Relevant

The Online Poker Analyzer is the latest empirical poker calculator to hit the market, and although rather equipped in its feature set, it has a seriously limiting layout structure that prevents multi-tabling.

Another empirical poker calculator on the market is a good thing, because there simply are not enough to compete with market share leaders of the Indicator group of products. The Online Poker Analyzer provides profiling information on your opponents that is displayed in a somewhat oversize row of bright red rectangles along the bottom of your screen. (No, you cannot move it, more on that later.)

 <<<Display not well thought out, hard to read, and way over-sized.

 Some of OPA's features are rather standard for poker calculators, such as VPIP (Voluntarily putting money in the pot), AF (aggression factor), pot odds and draws, and WSD percentage. Nothing really new here, save for the graphical layout. Along with these standards, the software also has some potentially interesting indicators called "Danger" and "Bluffing" which are apparently extrapolated from the other standard data collected. As for their accuracy or usefulness, it's rather hard to judge because not only are they not described (no visible help section whatsoever), the range of 1 to 5 in each of them is somewhat puzzling - as to why they are dangerous, or the frequency of bluffing, and the source from which that is determined.

In monitoring the bluffing and danger indicators over the course of several hours at a cash game they proved almost useless as never more than 1 or 2 of the 18 at each table had any number associated with it at all. And then of course, you really don't know what the number means anyhow, so it's more of a nuisance at this stage.

I would just rather have the profile icons most widely used in other software like Holdem Indicator where at a glance, I would be able to figure out what type of player my opponent was at any given time. I mean at least the software designers were thinking about different angles of profiling, I just feel they have not come close to executing the features properly to make them useful.

This is even more evident in the over-sized advice window that rotates little sayings like "Flop is bad", or "your cards are no good" meanwhile in between hands it is encouraging you to bluff more because you are playing too conservatively. This strikes of the really horrible execution of Sit and Go Shark which makes me wonder if the products are skins of each other. If they are, mark that up to a horrible piece of software to emulate.

Choosing to have "bad" advice in the poker window will almost certainly land the online poker analyzer in Poker Stars Prohibited Software category, which would be avoidable without this "feature".

Getting back to the layout displays which are not only non-adjustable - they will dominate your computer screen, meaning you can only play one table at a time. For cash games, that will force you into a low hourly rate, if you win at all.

Now in view of the exaggerated claims of winners on the sales page for Online Poker Analyzer you would think there would be something profound in the feature set.Needless to say, I didn't find it, nor did it have any perceptible advantages over any other product available right now.

Winning is what it's all about when deciding on a poker calculator, and the sales page the poker analyzer aggressively asserts rather astronomical claims of turning its users into instant winners. Once I see a product make boastful claims such as they do, my protective radar kicks in and yours should too. Even their video testimonials rank of actors who are claiming outlandish wins and win rates. One lady comes on claiming to have won a major MTT and couldn't even use the right poker terminology to describe her supposed victory - saying "jack-pot" like she won a bingo game. During the download process, there is also a message that warns users NOT to win more than $400 per day so as not to alert red flags at your poker site.

In my mind this is despicable, pathetic marketing that is targeting new players who find themselves looking to online poker as a way of replacing a lost job or income in extremely hard economic times. Shame on Starlogic for marketing this way, rather than choosing to make a good product in the first place.