Best Poker Utilities for Your PC
Your computer is a gateway to a world brimming with possibilities and excitement.
There are thousands of online games you can play. From first-person shooters to card games, there is something for everyone if you delve deep enough. Wherever you are in the world, if you have a computer and an internet connection, you are minutes away from a world of social interaction and gaming.
One area of online gaming on the rise around the world is poker. Online poker has been popular for more than two decades now, having seen a huge boom at the turn of the century. Much of that was fueled by the story of Chris Moneymaker, the aptly-named poker player who qualified for the 2003 World Series of Poker at home, and went on to take the grand prize, which CNN.com called the Moneymaker Effect. That turned a generation of young players into aspiring winners, and despite Black Friday in 2011, the industry has bounced back.
However, not everyone can be as successful as Moneymaker and you may be looking for aids you can lay your hands on to help you. There are plenty of resources available for new players, with Poker.org offering valuable tips on the game. These essential tips can teach you that focusing on playing, studying more, and joining a poker training site can help you go from zero to hero at the poker table. However, even if you study these tips and learn the insight you need to play poker, you would still need to learn more – there is no substitute for experience in poker.
Luckily, PC owners do have a range of options available to them when it comes to handy utilities to help you out. But before discovering these applications, you have to make sure that your PC has security measures in place. As we wrote in our blog post on ‘The Importance of Security Measures’, having a security system is essential to reduce vulnerabilities in both your mobile and PC apps.
Once you have selected a secure provider to play through, of which there are many, you can apply some utilities to give you an extra edge.
Poker Tracker 4
Many serious players like to use Poker Tracker 4, a Heads-Up Display (HUD) that adds an edge to any competitive players’ arsenal. It collects data about your games and your opponents. It delivers data to help you make crucial decisions as you play. It claims to have the “most comprehensive set of charts and graphs available without the need to buy additional expensive add-ons to analyze your play” and supports all the major poker providers, too.
Simple GTO Trainer
GTO stands for game theory optimal. Cornell University describes GTO as a theory positing that a player always makes decisions that return the most profit. A GTO trainer will help you find your strategy and method of play. This is a utility for the serious poker player wanting to improve their overall game, lets you train in different situations based on pre-calculated solutions. The advice for players is to let them follow that strategy, until you notice a weakness or quirk in another player, perhaps by using Poker Tracker 4. It is a bit like a training session in another sport, a platform that allows you to develop a tactical approach to poker without any stakes being at risk.
Winning Poker HUD
Finally, we have another HUD for you. As we have already explained, these types of utilities provide information on opponents and their games as well as allowing you to replay your own games. It imports hand histories and assimilates the information for you over time. If you use Poker Stars then this HUD is a great one for you, it is easy to use, has a manageable interface, and uses real-time player statistics.