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Some time ago it was announced that a new version of PokerOffice was to be released, which certainly was nice to hear. I’ve been beta testing for a while, and today I saw that the version was finally released publicly, so I thought I’d write a few lines of my thoughts so far. There are a couple of improvements I’m the most happy about:
I haven’t tried running any databases with several million hands, but I have imported about 900k hands so far. It takes some time to load everything directly after a large import, but all data is cached so once you have loaded something once it will be extremely quick the next time you do the same thing. This is a pretty huge step forward from PokerOffice 2 since I was a bit disappointed with the performance for large databases earlier.
I definitely think the new overlay features are awesome. There are a few different pop-up windows: one pop-up for stats, one pop-up for player notes, and one pop-up for starting hands (lets you filter by actions and position). You can also assign color ranges for the stats. As I understand it’s also possible to write custom stats, filters and tables, but I haven’t had time to try this yet. Anyone tried this yet? Wow, just tried it out. Its great. Kicks Holdem Indicators and PokerTrackers ass! Especially the new HUD-features are amazing!
There are some others who have had different expereinces so I will post the here as well:
It won't sync with my pokerstars account. Plus, pokerstars has been crashing when PO has been opened. I have to force quit the java process exe in order for PS to even start, but then I can't get the freakin' PO to even sync - all this for 100 bucks?
I've been trying to get PO to help me with this problem but they're ignoring me. If they can't fix it, they won't write back. BS!
I have downloaded PokerOffice 5 and tried it a little bit, but haven't had much time to check everything out yet. I'm not an extreme multitabler, but I did play a two hour 6-table session at Full Tilt Poker yesterday and things worked out nicely. I also tried a 100k hand import which was incredibly fast compared to PO2. I also really liked the new live features (pop-ups); the stating hands one and the stats one that is.
I did notice that some of the tabs were a bit slow to load after the hand history import, but it worked a lot faster once I tried again. I think a memory cache is used now. I have holdem manager and Poker Office. To be perfectly honest I don't use either. I think both have there greatest value in cash games, and I have not played holdem cash in a fair while, preferring omaha for the time being.
In tournament play, whether it is MTT or SNG, position, Mzone and stacks are far more important than the sorts of profiling information those programs give you. They are nice to track your performance, but frankly and Excel spreadsheet does just as well.
Hand analysis tools available are not that important for tournament play IMO. You can reveiw your stats and find that you lost 10BBs on 56s in one hand, but in order to determine whether that was the correct play or not, you need to go back to the hand and look at stacks, position and Mzone to realise I shoved it from the cutoff from Red M and yeah, I'm happy with the play....which is why I made it in the first place....kind of thing.
Tournament play (including SNGs) is much more about stacks and position than it is about cards. I don't need software to tell me that I am raising more from late position than UTG and I don't need software to tell me what my 3-betting percentage is... etc. Every tournament play is situation specific and playing by stats or to meet stat goals is just the wrong approach. Tournament Indicator is the be all and end all as far as I am concerned. 
When I go back to cash games in holdem, then Holdem Manager and Poker Office come into their own. Personally, I thought Poker Office was fine for the information I wanted to know about mine and my opponent's games...with the single exception that it did not track statistics by Big Blinds. Holdem Manager does (as I believe Poker Tracker does also). But seriously dude, unless you are playing cash games, I wouldn't bother with either of them. TI is all you need. Like I said, haven't had a chance to test it out much, but I'll try writing a more conclusive report once I have.
I have made a number of posts on this subject in various threads, but will post again here. I have PO, PT2, PT3 and HM as well as Prospector and Poker Academy - and have used/still use them for different purposes.
Poker Office was my first database tracking software, but it has not kept pace with the market, crashed a lot and is not one I would recommend. However I understand there is a major new release on the way and this may change the situation.
I have used PT for years and love the software. PT2/PAHUD was the standard for a long time and (here I must disagree with you Phaedrus - an unusual occurance, I know........) it is an essential piece of kit for any serious player - for pre/during/post game analysis of your own play - but more important, the play of your opponents.
PT2/PAHUD is free when you purchase PT3 but be aware that the launch of PT3 was a shambles and it had FEWER features than PT2. It has improved with a new update at the start of October but will not have all the features of PT2 until the end of the month. You can always use PT2/PAHUD until then and export the data to PT3 when they fix it.
Holdem Manager is currently the new standard - in particular the HUD Table display/pop up stats are 'awesome', to use the comments most players give it. The tournament post game analysis stats are a bit cumbersome, but PT3 has a very serious competitor on it's hands. Prospector is a database/post game analysis software and is excellent. It goes into more detail than PT/HM and if you wish to analyze your game in more depth, this is the one for you.
Poker Academy is simply THE BEST poker training software on the market. If you want to improve your game, analyse/rerun situations, test gameplays, this is for you. I should not forget TI/HI/OI - excellent software and I do not play any game without them.
I play MTT with TI and PT (or HM), using HI is current mode and the table display from PT (or HM) in historical mode, so that I obtain full imformation on my opponents. I agree with Phaedrus on MTT, stacks/position etc are crucial, but you can improve the imformation available on your opponents to make more informed decisions with any of the tools above on board. The stats take a little bit of time to set up (I have explained what is needed in another post) but the time invested will pay dividends very quickly.
The cost is about $80 for each piece of software. but the ANNUAL license fee for PO is way out of line IMHO. |
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