Poker Tracker 4 is a well established, popular and powerful tracking software with complex functionality including a HUD and tools for analysing your poker game. Today we're going to take a closer look at PT4, see what it has to offer and determine if it's worth the asking price.
HUD
Heads up display is arguably the most important feature of any tracking software. Most of us spend way more time actually playing the game than analyzing it and while this might not always be optimal it makes the numbers we see on our poker tables way more important than the numbers we see anywhere else in the software. Fortunately, HUD is one of the strongest points of Poker Tracker 4.
You can choose from a couple of different predefined cash game and tournament HUD's that work great "out of the box" and ensure that you can start playing poker right of the bat. You can also make your own, heavily customized HUD. Poker Tracker drag and drop interface is very simple and intuitive. After you select a stat you can place it anywhere you want in your HUD. It's also possible to change the properties of every statistic, from the font and background colour/type through column span and prefix/suffix to the position that certain statistic should be limited to.
You can create a couple of different stat groups for every player. Maybe you want a separate box displaying the raise first stat from every position? Maybe you want a separate panel for the blind defense stats? You can go as simple or elaborate as you please and with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) preview window you can ensure that your HUD will look exactly the same at your table as it does in the Poker Tracker software.
You can create pop-ups the same way and assign them to certain stat groups or even individual stats and create a pop-up for every situation imaginable. With advanced color coding options, you can make sure that the stats are easily readable even if there's a lot of them on the screen at once. If you're looking for a powerful, easy to use HUD Poker Tracker certainly delivers.
You can create a couple of different stat groups for every player. Maybe you want a separate box displaying the raise first stat from every position? Maybe you want a separate panel for the blind defense stats? You can go as simple or elaborate as you please and with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) preview window you can ensure that your HUD will look exactly the same at your table as it does in the Poker Tracker software.
You can create pop-ups the same way and assign them to certain stat groups or even individual stats and create a pop-up for every situation imaginable. With advanced color coding options, you can make sure that the stats are easily readable even if there's a lot of them on the screen at once. If you're looking for a powerful, easy to use HUD Poker Tracker certainly delivers.
PT4 uses a vector HUD technology which means that statistics displayed on your table will automatically adjust to the size of your window. Because of that you don't have to tweak the font size in your HUD properties every time you want to resize the table. Everything works smoothly and is very convenient, especially if you're using an additional software which resizes tables on the fly. PT4 can adjust to your specific workflow without much hustle.
Lastly, if the vast selection of Poker Tracker statistics somehow isn't meeting your specific needs you can create your own. The sky's the limit. You can cover every imaginable scenario and make sure that your favorite, unique, fringe stat isn't missing from your HUD.
Reports
PokerTracker is very consistent in its design. When you finish your poker session and you're ready to analyse your game, PT4 has you covered no matter if you're a veteran with a very specific workflow or you're just a beginner who wants a great experience without the need to customize or tweak anything.
The results tab greets you with a few pieces of information that are useful for everyone, but won't overwhelm beginners. Just like with everything else in Poker Tracker you can configure the reports to show exactly what you want them to show, but this won't be necessary for many players (especially because another tab called My Reports is blank by default and, therefore, a perfect place to customize as you see fit).
If you dig deeper you'll find that PokerTracker offers a lot of information about your results by default. You can view your sessions in a calendar, check how you're doing with certain hands at showdown, and even see a flow chart showing who you've won and lost the most money against. This last information can be especially important and improve your table selection, help you plug some leaks exploited by other players, or even inform your decision about which players you should analyse using PT4 to prevent you from losing money to them in the future.
If you dig deeper you'll find that PokerTracker offers a lot of information about your results by default. You can view your sessions in a calendar, check how you're doing with certain hands at showdown, and even see a flow chart showing who you've won and lost the most money against. This last information can be especially important and improve your table selection, help you plug some leaks exploited by other players, or even inform your decision about which players you should analyse using PT4 to prevent you from losing money to them in the future.
Another report tab that can help you tremendously with improving your game is called "statistics". This tab shows off the real power of PT4. Hand Range Visualiser along with Heat Map Statistics can help you analyse your game without ever using specific filters. You want to check if 22-55 are profitable for you in early and middle position? You can achieve that with literally 5 simple clicks. Same goes for checking if those hands are profitable cold calls in the blinds. You can analyse your calling range vs. 3bet on the button, preflop 4bets or hands you're seeing a showdown with the same way. Even beginners can take advantage of this simple yet powerful tool to get their game to the next level.
If you're an experienced player and you want to examine some spots that aren't included in Heat Map Statistics PT4 offers an intuitive and powerful set of tools for that purpose! Do you need to find a very specific spot that you forgot to mark for review? If you remember the action you can use filters to do that. Are you unsure about your triple barreling strategy? You can filter out those spots with just a couple of clicks. Want to check if you ever triple check/raised someone and use that as a humble brag when talking to your poker buddies? Poker Tracker got you covered.
"You get a graph and you get a graph, everyone gets a graph!"
The one feature that truly stands out and makes PokerTracker 4 really special is the vast selection of different graphs available in the software. Most of us think that the "green line", "blue line", "red line" and "EV line" are the pinnacle of information possible to represent in a graphic form, but PT4 proves that this couldn't be further from the truth.
Here are some examples of graphs available in Poker Tracker:
- Personal results by the hour of the day or day of the week.
- Overall results for players playing both tournaments and cash games.
- Winning and losing hands at showdown based on the pot size.
- Showdown and non-showdown winnings by position.
- A number of losing, break even and winning players based on the value of a certain statistic.
- Player scatter graph based on the combination of statistics.
And many, many more. Poker Tracker 4 is a heaven for those of us who prefer the visual information. Some players that weren't previously aware of that preference can find PT4 more effective than other tools when it comes to improving their game.
Additional Features
Poker Tracker is full of features that can add to your experience and provide many benefits to both your performance at the tables and learning in between the sessions:
- Replayer - Standard issue replayer, that allow you to review your hands after the session, tag them, see your HUD etc.
- Leak Tracker - a simple and useful tool that can analyse your statistics and suggest the way of improving your game if some of the values are beyond the ranges recommended by the software.
- ICM Quiz and Calculator - Tournament players out there can use those features to improve their understanding of the Independent Chip Model.
- Note Tracker - Powerful and free alternative to the Note Caddy software. Note Tracker makes notes on your opponents using the predefined or custom definitions. It can show you the big blind calling range of your opponent, the way he plays his draws, how often the villain decides to value bet thin on the river etc.
- Downloadable Community Created Content - If you're looking for a new replayer theme, different HUD, custom stats or report tabs and you don't want to make one yourself, you can use the content provided by Poker Tracker community members. You can also share your own creations with other users.
Simple yet Powerful
Poker Tracker 4 provides a great experience 'out of the box' for players of every skill level and advanced tools that should satisfy the users with a very specific, sophisticated workflow. PT4 interface is very simple and the endless customization options ensure that users are able to set up almost every aspect of the software to their liking. Poker Tracker 4 supports many different poker rooms, it's very stable and relatively easy on your computer's resources. With asking price of 99$-159.99$ (depending on the version) PT4 represents a very good value and it's well worth the money.
