May 12
SharkScope Poker Stats Review
SharkScope Poker Stats Review
Sharkscope is a membership website that allows you to look up online poker player statistics such as games played and ROI %. It also has a great tool to find the best SNG tables to join by letting you know how many sharks and fishes BEFORE you join. After joining a good table you can increase your chances of winning by knowing which players to avoid and which ones to attack based on their ROI. To take full advantage of the stats available you must have a good understanding of how to play the game. A general rule is players with a good ROI tend to be tighter and players with a -10% ROI or worst tend to be looser. They also have a heads up display that attaches to your online poker table to display these stats, but I don’t find it very useful as I can’t filter the stats to show the numbers on only the specific game I’m playing. You can give the basic features a try with their 5 free searches a day at http://www.sharkscope.com. Although I have used it for a few years myself, I would NOT recommend it anymore, simply because I found a better site that does the same things but more, at a lower price. That would be the Tournament Shark at http://www.pokerprolabs.com.
Sep 25
Poker Bots
A poker bot is a program that can analyze the current situation at an online poker room and play the hand according to a set of rules. The long time asked question by many poker players “Do poker bots work?” To get straight to the point it depends on what you are trying to accomplish, who is using it and when was the question asked.
If you are looking for a poker bot that can beat an above average player, it’s currently not available. But if you are looking for one that can consistent turn a profit in low stakes games, there is a few on the market that will work.
Poker bots are getting smarter day-by-day. Bots were pretty much completely useless in 2007. With the high demand of people looking to make easy money, many bots are available online. The sad thing is, non are perfect. I have tested many bots and I can see the potential of an advanced bot being available by the end of 2009.
So how do poker bots work?
Poker bots are programmed based on the ICM (independent chip model). Basically, it uses math to give each player a set of possible hands and determine what is the best move based on the current situation.
The limitations today, is the bots do not know how to bluff, lay traps and get the most value out of certain hands. As for the settings, it is only as good as the person who sets it up. People who do not know how to play well to begin with, will have a hard time setting up the bot to perform well. Of course, you can always get help from the bot owners.
