Pokerbility
Adds recommendations. Good for limit ring games.
This is certainly the most unique design of all the calculators, and if you want a calculator that a serious graphic designer had a hand in, then this one is for you. The slender, upright, egg-shaped body clearly shows your hole cards near the top, and the community cards at its base, where it also shows (in another horizontal oval) the dealer button and seated players. The main body is where the odds calculations are displayed. It shows your chance of hitting a particular hand, your rank of cards, all of your outs, and most importantly – Pokerbility's check, raise, or fold recommendations.
Pokerbility claims to have a proprietary mathematical formula for calculating odds, and I did notice (in side-by-side testing) that some of their percentages were different than some of its competitors. Some figures were more than marginally different, usually with a slant to folding more often. Take this as you will, but Pokerbility has what not other poker calculator does - it lets you adjust the scale of tight or loose recomendations it provides you based on table action.
Easy on the eyes graphically, but needs to improve its readibility when it comes to digits.
The Best of it: Pokerbility has a very cool design that's easy on the eyes. It also flashes alert amber shades when you have a raising hand, further enforcing the tight aggressive strategy. Pokerbility is customizable as well, whereby its recommendations on a given hand are guided by general strategies you adjust in the Loose/Aggressive menu. This menu also has adjustemnts for position and blind play, which mathematically should be looser than early play. This can really help when you are at an extreme table and you choose to play the opposite style. Works well with many sites like Party Poker, Poker Stars, and Ultimate Bet. Very good for limit ring play.
Poker Book Report- Limit Holdem Hand by Hand by Neil D. Myers
If your game is limit holdem then Pokerbility and Holdem Indicator lead the way in software assist tools. You may also want to take up a book like this for more advanced play.
There is a new writer in the poker world, and he is an English sounding dude living in New York and playing a lot in the private poker clubs and Atlantic City Casinos. The only reason I know he is English sounding is because included in his very well thought out book titled Limit Holdem Hand by Hand, The Quick and Easy Way to Advanced Poker Play is quite an extensive DVD that beginners will find very useful.
In fact I find the DVD superior to some productions of years past from the likes of Hellmuth, Duke and Lederer to name a few. One great thing about listening to Myers is that he is modest but comes across very factual and accurate. It gave him more credence as I perused his video and read the book.
The hand by hand part of the title is very well put. Assuming you already know the basics of the game of hold’em, this book can quite succinctly bring you into profitability, or at least stop you from bleeding on your white shirt.
The book introduces a rather tight, positional starting hand guide with exceptions for raises before the action gets to you. As a reference point the guide is a bit looser than Sklansky, and a bit tighter than Ed Miller, but does compensate for and help you recognize different playing styles that you will find common in limit ring games.
I think this text is laid out quite well because as far as starting hand guides go, this book takes you literally, hand by hand through 52 of the most common hand combat situations you will face at the table over and over again. So even though the starting hand guide may seem restrictive, once you get into the hand by hand analysis you find that Myers is a bit of a looser nut than may seem. I have often found that exact strategy to be true in low limit games as well. To me it matters far less what to your bottom line how you play preflop than it does your post flop play, and Myers certainly has a handle on that and explains it better than 9 of 10 writers out there now.
True, a beginner’s style book, but it is quality enough to be reading on the bus or in the car on your way to the casino. I have to give this book some solid kudos here as anyone learning and aspiring to get better can simply not avoid to do so through these chapters and video.