poker copilot review

i've spent enough time with poker copilot 2 now to review the product, so here we go :)

synopsis

a stand alone poker tracking and analysis program that runs on the native mac os. its currently prices at $59.99.

highlights

> hud display

> hand and opponent analysis

> hand re-player

> performance tracking

> supports cash and tournament play

> works with pokerstars and full tilt poker

software

solid software with a simple and user friendly interface. i haven't experienced any problems since downloading and installing the program and have never had any issues with hand tracking or hud performance. from my experience poker copilot is stable and effective, in other words it just works :)

features

all the basics are there and if you only use the top-line features of any hand analysis and tracking program then you won't even notice. however if you like to play around with your and others stats then you'll start to notice some omissions, some big, some small. here are a few examples;

> there is no a date range option meaning you can't analyze how you performed over the course of the month

> you cannot break out table performance both in hud and in general. its therefore hard to see how you and other players are performing on a table by table basis.

> there's no $/bb toggle against the hands that you have played, ie. i have currently lost 9054 bb playing a/k suited. what's that in $?

having said that, the features that are missing are few and far between. there is more then enough functionality in poker copilot to add value to your game.

future

here's the thing, poker tracker 3 is meant to be released on mac in the early fall of 2009. that's only a few months away. pt3 is a great program, has been used by a lot of players in the past, and will certainly set the benchmark for mac poker tracking and analysis software. what happens to poker copilot? well they have a few months to prepare and if they can up their feature set sufficiently (which i know is possible) then they will have a chance.

overall

poker copilot is a decent program for the mac and does provide us mac users with a native option. as i said previously, its a solid and effective program that undoubtedly stable. its easy to use and does the foundation work very well. if you are desperate for some mac hand analysis and tracking then you can do no wrong by purchasing this product.

seymour:cards gives poker copilot 7/10

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mac poker: your options

how many people play poker on their macs? how many of those players only use native mac software? what are you left with? probably not a lot in all honesty. online poker is predominately a pc orientated pastime, and even those brave enough to use a mac likely run windows via bootcamp or parallels.

however it doesn’t need to be this way. ss a new mac user and one that was absolutely against running anything not built for mac osx i went in search of options, and what follows is what i found. i hope that my research can help guide others that are in the same predicament or are tempted by a mac but find playing poker on the platform daunting.

hardware
i’ll keep this brief as i’m not here to sell the benefits of an apple mac as a system, needless to say if you are thinking of buying a mac you have the same opportunities available too you as you would buying a pc namely a desktop or a laptop. i’m a laptop fan myself as it gives me the flexibility to play poker wherever i please, plus I always have the option of buying a separate screen if I want to take advantage of a bigger viewable area. apple do a great 24inch screen, it may be a little more expensive then adding a standard pc monitor but if you are really that price sensitive then you probably won’t be buying a mac in the first place.

card rooms
of the hundreds of card rooms out there these days there are only 2 that offer native mac support through downloadable software. the alternative to downloadable software is insta play, which is essentially playing within your internet browser. i for one prefer the piece of mind that comes with running the card room off local machine software, meaning you have a choice of pokerstars or full tilt poker.

pokerstars
pokerstars is my favourite cardroom for tons of reasons which i won't go into here, however if you would like to read a full and impartial review of pokerstars then click here.

full tilt poker
full tilt is the second of the two cardrooms offereing native mac support and was actually the first in market to offer it. again, a full review is available if you click here.

hand analysis software
this is where life becomes a little tricky on a mac as the major programs do not currently support native mac osx. there are a number of strands appearing on the major poker forums that poker tracker 3 for mac is well under development and being a big fan of the software i very much hope that this is true.

while waiting for pt3 though, there are 2 alternatives that you can try. both offer 30 day free trials and are resonably proced if you decide to go ahead and purchase the full version.

poker copilot
poker copilot is the software i have mentioned previously in relation to mac poker. they are about to poker copilot 2 with a number of upgrades direct from consumer feedback. things are looking promising for this mac native hand analysis package and i will be putting together an indepth review over the next few weeks which will be available here.

flopzoom
flopzoom is the second piece of mac native software i have found. check out their website here. i currently have no experience with this piece of software but have recently seen some improvements that make me want to test it. if i do take the plunge then a review will appear here. in the meantime any comments or experiences with flopzoom are welcome.

summary
in conclusion, at first glance the opportunity to play and analyse your poker on a mac seems fairly limited. however once the surface has been scratched it becomes clear that there are a variety of options available to the mac owner. so don't sit around fretting mac owners, fire up some of the quality software available to you and get playing poker.

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pokerstars review

pokerstars is the largest poker site in the world, offering massive volume in cash games and tournaments and action at almost any game and limit 24 hours a day.

it really sets the standard in the industry as far as tournaments go, with an unmatched selection and sit-and-gos at all stakes starting up virtually every second.

pokerstars also offers good promotions and an exceptional loyalty program, with a huge selection of merchandise, special events and qualifiers to all major poker tournaments.

the software is also top-notch and offers fast play, high reliability, great multi-table options and a high level of customization - it pretty much sets the bar for the industry there as well.

if you're looking for a downside, though, it's probably the inconsistent competition. because of the huge player base, the opposition can range from super soft at one table to unbelievably aggressive just the next table over.

lower limits and tournaments are still flush with bad players, say up to the $6 and $11 SNG level, but there are literally thousands of strong players trolling pokerstars daily looking to make a living, so expect some tough competition scattered throughout your games.

if you like more obscure poker variations, pokerstars is for you, with a wide spread of games offered - texas hold'em, omaha and seven-card Stud in all versions, h.o.r.s.e., h.o.s.e., 2-7 triple draw, five-card draw, razz, 2-7 single draw lowball, badugi, 8-game, mixed hold’em and mixed omaha hi/lo. by the time you read this, they've probably added more.

overall, pokerstars keeps its spot at the top of the industry for traffic by offering a real "feel for poker" and responding rapidly to player feedback.

bottom line, it does what it does very well, and if the competition wasn't so tough at the higher stakes and there wasn't the occasional inconvenience that comes with such a huge site, it would be tough not to rank pokerstars higher.

real-money player statistics as of july 2009 show 22,500 ring-game players at peak hours and 155,000 tournament players at peak hours.

hits
> offers a $1.5 million weekly guaranteed, largest in the world
> massive satellite, ring game and tournament spread
> large and well-known pro team to rail, chat and play against
> great software
> very responsive to player feedback, adding new features, games and tournaments often

misses
> only offers e-mail support
> tough opposition in high-stakes tournaments and cash games

review courtesy of poker listings, for more inforamtion visit their great site here

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full tilt poker review

launched in 2004, full tilt poker is now by far one of the biggest and most famous poker sites online, growing daily and always pushing to build its reputation as a market leader.

adding to its visibility and prestige is of course "team full tilt," the site's main sponsored pros and the bulk of its ownership group, including poker legends howard lederer, chris ferguson, allen cunningham, phil ivey, mike matusow and andy bloch.

The site's famous catchphrase is "learn, chat and play with the pros," and they definitely live up to it, with the main sponsored team plus with a growing list of full tilt "red pros" found playing regularly at a variety of limits.

for the regular player there's action at virtually any game and limit 24/7, with games offered including texas hold'em, omaha, omaha hi-lo, seven-card stud, seven-card stud hi-lo, five-card draw and razz.


full tilt poker is also one of few sites with mixed games like h.o.r.s.e., h.a. and h.o.s.e. in both cash games and tournaments, making the game variation one of the most extensive and impressive online.

full tilt poker's software has some very innovative functions, is very stable and features excellent graphics - definitely measuring up as one of the best in the industry. The cartoon avatars are a bit tiresome to look at after a while, but not a huge obstacle to overcome.

same goes for the perpetual spamming and $5 transfer requests in the chat wherever the pros are, but that can also easily be turned off.

for those that want to look like the pros, the points shop is excellent, offering players all sorts of ftp merch that can be bought with their full tilt poker points.

overall, full tilt delivers what you expect - plenty of tables and games to pick from, a strong pro presence to give you the cool "poker experience" and a chance to watch some super sick games at the marquee $500/$1,000 no-limit hold'em tables.

the hard work and huge advertising budget has definitely paid off, as real-money player statistics as of July 2009 show 10,500 ring-game players at peak hours, and 70,000 tournament players at peak hours.

hits
> $8 million in guaranteed prize money each week
> accepts u.s. players
> great points store with full tilt poker merchandise
> chance to play with famous full tilt pros
> great mini-view functions for multi-tabling
> supports completely automated import of tournament and ring-game data to poker tracker

misses
> very tough competition at higher levels
> no-download software isn't available

review courtesy og poker listings, for more inforamtion visit their great site here

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full tilt poker

so i've been playing at full tilt for a couple of weeks now and i thought i'd write a review of my experience thus far.

i joined full tilt after being a regular stars player but finding that at my micro limits there was little to no chance that i'd ever clear any kind of bonus as a reward for my play. with this in mind i thought a little trip to full tilt with the chance of recouping up to $600 sign up bonus plus the 27% rakeback was worth my while.

software
i like it and i don't. having plied my trade at the super smooth pokerstars you come to expect absolute finesse. full tilt software is good, don't get me wrong but there are things like, the sound effects not matching up to the animations, or the inability to get hand histories emailed to you instantly that seem like bigger problems then they are after playing at stars.

i know people talk about online sites being rigged, and i don't subscribe to this, but i have to say the random number generator at full tilt does seem to produce some crazy action! i mean i've had some serious bad beats since playing there, but i also seem to get dealt a lot more premium hands, or at least high hard hands. i used to enjoy massive barren spells at stars with not even a k/jo. at full tilt i seem to get a couple of face cards every few hands.

overall though, the software is good, its not stars good, but its easily second best. my pokeroffice client works perfectly with it and have had no problems, just small irritations.

traffic
full tilt is the second largest site behind pokerstars, recently overtaking party poker to take the title of number one challenger to stars dominance. i only play micro limits at the moment and traffic down the bottom is strong and steady. i must admit its rare that i find an open seat at any of the full ring tables but after jumping on few waiting lists i'm usually playing within 5 minutes.

play
i thought full tilt had fairly decent players, that was my understanding after reading the reviews, but after playing the micro limit tables i have to say its not true. i mean, its great, there are fish-er-roos everywhere, swimming around with not much clue. players down the bottom seem quite happy to call an all in with a/10h on a 3c 6s 9h board vs my qq, there is obviously nothing you can do when they hit a runner runner heart flush but apparently if you keep putting the money in ahead you'll be a long term winner! given players fishee tendencies it means play can be quite erratic with swings up and down in every session through odd calls and bizarre suck outs. it makes bluffing or reading opponents fairly hard but of you can adapt your game to the fish-er-roos play you'll be laughing.

support
only needed support once and that was to get some hand histories sent, they were emailed fairly promptly which was great. i did notice that the format of emailed hand histories is different to live hand histories giving me some database issues but all got fixed fairly swiftly.

usp
unique selling point that is. it has to be the pro's, full tilt has millions of them and its dead easy to watch them play. only the other night i railed durrr vs. ivey on the $500/1000 nlhe table of death. crazy sums of money were changing hands and durrr was enjoying most of it. i love this feature on full tilt and often surf around looking for some pro's after a session just to enjoy some high stakes action.

overall
i have to say that so far i'm enjoying myself on full tilt. its very different to stars and i sometimes jump back over to enjoy the finesse of the stars client but full tilt feels more like what poker should be. if stars feels like sitting in a monte carlo casino then full tilt is like your in a saloon throwing chips about, sipping whiskey while packing a 6 shooter! if i can handle the random beats and crazy action i'm sure full tilt will become my new permanent home and i recommend you give it a try.

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review: dell xps m1330 notebook

so my lappie has arrived and wanted to share my thoughts.

the first thing that strikes you when you open the box is the lovely dell laptop slip and a wonderful little leather organiser to keep all of your manuals and back-up disks. first thing i'm thinking is thats cool, the last laptop i bought came in a polythene bag!

opening up the slip and pulling out the m1330 you instantly see that dell has put a lot of thought into its flagship range and hasn't compromised on build quality. the shell is coated in beautiful matt black framed by brushed aluminium, and again when you open it up the brushed aluminum has continued through to wrap the keyboard and cover the palm rest.

pressing the on button sees the wafer thin screen light up which in incredibly bright. this is due to the way the screen is backlit using tiny leds as opposed to a long light tube at the base. to be honest i still can't get over the screen, the colours feel so vivid due to the brightness and its leaps and bounds ahead of my toshiba protege which i use for work. doesn't really make pokerstars look any better though, its still a naff 2d table, but at least its slightly brighter!

once booted up its pretty standard. its a vista machine, which i love, and it has all the bells and whistles you would expect. there is a tad to much dell software on there but i'll get round to uninstalling all that soon enough. i've ramped it up to have 4gb of ram and it is quick. i can easily multi table my 2 tables and play music at the same time! that was a joke people in case you weren't sure. i don't suppose i'll ever need 4gb for pokerstars software but its there just in case!

so in conclusion if anyone out there is looking for a new laptop i would thoroughly recommend the xps m1330 and the entire dell xps range. you get exceptional quality and power for what i feel is a reasonable price. plus the m1330 is under 2kg so easy to carry about if required. i've also upped my poundage at the gym so with bigger guns it should feel even lighter!

all i need to do now is cover the cost through poker! lol

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