All kinds of Poker Software
Certain poker software is used to run your online poker site and to allow you to play on that site. However, there are other kinds of poker software. The most prominent other kind of poker software is poker software designed to improve your poker results. These types of software fall into a few different categories.
Player Tracking Software
Tracking software is software that receives hand histories, your record of play throughout a session and creates a statistical analysis of your play and the play of your opponents. It may tell you how often you or other players see flops, how often you get to a showdown, even perhaps how likely certain opponents are to be bluffing or what range of hands you like to play. These programs can be a valuable tool in shoring up leaks in your game and making useful notes about your opponents.
Training Software
These programs allow you to play poker against computer opponents to sharpen your game. Since computer opponents do not know they are not playing for real money, they will usually give you their best game, and you can tweak various computer opponents to get varied styles of play. These programs also often have related analysis software, which you may have to purchase separately which can give you detailed information about your style of play and where you may need to improve.
Calculating Software
There are currently software programs on the market that instantly calculate your assumed pot odds and poker odds of winning a hand as you play. These programs can also calculate outs instantly and even advice you on how to proceed, freeing you up to focus on other nuances of the hand in question.
Auto Play Software a.k.a. Poker Bots
You can set some programs to sit in your online poker seat and play for you, according to preprogrammed rules. Use of these programs is generally considered unethical, if not illegal. You should avoid them and will probably be banned from a site if caught using them.
The question arises, is using any of these poker software programs unethical? Does using software mean risking your personal integrity? Ultimately, this is a decision every player will have to make for himself. However, consider the following.
Other than the auto play software, which is not really you playing at all, none of these programs do anything or provide any information that you could not do or obtain yourself given enough time. Furthermore, every other player you may face has access to these types of poker software just like you do, and you have no reason to believe they are not using them, whether you are or not. Finally, poker, like any gambling game that utilizes skill, is about finding and maximizing edges. If you are not prepared to take advantage of an edge when you find one, you are not prepared to be a long-term winning poker player. If you play for fun and using such software diminishes your enjoyment of the game, you shouldn’t use them. However, if you are a prospective pro or if winning is your primary goal, you cannot afford to ignore any opportunity.
