If you’re not familiar, Rush Poker is a new poker variant rolled out by Full Tilt Poker earlier this year. The rules of the game aren’t any different – just the speed. Unlike turbo tables, which force the action by giving everyone less time to act, Rush Poker picks you up and drops you into a new hand the second you fold your first one.

For a more detailed explanation on how Rush Poker works, check out this article.

Anyhow, this isn’t an article about how Rush Poker works. It’s an article about the tools you can use to improve your win rate at Rush Poker. We’re going to talk about three tools – a heads-up display, TableNinja and the humble Notepad application – that, when used correctly, can give you a significant edge over the casual player.

Rush Poker Tool One: Heads Up Display

A heads-up-display (HUD) is a pretty standard tool for online poker players. A HUD takes data about your opponents drawn from hand histories out of a database program such as Holdem Manager or PokerTracker and displays it next to your opponents on the table window. A HUD updates in real time (assuming you have HEM or PT running), so as you collect more hands on your opponents, you get more data regarding their tendencies.

HUDs are great in regular games, but they are indispensable in Rush Poker. When you’re moving rapidly from one table to the next, it’s impossible to form reads on opponents and, even if you could, it’s difficult to remember opponents (a problem exaggerated by Full Tilt Poker’s stock avatar selection). The speed of the game makes it tough to take deep notes on your opponents, further compromising your ability to react in opponent-specific ways.

Both Holdem Manager and PokerTracker support Rush Poker, and do a great job of popping up your data for the opponents at your new table within seconds of your arrival – more than sufficient time for you to access your stored data and get a sense of whether the three-bet from the button is a premium hand or an aggressive player trying to abuse their position.

Below is a video that walks through some of the features of the PT HUD for Rush Poker; HEM’s HUD offers a very similar set of features.

Get more info about PokerTracker and Holdem Manager in our comparison report here.

Rush Poker Tool Two: TableNinja

We’re huge TableNinja fans. The program makes multi-tabling a breeze by allowing you to assign keyboard shortcuts to all of your on-screen actions (bet, raise, fold, sit out, switch tables, etc), saving you the hassle of dragging a mouse over multiple monitors and tables. As if Rush Poker wasn’t fast enough, TableNinja presses down on the accelerator a bit more, ramping the speed of the game into virtually super-sonic territory.

The single biggest asset: TableNinja allows you to assign a shortcut to the ‘quick fold’ action, the one that immediately moves you on to your next hand as soon as you can possibly fold. The difference between using the ‘quick fold’ and the traditional fold buttons hasn’t been quantified, to the best of our knowledge, but my rough guess would that it increases your hands per hour by at least 75%.

Using this shortcut on just one table is nice; using it on multiple tables of Rush Poker allows you to get some serious sick hands per hour totals, without diminishing the quality of your play by any significant amount. In fact, TableNinja arguably increases the quality of your play – with bet sizing shortcuts and single keystrokes for betting, raising and folding, your attention isn’t split between shipping the mouse to a particular button on a particular window and making a critical decision in another window. TN allows you to minimize the distractions and hassles, and maximize your focus on the decision-making process.

For more info on the program, read our review of Table Ninja here.

Download TN for FTP here.

Rush Poker Tool Three: Notepad

Poker players love Notepad. Rush Poker players should love it even more, as it’s the only reasonable way to take notes on opponents within the context of Rush Poker’s blazing speed. Here’s the problem: you generally take a note on a person as the hand ends. However, when playing Rush Poker, the end of one hands means the start of another, which means a move to a new table with a new set of opponents. So, how do you take notes?

Here, your HUD comes in handy yet again. While you may move tables instantly, your HUD takes a second or two to catch up. That means you’ll still be able to click on an opponent’s name and take a note on them that will be stored within PokerTracker or HEM and available the next time you face that player.

Second problem: The game moves so fast that even if you get the box up, you have precious little time to write. That’s where notepad comes into the picture. Rush Poker is a version of poker that lacks some of the meta-aspects of a typical poker game. I don’t want to say it’s a simpler game, but in some ways it is – specifically, you need to know (and can know) less about your opponents that you would if you played several hundred hands in a row against them. The upside: there are only so many notes you’re going to be making on opponents, so you can easily create a stock list of notes (‘will go broke with overpair on any flop’; ‘check-raises turn when strong’) and put those notes in a notepad file, one per line, organized however you like.

When you need to take a note, flip over to Notepad, quickly grab the relevant note, copy it and paste it into the box. Presto- what would have been a frustrating process that could potentially sap your focus or spark a tilt episode is now a 4-click affair that will pay serious dividends in future play.

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Videos on PokerStars.tv
PokerStars.tv has a ton of videos. A lot of them are basically video blogs from EPT and APPT events, but there’s also a decent amount of live coverage of tournament final tables and replays of major online poker events. In both cases, you’ll often have the opportunity to see the tournament played with all of the hole cards face up. Watching how established players deal with big-pressure situations (and how inexperienced ones deal with the same spots) can teach you a lot about some things you might be missing, some tricks you may have forgotten and keep you on the leading edge of current game trends. Bonus: You can watch videos in the background while your play or work. Cost: Free.

The Two Plus Two Strategy Forums
2+2 has, hands down, the best strategy forums online. whether you’re into cash or tournament, there’s likely a dedicated forum for your game and level. Even if you just lurk through a thread or two a day, you’re bound to pick up useful nuggets that will serve as, at a minimum, solid jumping-off points for your own thinking about the game. Want to get more out of it? Stop lurking and start posting. If you’re intimidated by the sheer volume of the forums, try the strategy forums at the site you’re most comfortable with (you can find ours here). Cost: Time, but no dollars.

TeamViewer
TeamViewer is a nifty piece of software that essentially allows you to view someone else’s desktop from a remote location. The application for poker players is clear: hit up one of your friends who plays online and ask them if you can sweat a session. Maybe you can even get them on Skype and have them walk you through their thought process as you watch. Either way, you’ll get to see a different approach to the game than the one you’ve developed for yourself, and a new point of view is often just the cure for a mental rut.
Cost: Free – just some of your time.

Training Memberships Via Rakeback
If you’re playing online, you should be getting rakeback. If you’re getting rakeback, it should be through a site that lets you earn credits for online poker training sites like Cardrunners and PokerXFactor as you earn rakeback (you can do so if you get rakeback through PartTimePoker). Training sites are an awesome resource for improving your game, and if you can get them for free just by doing something you’re already doing anyway – paying rake – you’d be silly not to. Cost: Free, if you’re an active player.

Pick Apart a Hand a Day
Habits are the key to improving in poker, and one habit all good players should be in is to deconstruct hands on a regular basis. to make this a habit, commit to doing at least one a day for a set period of time until you feel like it’s become a natural part of your day. Doing a thorough hand review keeps you aware of your assumptions about the game, makes you more insightful when it comes to putting yourself in your opponent’s shoes, and keeps your mind focused on poker – and likely keeps it working on poker in the background after you’ve moved on to the rest of your day. Cost: Free, and really just a few minutes of your day.

Day 1a had a starting field of over 2600 while day 1b only saw an addition of 1700 more players. With the smaller field tournament staff has had to scramble to decide how to keep day 1b from getting into the money.

The decision has been made play day 1b until they get close to the bubble and then bag up the chips for the night. Day 2 will resume at the blind level that day 1b stops at. This will be advantage to players that made it through day 1a.

What will this mean for the remaining $1ks? Does this mean that the 2010 version of the WSOP is going to have smaller fields than last? Only time will tell, but rest assured that if there are any changes made we will bring the details.

Follow the 2010 WSOP with PTP at our WSOP page or become a fan on Facebook.

Overview
ATH is essentially a PokerTracker for live poker – it assembles all of the hands you play in a live session and stores them in a remote database for later analysis. It also serves as a basic session tracker, recording details such as games played, limits, won/loss, and so on. Entry of the data is obviously manual, and while immediate session data can be viewed from within the application, more in-depth analysis of the data you’ve inputted requires you to fire up an internet browser.

Pros
ATH certainly gets points for uniqueness – we’re not aware of any program that essentially tries to be the PokerTracker of live play.

There’s some good things to be said about the interface for data input. Getting data from a live hand in is obviously going to be a cumbersome process no matter how you do it – especially when you consider that doing the same task online is essentially an instantaneous event – but the ATH developers have done a reasonably good job at making the data entry process fairly painless and intuitive, which is no mean feat – especially when you consider that they’re limited to a fairly tight screen with the iPhone.

The online database component of the service is where a majority of the work seems to have gone, and it shows. You have a number of filterable ways to view the data you’ve uploaded, sortable by just about any metric you can imagine – date, hand, flop action, amount won or lost, opponent, and so on.

Cons
Cons for this product fall into two categories: concept and cost.

Conceptual: There have to be some serious questions about the fundamental utility of this software. Database programs such as this rely on a pretty large data set to be of much use, and it’s really questionable whether or not you’ll even get close to a useful sample over your entire poker career. Even if you play a ton, there’s still the matter of entering the data for each hand – it’s a fairly clunky process despite the efforts of ATH’s developers, and to be honest, it’s a bit awkward to whip out your iphone after every hand and start plugging away.

The exception for the above con: if you play in a steady game where it’s not awkward to enter data, you can probably assemble a sample size that might still be small, but can be useful in plugging leaks in your game nonetheless.

Cost: At $5 for the application and then an additional monthly subscription cost to upload and analyze your hands (about $6 a month), this isn’t a pricey product per se’, but when you consider the fundamental concerns about the utility of the product, it’s pretty significant, especially relative to the cost of other poker-related iPhone applications. Also, the product ought to be far more clear about the subscription cost in the iTunes store.

Overall
An interesting idea, but perhaps a bit too ahead of its time.

Visit ATH

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To help you choose between Holdem Manager or PokerTracker, we compare HEM vs PT on the core functions, interface and pricing below.

Game support, Features and Add-ons

Both programs support Holdem for both cash and tournament play. Both offer add-on programs that allow you to import and analyze Omaha cash games and tournaments as well. PT has a unique add-on that allows the import of Stud hands if you’re into Stud. Holdem Manager has a HM App store where users can buy add-ons like, Leak Buster, Table Ninja, Table Scanner, Holdem Vision and Sit N Go Wizard. Best part is these HM App’s work together with Holdem Manager allowing you to use a single program for all your poker needs.

What rooms are the programs compatible with? Holdem Manager currently supports 24 different poker networks and Poker Tracker supports 17. Both programs are 100% in compliance with the poker rooms they support. Rooms like Cake do not allow a HUD but both programs will import your hands so you can do post session analysis.

Holdem Manager: 9

Comments: Tracker has Stud while Holdem Manager has their HM App store. Holdem Manager also supports 7 more poker rooms as of today. Edge goes to Holdem Manager.

Interface

In many ways, this is a matter of personal preference, but I give the slight edge on this point to HEM. Mostly it comes down to the internal logic of the layout – I just find that more tabs, buttons, etc are where I expect them to be when I use HEM, even though I was a long-time PT user. That small edge aside, both programs do an excellent job making sense of a baffling amount of data and options.

HEM is also a bit cleaner-looking than PT. There’s obviously not much of a need for a hyper-pretty package on a piece of software such as this, but that doesn’t mean aesthetics have to be ignored – just that they shouldn’t be a priority over functionality. HEM doesn’t have a lot of graphical bells and whistles, but it doesn’t feel like a cleaner package with sharper design details.

As far as functionality goes, both programs share a very similar core feature list and are highly customizable, so again, preferring one over the other on this point will largely be a matter of personal taste.

Holdem Manager: 9

Comments: Both are pretty even here so it comes down to personal preference.

Operation

Any program is going to be a bit machine-dependent, so you’re obviously going to want to try the trials of each program before committing to purchase just in case there’s some unique conflict between your machine and the software. All things being equal, the general consensus seems to be that HEM might have had a slight edge over previous versions of PT in terms of speed and stability, but recent upgrades have closed or erased the gap.

Another critical part of operation is how rapidly the software responds to changes in the poker room client – that is to say, how long does it take after Full Tilt Poker makes a major update before an upgrade correcting any conflicts with the database software is released? Recent upgrades by major poker rooms have generally seen both PT and HEM respond with upgrades within a day or so, with HEM seeming to have a slight edge in turnaround time.

In terms of direct support – assisting customers with specific issues – both have support forums that are actively moderated, and response time to typical questions generally seems to be a matter of minutes for simple queries and hours – not days – for more complex ones. Holdem Manager also supports German, Dutch and Italian for Tech Support.

Holdem Manager: 9

Comments: Holdem Manager gets the edge here since they support German, Dutch and Italian users and they generally have a better turnaround time between critical updates.

Pricing

Free trials are available for both.

Both PT and HEM offer two tiers of their basic database product that allows you to import and analyze holdem cash and tournament hands.

PT has a Holdem Full Version priced at $88.99 and a Holdem Micro Stakes version priced at $44.99 that limits what types of hands you can import into the database (limited to $0.10/$0.25 NL, $0.25/$0.50 Limit, and $11.00 Tourney/SnG buyin).

HEM offers a Full Version priced at $80 and a Small Stakes version for $55 (limited to .25/.50 No Limit, .50/1.00 Limit and up to $22 buy-in tournaments). PTP offers users a discounted version of HEM for $64 (details here) or the chance to earn a free copy of the software by getting rakeback (details here).

As far as Omaha goes, PT and HEM charge $89 for their unrestricted Omaha programs. PT charges $45 for their small stakes version where HEM charges $55. If you’re looking to buy both Omaha and Holdem in these Packages PT charges $144.98 and HEM charges $149.99

HEM offers users a full unrestricted 15 day trial of both their Holdem and Omaha products. PT offers a 60 day trial for their Holdem product but it does restrict your ability to run custom reports and you can only create a single database. For their Omaha product, PT offers a trial that will allow you to import 1,000 hands.

Holdem Manager 8

Comments: Tough to call here but I give a slight edge to Holdem Manager. Poker Tracker has a cheaper small stakes version than Holdem Manager but the stakes offered are lower than Holdem Manager so you might be forced to upgrade sooner. Tracker also has a longer trial period but it’s a restricted trial so you don’t get full use while you’re evaluating Poker Tracker. Holdem Manager offers a shorter trial period but it is a true, full-featured, unrestricted version of the software.

Final Score out of 40

Spend Your Money On…

Ideally, you should download both pieces of software and try them out. Both offer free trials, and they’re both solid choices for online poker analysis.

That said, if you lack the time or the notion for exploring both programs, when it comes down to a choice between Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker, we choose Holdem Manager. The program wins on slight edges in functionality, aesthetics, cost, and also on the development initiative it has shown in the last year or so to take market share away from PT.

Don’t Forget: Software and other tools like this are available free via PTP Rake Rewards.

Overview
TableScan Turbo (TST) is a utility that scans the lobby of major poker room clients (clients must be open on your machine for TST to scan). You set some filters for TST regarding type of game, limit, and the like and TST returns a list of the available tables that match your specifications. TST also connects to your local HH database (PT or HEM) and integrates your stats on players currently sitting at those tables to give you a tidy, sortable picture of your current options for play at that room (or those rooms).

At the time of this review, TST was in beta and was therefore free. Check their website for current price details.

Look
There’s a lot of data spit out by this program, so a simple interface with clean lines and minimal use of color was the best way to go, and that’s what TST did. All of the data is easily readable, sorts intuitively, and is color-coded (colors and coding customizable), making it even easier for you to see what you’re looking for with minimal effort – a key feature when multi-tabling. Here’s the main screen:

Unique pros / cons
A program like this needs to be fast and easy to use. TST succeeds on both counts. A scan of the FTP poker lobby with the following filters: .50/1 PL 6 max, .25/.50 6 max NL – took under 30 seconds. Setting up the filters you want is simple; adding and removing them is also a snap.

Searches are easily customizable – a series of check boxes allows you to set what sites you want to scan and what filters you want to employ. You can also set the program to autoscan at an interval you provide, or you can trigger scans manually.

One of the nice features of TST is how it integrates pretty cleanly with your local database (HEM was used for this review). By drawing on that database, TST provides you access to another level of data regarding not only the stats of players at, but also a quick access point to additional information about those players – without cluttering up the interface, Right-clicking on a player name brings up the following sub-window:

… which can be a useful selection tool, or just a quick preview of the player before your HUD comes up.

Once TST has helped you find a table you’d like to join (you also get data on the number of players seated and current wait list), just click on that table in TST and the program will open the table for you. You can also join the waiting list for the table by right-clicking on it.

Drawbacks: I really like this program, but it’s really not that useful if you don’t have a HH database installed locally. Without Holdem Manager or PT, you’re just not going to get a ton of help game-selecting from this tool. It’s still helpful if you’re wanting to survey all the games available at a certain limit across multiple sites, but the lack of player data you’ll suffer without HEM or PT really limits the utility of this tool.

The natural integration of HEM / PT and this sort of tool isn’t lost on those companies – HEM recently introduced a table scanner and PT markets a similar add on. Right now TST beats both on cost (and is competitive on features and ease of use), but may be fighting an uphill battle long-run.

Bottom Line
TST is a good idea packaged cleanly and supremely executed. If you are frustrated with manual game selection – especially if you use HEM or PT – this tool is a no brainer.

Get TST here.

You can get software tools like TST free when you sign up for rakeback through PTP. Learn more about all of the PTP rakeback offers available – just enter your email below and click ‘get started’ for full info.

Overview
AutoHandPoster is a few utilities rolled into one, but at the core it does a simple thing – namely, it makes grabbing your last hand history at a particular table and copying it to a file a quick, efficient affair. You just assign a keyboard shortcut for the task and then whenever you want to grab the last hand history for a given table, you activate that table and type your shortcut. The HH is then either saved to a text file or posted automagically to PokerHand.org.

AHP costs $10; a free 3 day trial with full features is available.

Look
Pretty spartan, but it’s easy enough to find everything. All of your settings are laid out right on the main client screen – it’s a simple program, so not a lot of options, etc to sort through.

Unique pros / cons
The program does what it says and does it without issue. It also offers a couple of bonus features – like grabbing a tournament ID and pasting it to your clipboard, and compressing FTP tournament histories into a single HH file – that a lot of people will find useful. The integration with PokerHand is nice if you use that site, and the ability to quickly collect a bunch of hands from a session for later review is also a plus.

The major con, in my view, is that the feature set is a bit too narrow. There’s no way for you to sort or tag hands – features that would greatly improve this tool’s utility as a study aid. Also, if you use HEM or PT, there’s essentially a similar feature – marking hands for later review – already built in.

Bottom Line
With the full-featured free trial, there’s no reason no to give this a whirl. Try it for a session or tow and then decide if the benefit to your game justifies the admittedly small cost.

Get AHP here.

You can get software tools like AHP free when you sign up for rakeback through PTP.

As a result, there’s a growing amount of 3rd party tools aimed at making the mutli-tabling experience more enjoyable. At first these started off as individual scripts, but as demand for features grew, more and more ’suites’ appeared. That’s the category TableNinja falls into – a sort of one-stop shop for multi-tabling shortcut scripts.

Tip: Get software like this free with PTP Rake Rewards.

Overview
TableNinja is a supplement to PokerStars. It essentially automates some of the more common tasks associated with playing multiple tables (buying in, sitting down, sitting out at all tables, joining waiting lists) and also allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to actions at the table (betting, checking, etc).

Look
The program isn’t the slickest in the looks department. It suffers from what I generally refer to as Poker Trackeritis – you can tell all of the effort went into the function rather than the form. That’s probably not an issue for the majority of users, but a visual upgrade might improve the credibility of the program for a few.

The user interface is reasonable and easy enough to navigate, although a bit cluttered in spots.

Unique pros / cons
This is a great program that does take a lot of the annoyance out of multi-tabling. Even if you don’t use it for anything more than just managing your lobby, it’s still a godsend when you’re playing a ton of tables. It’s important to stay in a bit of a zone when you’re multi-tabling, and having waiting lists pop up, clicking on the seat you want to sit in, buying it, etc are all little pains that can pull you out of a rhythm.

It’s very easy to assign the keys you want to the actions you want, and in our extensive test run with the program there weren’t any issues with accuracy. You can create several different sets of hotkeys and save individual setups for use whenever appropriate.

The program only works at PokerStars and Full Tilt, which is obviously a drawback for some users. If you have a custom skin for PokerStars, there’s a chance that Table Ninja won’t perform all on-table functions properly. You’ll definitely want to test (as the software suggests) on play money tables if you do have a custom theme installed.

The program offers a full-feature free trial that lasts for 30 days. After that, it’s $60 for one site if you want to continue to use it, $100 for both.

It would be helpful if the program offered some sort of summary ‘cheat sheet’ of your hot keys that stayed visible as you got used to using the program. Having to go back to the main software screen to remember what hotkey you assigned to auto-fold is cumbersome.

Finally – and this is more of a general issue with hotkey programs than one unique to Table Ninja – most players will need a decent amount of practice with a program like TN if they’re never used keyboard shortcuts for poker before. Jumping right in to your 10-table routine without a few warmup sessions will likely produce a less-than-optimal result.

Bottom Line
If you’re playing multiple tables and not using TableNinja, you’re wasting time and energy on moving your mouse that could be focused on making better decisions (or playing more tables). Table Ninja is a game-changer, and is easily one of the best pieces of poker software we’ve ever reviewed.

Treat yourself right – get TableNinja and make the multi-tabling experience a smoother, more enjoyable and likely more profitable affair. The free trial makes this a no-brainer for anyone playing online poker.

Don’t Forget: Software and other tools like this are available free via PTP Rake Rewards.

Overview

Texas Calculatem is a program that operates in real-time, attaching to the poker table you’re playing and offering analysis of the strength of your hand based on a variety of factors. Texas Calculatem will also propose a course of action based on its evaluation of your strength. Unlike some odds calculators, the program is on the acceptable use list of all major poker rooms, including Poker Stars.

Pros

The upside to Texas Calculatem is simple: it offers solid advice in real-time based on a deep analysis of available information. What information? Your cards, your position, the actions of your opponents, community cards (when applicable), a range of relevant poker odds and more. That sort of function is invaluable for all players, but it’s especially helpful for newer players who are still incorporating fundamental lessons about profitable poker into their game. Texas Calculatem reinforces several of those critical lessons, including the value of position, the importance of proper drawing odds, and the value of isolating weak players.

The software is very easy to use. Open a poker table and open Texas Calculatem, and then drag Texas Calculatem over the game window you’d like to use it with. The program will automatically attach to that table and begin offering analysis as soon as you start getting cards.

Another plus: the software is fairly customizable, so once you’ve graduated past basic lessons, there’s a good amount that can be done with settings to adjust for very passive players, very aggressive players, and various other game nuances that become more important after you’ve attained a firm grasp on the fundamentals.

Cons

As far as I could tell, the software can only be used on one table at a time, which might be a drawback for some players who like to multi table. Calculatem also prefers that game windows be standard size, so if you like to resize your windows to be very small or large, you might have some trouble getting Calculatem to work properly.

The purchase price is about $70, but you can get the software for free by opening a poker account at various rooms and meeting a minimum hand requirement.

Overall

This is a useful tool for players who are looking to solidify their understanding of poker, especially cash games (although it’s useful for tournaments as well). While it’s not something advanced players will have a lot of use for, beginning and intermediate players will certainly gain some valuable insights with a few hours of use.

Like any software, this won’t magically make you a better player. It has to be used as part of a larger approach to the game that involves study of the game and your play. If you’re already doing those things, Texas Calculatem will help you improve.

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Since the fields are small, the payouts are fixed and the blinds become very significant to the average stack fairly quickly, proper decision making in SNGs is less complicated than in other forms of poker, and can be expressed mathematically with a level of precision that’s impossible to achieve in a cash game. Nowhere is this more true than in the end stages of SNGs, which tend be ‘jam or fold’ games where your decision is usually a polar choice between risking all of your chips or none.

Tip: Get software like this free with PTP Rake Rewards.

Overview

That’s where software like SNGWiz comes in. What the software aims to do, in a nutshell, is to help you understand which situations you should be willing to commit chips to, and which you should avoid. It’s basically a highly specialized calculator that takes into account the key variables present in SNG end stage play (chip value, stack size, hand strength and opponent hand ranges) and offers conclusions regarding profitable play.

Pros

Before getting into the details, I’ll make one thing perfectly clear: SNGWiz (or a competing program with similar features) is an absolutely necessary tool for anyone who’s even vaguely serious about excelling at SNG play. It’s highly unlikely that most people would be able to come across the insights you gain from SNGWiz manually, and even if you could, the time involved in doing so would be better spent working on the aspects of SNG play that SNGWiz doesn’t cover.

With that out of the way: SNGWiz is pretty excellent at what it does. After you provide it with a tournament situation (you can either enter a scenario manually or feed in an entire SNG hand history) and assign your opponents hand ranges, SNGWiz will output the expected value of your potential decisions.

SNGWiz also offers a quiz mode. Select the parameters (stack size and blind ranges, difficulty level and so on) and the program will generate a string of hypothetical scenarios that allow you to test your understanding of proper play.

The real value of this program lies in a simple fact – namely, that proper SNG strategy is at many points very counter-intuitive, even (and in some cases, especially) for fundamentally good poker players. With SNGWiz (and a little work) you’ll be able to identify several of these points, giving you a significant edge over your average lower-stakes online opponent.

The software is not free, but you can evaluate a full version of SNGWiz for 30 days before deciding if you’d like to purchase it.

Cons

The biggest con for many casual players will likely be the price tag. At $99, this might be slightly stretching the budget of the hobbyist. The good news is that, assuming effort on your part, the software will likely improve your SNG game, helping to defray some of the cost.

All of my complaints with the program are pretty cosmetic. The software interface is a little confusing at points, and the navigation options are a little obtuse. Most users would probably appreciate a more integrated tutorial feature, and maybe some help or reminder functions built into the software proper.

A small, but annoying, bug: The “open a tournament history from site ‘x’ ” links the software provides on the main screen didn’t work for me.

Overall

Like most poker resources, you’ll largely get out of SNGWiz what you put into it. The program isn’t a magic bullet that will instantly destroy all of the leaks in your game. Rather, it’s a specialized tool that’s best employed solving problems that arise at the end stages of SNGs. If you understand that data that’s going in and trust the conclusions that come out, you’ll be adding a powerful resource to your arsenal.

Test-run SNGWiz today

Don’t Forget: Software and other tools like this are available free via PTP Rake Rewards.