MZone Report - Poker Calculators For Tournaments
Up until recently, there wasn't a single poker calculator that was designed for tournament play and of all the software I have tested over the last 2 ½ years, this struck me as somewhat fascinating. The fact is, online poker has thrived because of new players signing on after watching WPT or WSOP reruns.
Both of those shows ushered in new television celebrities the likes of Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, and Chris Moneymaker. As a result, hundreds of thousands of players took to the poker sites in search of ring games. Not. They came because of the tournament action and qualifiers that could, for a s little as a couple bucks get you on a final table on television vying for millions!
These players need help at the game, and many software designers obliged with poker calculators. Using poker calculators however often meant you had to adapt the information it provided while playing tournaments because tournaments and ring games are completely different strategies.
I was in a forum recently where players admitted using two different poker calculators to help compensate for tournament structures. Those players who are using two poker calculators are welcome at my table anytime. Too much of a good thing can make you a geek in this case, and it will take away from your game.
Regardless of all this, the bottom line in tournaments is that the only history you should be focused on is the recent history. Any particular player can take on many characteristics during a single tournament (never mind hundreds). Too much past data not only takes your attention away from the game but skews it into thinking how credible your opponent's hand may or may not be.
I prefer keeping things in a simplistic display with hard core data that reflects what has transpired RECENTLY - as in the last 10 hands or so. I think Tournament Indicator does this better than anything on the planet right now.
The only stable period where long term stats MAY be useful is in the first 2 or 3 levels. However this stage is more reliant on hole card strength anyway. Once your table has reached a variance in MZone stacks, well then long data term is all but useless. You don't need it, and you don't really WANT it either.
Rather than be reliant on profiling, I strongly feel that reading opponents has more to do with what they are "feeling" at a game critical intersect in the tournament. If I can get an inkling on that player's feelings, I am much, much farther ahead than looking at historic data collected at different tournaments and ring game levels from long past.
