned above, as well as Hand2Note, DriveHUD, Poker Copilot 6). And after the expiration of the term, you will already have enough money to buy the product you like.

2. Poker calculator

The next program is a must have for any regular striving for progress and growth in limits. Equity poker calculator allows you to analyze each hand in more detail. A few weeks of productive work in the poker program will allow you to feel thinner situations where you have to valuebet, increase the efficiency and logic of bluffs, develop your thinking in ranges. We recommend trying Flopzilla or Power-Equilab, which have the most favorable price-quality ratio. There are other products on the poker calculator market, however, they will be difficult for a young and growing organism to perceive, and before they are fully utilized, it will be necessary to lay a very strong foundation.

3. Programs that simplifies multitabling

So, we grab statistics of our game using the tracker and analyze the played hands in the poker calculator. Many of our actions and decisions, which previously required thoughtfulness and a decent investment of time, became automatic and instant. It's time to increase the number of tables played and, accordingly, our profit. There are a number of tools to simplify the game process by:

• Pre-selection of betsizing for situations of raise, 3-bet, isolate and many others;

• Placement of tables in the most convenient way on the screen of your monitor;

• Appointments of hotkeys that reduce the number of clicks required to complete an action;

• Font changes;

• Converting our stacks into the big blinds (especially useful when playing on multiple limits simultaneously).

The most popular poker programs that make the multi-tabling process more comfortable are: StarsCaption, iPoker Tools, PartyCaption, 888Caption, StarsHelper. There is also software that allows you to manage the tables of several different poker rooms or networks at the same time. This is Table Ninja 2. However, two factors greatly reduce its competitiveness:

• Repulsive price tag;

• The unnecessity of playing in several rooms for raising the limits.

Products from the Caption line, by contrast, are free at limits up to nl10 inclusive and in tournaments with buy-ins up to $3.

4. Software that improves the game in the late stages of tournaments

The previous paragraphs were common for both cash games and tournaments. Tracker, poker calculator and Caption will be useful to players of any discipline. High skill in push\fold is the most important skill for a player from the Sit&Go\Spins\MTT. The best choice for them is SnG Wizard 3. One of the best ICM programs with a very nice appearance, intuitive interface and the ability to import already played hands from your sessions (you need Holdem Manager 2 or Poker Tracker 4 to download hand histories).
SnG Wizard 3 is also useful for the average cash player: it will allow you to become a more versatile player and not be a whipping boy (girl) at the moment when you decide to change your poker specialization, take a major tournament series or just make a single shot in Sunday Million.

5. GTO calculator

Balanced game skills you definitely will not need on NL2, NL5, NL10 or NL25. These limits are easily overcome without a GTO. But, if you want to win more against the regulars and gradually prepare yourself to fight at medium and high limits, then balancing the ranges in 2019 is indispensable. Complicated calculations on the theory of the optimal game for you will take Simple Postflop. You set the situation that interests you and, after a few seconds, the program gives results by frequencies that you just need to remember and apply directly at the tables.

Summary

There are a lot of software that can enhance your poker skills. The situation in the software market is changing rapidly, just like in the online gambling industry. Compose our top in 2018 and it would definitely include scripts / programs for searching for weak players. But this year made significant adjustments in the form of bans on the use of programs to search for weak players. Many rooms went even further and made impossible the normal functioning of tracking software.

However, this does not mean at all that poker software has lost its significance for increasing the level of skill. On the contrary, the importance of direct skill has only grown, because now there is no way to constantly play only with weak players or rely on HUD indicators more than on yourself. A hard and productive work with poker software will quickly pay back the costs, and soon it will bring well-deserved profits and glory!