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

Overview
Tournament Shark is a piece of software that offers you a few ways to view data on the online poker tournament performance of your opponents. Basically, ProPokerLabs tracks the results of every MTT and SNG played at major rooms online, and Tournament Shark offers you a quick way to reference that data for the other players at the table.

Why would you want this information? Developing quick reads in tournament poker is critical, and when you’re playing online, you just don’t have much to go on. Especially in the later stages of tournaments, tables are combining quickly, and it’s easy to end up in a confrontation with a player for a lot of chips with absolutely no read or history. The data TS provides is a solid starting point for determining the competency of your opponent, information that can provide a legitimate decision-making advantage.

Information provided includes: Total games, Avg profit, Avg ROI (not on PokerStars), Avg Buyin, Recent ITM win rate, and a percentage breakdown of where the opponent tends to finish (early, middle, late and so on).

Pros
The big pro of this software has to be convenience. You can get this data on your opponents elsewhere (most notably Official Poker Rankings and the pokerDB), but other services require you to open an internet browser, navigate to a page and enter player info. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re playing multiple tables it’s the sort of extra effort that can be really annoying (and can easily result in a misplayed hand). With TS, you don’t have to do much of anything – just start the program and it automatically detects any tournament tables you have open and loads player information.

You can view player information one of two ways – either with a table overlay (commonly referred to as a Heads Up Display, or HUD) where the data sits on top (placed over) of your tables, or as a module that attaches to the bottom of your tables and lists all of the player data in a table (this module can be minimized).

The appearance and layout of the HUD is easily customizable in a manner that will be very familiar to PokerTracker or HEM users.

You also have a good amount of control over the data that the software presents via a number of intuitive filters.

The software didn’t cause any conflicts or impact the performance of poker room clients when tested, and also worked fine in conjunction with HEM / Pokertracker and the HUDs of those programs as well.

Cons
I think the only major issue for most people will be the price. You can get a trial of the software free, or get a full version by signing up at a poker room through their affiliate links, but purchasing the software straight out costs ~$70. There are no additional costs for accessing the data.

Players at smaller rooms might be disappointed by the relatively sparse list of rooms TS supports – PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker as of this review.

Overall
This is a piece of software that works as it should. If you’re a consistent MTT multi-tabler, you owe it to yourself to at least download the free trial and see if you don’t appreciate the easy access to relevant data on your opponents.

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

Overview
MF is an Onion-style site that publishes satirical news stories that generally draw from current happenings in the pokerverse, both on and offline.

Look
Standard-issue blog design.

Content
As with any humor site, it’s hit and miss. You’ll get some really solid, insightful parody some days, and some cheap shots the next. When it’s funny, it’s funny – and when it’s not, it doesn’t waste much of your time.

Unique pros / cons
The content is pretty unique – there aren’t a lot of sites doing poker humor full-time. The site’s easy to use and is publishing multiple articles a week.

The site is relevant, which is nice if you’re reading daily, as a lot of the articles will draw on the news of that day or week. However, this dates some of the material and makes the archives a little less entertaining than they might be otherwise

Bottom Line
A nice addition to a feed reader or a bookmark list – a little levity never hurt anyone

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Overview
Poker Verdict is an online poker magazine that offers a full array of content, including blogs, news, strategy, updates on major tournaments, and more

Look
Poker Verdict is a cleanly designed site. The navigation is intuitive and easy to use, the articles are clearly accessible from the main page and while there are ads, they’re not obtrusive. The archives are easy to use and navigate as well.

Content
The strategy section is solid, with coverage of holdem, tournament play and some non-standard game articles like razz, HORSE and omaha. The site also offers a wide array of blogs from a variety of voices.

PV is home to a pretty good selection of player interviews and profiles that cover both the live and online community. You’ll also find a good selection of news articles and a great column called Blogspotting that rounds up the highlights from the poker blog community each week.

Unique pros / cons
Blogspotting is probably my favorite aspect of the site. The only real con to the site is that by trying to offer readers a little bit of everything, there’s no one area that gets a deep and comprehensive focus.

Bottom Line
A worthy addition to your link list that will provide you with useful content on a regular basis.

Visit PokerVerdict

This process of finding beatable games and players is absolutely critical for success in online poker. True…..you have a vast amount of games to choose from on a very large number of sites but that still does not detract from the fact that you still need to find beatable games in order to make the game pay. There are an ever growing number of software products on the market but I was amazed at how effective Poker Edge actually is.

Overview

On my travels across many poker forums and doing research into poker software in general, I know that many players are not overly keen on using software like Poker Tracker and Poker Office or their equivalent. It takes time to build up worthwhile databases of information with these products.

You can sit down at a game at a new site that you have just joined and you will not have a single scrap of data on any of the players until you have been on that site for a while. This will force you to play your default game nearly all the time during the early stages and to miss making those key moves that you can only make when you have data on certain players.

This is where Poker Edge comes into its own because you can access a database of literally millions of players and have that data showing on your screen by way of a HUD.

Pros

It is not terribly hard to see the advantages to using this piece of software. Imagine sitting at a table and being able to see just what types of player your opponents are. Is that player to your immediate right a maniac who will be raising your blind almost constantly? Or are they the strong tricky type who will be raising your blind with the correct and proper frequencies?

Also the information is constantly updated in REAL TIME while you play which is a great feature of this product. All of your opponent’s key statistics are shown in a head up display (HUD) and it also classifies each opponent for you as well without you having to do it yourself.

It’s great to be able to see that there are three fish on your table who you have never played with before prior to sitting down at the table. But just like with other available tracking products, Poker Edge allows you to see how your opponents play by street and this allows you to see which players show more aggression pre-flop than post flop and which players will tend to win when it goes to a showdown.

In short then, almost everything that you could want from any tracking software can be found in Poker Edge with the added big advantage that the information about these players is already there waiting for you before you sit down to play. Even the price of Poker Edge is a bonus in my book with price packages starting from as little as $4.95 per month rising to $29.95 depending on the features of the particular package that you want. Finding good games to play in ALL the time has to be worth thirty bucks a month of anyone’s money in my opinion.

Cons

Of course no review would be complete without mentioning potential drawbacks as well but as far as I can see there are only two. The first is that you are somewhat dependent on the software having data on the players who are at that table but this really isn’t a problem either when you think about it because you can still select which tables to play on simply by going on which players have the most reliable stats.

The other drawback is that certain sites do not allow this software and this area is constantly changing and the best way to find out which sites support this software from those that don’t is by simply logging onto www.poker-edge.com where you will see all of the sites that will allow you to run it.

Overall

I have argued for sometime now that you can only get out of any piece of software what you put into it. You simply cannot expect any piece of software to play your game for you. If you persist in playing badly and losing discipline then no software can help you however good it may be. But online poker has reached a stage where you simply need help from somewhere. In my mind I see software of this sort simply as my “electronic number two” that is assisting me to become not only a better poker player but also a winning poker player and that simply has to be worth the effort and money.

Overview

FlopTurnRiver.com is one of the more comprehensive poker sites that you’ll find on the web as it tackles poker strategy, room reviews, news, forums, and chat rooms. And each of these sections seems to have a fair amount of content as well.

Look

This site employs a lot of different frames on the front page but the color coding for them makes it easier to distinguish between the various ones. And as a visitor chooses the content they wish to check out, things begin to space out a little more. The menu bar at the top of every page is a good navigational tool.

Content

The strategy section has pretty good articles with some of its best stuff being the easy-to-read odds and probability charts. Community News is kept up-to-date and has a lot of interesting poker room leaderboard articles. There is also a very extensive list of poker room reviews that offer perspectives with a unique nuts (cool) and beats (bad) system.

Unique pros / cons

Flop Turn River does a great job of incorporating a lot of different Texas Hold’em aspects into the site and isn’t thin at any particular area. It’s almost like multiple sites being rolled into one.

However, the home page is a bit too cluttered.

Bottom Line

A very good comprehensive Texas Hold’em site for those who are enthusiastic about the game.

Visit FlopTurnRiver

Overview

PokerEV could best be described as a piece of review software that analyzes a person’s poker playing sessions. The PokerTracker database is what Poker EV runs off of and it gives players a multitude of tools such as graphs, stat calculators, EV (expected values) stats, and several other smaller things. The three poker games that Poker EV works with are Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo. The full version is not available at the time of this review, however, the free beta version is up for download.

Pros

One definite pro with the free beta version is exactly as stated, “free”. And for a free piece of software, it is pretty good at giving some relevant statistics. The graphs clue a player in on how they can improve their play by spotting good trends and reinforcing them or by noticing bad patterns and trying to break them. The program can also help you attribute your recent good/bad play to specific factors such as not going to showdowns enough, trying to see too many flops, etc.

Cons

As previously stated, only the free beta version is available right now so there are bound to be some issues. One thing that is definitely an issue is that certain hands are sometimes skipped in the analysis. This may be due to the program not wanting to give bad data but it is still annoying. The graphs can be kind of hard to read and they sometimes give vague information that isn’t always all that helpful. Plus with the skipped hands, the graphs’ value as a helpful tool decreases quite a bit.

Overall

The price seems is good enough to at least give this free beta version of Poker EV a try and it could serve as a precursor to something much better when the new one comes out.

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Overview

Hard Boiled Poker is your traditional blog except the mystery author doesn’t pretend to be some guru or expert. Instead Short-Stacked Shamus admits to being an online low-limit to micro-limit player with a marginal knowledge of strategy. Shamus normally discusses happenings in poker along with his own experiences playing the game.

Look

The things setting Hard Boiled Poker apart from other blogs in terms of looks is the all black background and the 1930’s feel to it. The 1930’s feel comes from all the pictures of old-style reporters and gangsters that decorate the site. A few video clips can be seen here as well.

Content

The content is mostly blog postings by Shamus centering on subjects like his hand histories, simple strategy tips, and what’s going on with regards to poker laws. Some of the fun in reading the content is finding a little bit out about Short-Stacked Shamus. Judging from some of the posts, Shamus is a male who covers WSOP events for Pokernews.com (that’s pretty much all I figured out). Also, he seems to have recently started up a radio show that has been well-received so far.

Unique pros / cons

Shamus’ blog posts are normally pretty entertaining to read (besides the hand histories) and insightful. Visitors seem to have taken pretty well to his pod cast radio show too.

One thing that’s bothersome about the site is that finding the blog posts archives takes a little too much effort since it’s located towards the bottom of the home page.

Bottom Line

This blog is worth checking out from time to time by people who take a casual interest in poker.

Visit Hard Boiled Poker

Overview
With so many sites focusing on strategy and news, PokerRoad.com takes a different approach and aims more at finding out what professional poker players do in their off time – especially on the road. The way the site presents this info is mainly through the usage of video clips and the Poker Road Radio show. There is also a pretty extensive archive of player blogs as well.

Look
Much of the site puts the emphasis on the video screens as they are in the middle of a lot of pages. For text-based pages like the blogs, the panels are well separated allowing for easy reading. The menu bar on the home page is a nice touch too, although its dropdown titles are a little sketchy.

Content
Immediately upon landing at Poker Road, users should be tipped off by the video clip screens that this site relies heavily on multimedia. But there are also plenty of player blogs letting you in on insider information such as the wonders Master Cleanse does for Joe Sebok’s bowels or how his stepfather Barry Greenstein misses his girlfriend not being with him on long road trips. There is also a little strategy on the site too courtesy of Greenstein.

Unique pros / cons
True to form, PokerRoad.com does a good job of giving visitors a great look at the life and emotions that a professional poker player experiences. It also presents a decent range of professionals too instead of just focusing on the site founders Sebok and Greenstein.

However, one of the dropdown titles from the menu bar, “Destination Unknown”, accurately describes this navigation system. You really don’t know where you’re going sometimes with titles like “PokerRoad Redeux” and “15 Outs….One Time!”.

Bottom Line
Despite navigation issues, this site is an excellent resource for those who are interested in more than just what goes on at the table.

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Overview
PokerSpace takes the poker community site model and adds a rewards component. By participating in the community in various ways, you earn points that can be redeemed for a variety of merchandise. PokerSpace also has a fairly robust selection of strategy content, news, videos and the like.

Pros
The site, while relatively new, seems to be doing a good job of coming up with some unique twists to a familiar format. For example, you can form teams with other members and participate in various weekly competitions against other teams. A large chunk of their strategy content is presented in a lesson plan format, with quizzes at the end of individual lessons and sections that you have to pass before moving on to the next area. The points system works mostly as you’d imagine – the main avenue for earning points is signing up and playing at various poker rooms, but the site does offer a variety of creative ways to earn points, albeit smaller amounts than you earn for sign ups.

The interface is clean and the navigation is pretty intuitive. There’s a good amount of content on the site and most of it is pretty easy to find your way through. The site lacks obtrusive ads and the graphics are nice and understated.

Cons
Most of the aspects of the site that are a bit lacking can be chalked up to the site’s relative newness. The blog area is a bit underpopulated, and the news and video content, along with some of the strategy content (which includes articles from PTP) are
provided by 3rd party partners like PokerNews and PokerTube.

There’s also not a ton of obvious ways to find other people that you might like to be ‘buddies’ with. As member profiles expand I’d expect that this will be remedied.

Overall
PokerSpace doesn’t entirely break the mold of what you expect from an online poker community site, but it does build effectively on the lessons learned by sites that came before it. If you’re looking for a rewards site that has a strong community and content aspects, you should definitely check it out.

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With so many niche tools being developed for online poker, it was only a matter of time before someone got the idea to create an umbrella program that would group a large number of tools under one banner. After all, it doesn’t make much sense to jump from web site to web site when most everything you’re looking for can (more or less) be housed in one location. That’s the basic idea behind PokerManager, a new piece of poker software that aims to serve all of your poker-related needs in-house.

Overview
Poker Manager is an application that looks to serve as, well, the manager of your online poker life. It’s a downloadable, standalone application that offers a wide variety of services related to online poker. Poker Manager provides a tournament listing service, a customizable tournament calendar, a buddy list feature with PM and IM capability, a resource center with links to a variety of poker sources, a suite of basic poker tools such as odds calculators, and several other features.

Pros
First and foremost, the software is absolutely free, and not just ‘free if you jump through these hoops and sign up at these rooms’, but actually free.

This is a smartly designed, well-executed program. The navigation and layout both make sense from a user perspective. There’s a rich layer to individual features as well; the tournament listing service, for example, has multiple methods for sorting data.

None of the individual features will be all that surprising to people, but the ability to access them all in one place is unique.

Cons
As a relatively new program, it’s not surprising that some of the sections feel like they’re a little underdeveloped. Also, the lack of inclusion of Full Tilt (along with a few smaller rooms) in the tournament listings is a drag. Finally, like any community-driven product, the strength of this software will be in part determined by those who use it, and Poker Manager’s community is still growing.

Overall
It’s risk-free, so unless a couple of minutes of your life are really worth that much, this is worth a download and a trial run at minimum.

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