Poker-Spy is a poker calculator that has been around longer than other ones. It quietly helped to create the classification of empirical poker computers. This was the type that provided you with not only poker odds and drawing information but also kept track of your opponents’ profiles.
Poker-Spy makes profiling the main focus of its software, along with hand history data that you can use during and after your game. Poker-Spy creates a hand history grid which can be read while you play. It displays the winner and the amount of the pot. You also have the option to remind yourself of your hole cards as well as those of any other players.
You can click on https://www.spurl.net/agen/ any hand within the grid (they are numbered to make it easier for you to see) for additional information about betting, position and pot. You can also see data from the cross grid panel, which illuminates with background color and extra information. It shows you who was not present in the hand, whether they pre-flopped or raised, as well as who saw the flop. Although all these squares and grid sections can seem confusing at first, Poker-Spy makes this data easy to understand. It also places your opponent in the classic poker player profile grid, which was first described by Dr. Alan Schoonmaker in his book The Psychology of Poker. This includes Loose-Passive, Tight-Aggressive, etc.
Poker-Spy’s patent-pending Alert System allows you to quickly see what Poker-Spy considers “questionable” play at your table. It is a small, numbered, and colored circle that is placed next to each player’s name in the Poker-Spy tracking grid. These visual aids allow you to quickly identify blind plays, out of-position moves or re-raises. A corresponding digit is clearly visible to indicate how many times such plays have been made.
This data is then transformed into a hand history database that you can use to see which hand won or lost the most money. Which position at the table is most profitable or least for you? For your own benefit, you can also measure your pre-flop and after-flop play statistically. These reports are compiled in three reports: the hand summary, hand analysis, and player reports. This is where Poker-Spy’s true value lies. It has been a great program for online poker since its inception. This software was recommended to me almost two years ago. But let’s move on to Poker-Spy 2.0, which recently received a few new features that were hard to find.
When Poker-Spy reached out to me to review the update, I was quite excited. However, when I started playing with the software, it took me a while to notice the actual improvements. One of the new features is an updated set of alert indicators which includes possible river bluffs by your opponents. This feature could prove useful for new players. However, it doesn’t give any clue about what your opponent has. The board composition and the tendency to your opponent make this marker.
Poker-Spy also offers a new feature that allows you to view pre-flop play in different categories, including raises and re-raises as well as hole card strength.
Poker-Spy was the first program to allow for in-depth analysis of poker players’ weaknesses. However, other programs seem to have tripled their efforts to improve on what appears to be a slow but steady progression to Poker-Spy. It was far beyond what I expected for a major update to Poker-Spy’s poker calculator functions and the ability to integrate with other software. Poker-Spy may be suffering from too much programming without enough input from poker-players.
Poker-Spy’s designers have not been very aggressive in marketing the software. This hinders their ability to get feedback from an affiliate network more tuned to the game and what players are looking for – in terms poker calculators. The Poker-Spy website presentation is a good example of this lack of ambition. It really looks like a relic from the past.