Table Ratings Review
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Remember the days when your win (or loss) rate was your knowledge, and yours alone? When you were free to, uh, adjust said win rate as needed during conversations with friends or acquaintances? Those were the days. For tournament players, they’re well in the past now, of course, with the advent of sites like Sharkscope and the PokerDB. Now it’s cash game players who are getting their cover blown with a site called TableRatings.com.
Overview
TableRatings.com is a site that offers information on the results of online poker cash games and the makeup of active games. Current game data is available from FullTilt, Bodog, Party and Titan Poker at all stake levels; historical data is available for FullTilt, Bodog, and Absolute Poker at $.5/$1 NL and higher, and $2/4 Fixed Limit and higher.
Look
I like it. It’s clean, it’s uncluttered, and the main features of the site are right upfront. The site obviously benefits from its singular focus, and the tools it offers are all easily accessible right from the front page.
Content
A site like this is only as useful as the results it provides. According to the site’s FAQ, coverage is “95+ % of the hands that get played on FullTilt (since 4/1/2008), Bodog (since 9/9/2008), and Absolute Poker (since 4/1/2008) at $.5/$1 NL and higher, and $2/4 Fixed Limit and higher.”
Balanced against that claim are multiple anecdotes across several poker forums about inaccurate results. It should be said that a few hands can make a large difference over a small sample, so missing 5% of the hands could account for a lot of those discrepancies. Also, people aren’t always completely honest with themselves about their winrate, so… we’ll assume that the site is not quite as accurate as a pokerDB, but still a pretty good yardstick, especially if you’re dealing with a large sample.
Functionally speaking, the tools work great. Results are cleanly organized, and large amounts of data are presented in manageable chunks, making the whole process easy to navigate.
Unique pros / cons
There are some great little touches to this site. You can watch replays of single hands or entire sessions played by yourself (or anyone). The site has a buddy list feature that will email you when players you add to your list sit down to play online. You can compare your performance to other players directly (or any opponent to any opponent) with the site’s simple (but entertaining) comparison graphing tool.
The site is free, but you’re forced to create an account if you do more than five searches.
Bottom Line
If you play cash at the sites supported, this can be a very useful tool. It’s also fun for killing a few minutes when your tables are going slow.
