From Poker Office to Poker Tracker, Holdem Manager to Tournament Indicator; there are more than 50 different poker tools I could recollect that have been placed on the online poker market to help give an edge to players.
My question is, to what extent are these good for the game?
Poker is a game of skill, maths and reading. The skill comes from the positional play opponent of poker, knowing whether to exploit weakness at the table in a given position or continuation bet a flop from the blinds against a TAG (tight aggressive opponent). Understanding someone's game and what hands they play, how many bluffs they make, whether they'll 3bet light; it's all something accomplished players develop precocious skill over.
The concept of maths in poker: that of expected value and implied odds is also extremely important. As is picking up reads on opponents. A solid LAG post-flop player will be able to hit back at his opponent and create enough action to know when he's behind or in front. But, the last few years have heavily changed and arguably dismantled the previous dynamics of online poker.
When you set up an account as a new player at a site like PokerStars, everyone will already know something about you. There is too much transparency in the game now. You'll be targeted as a fish and placed on everyone's "fishometer. You'll find opponents will hit back at you far more often and try to gain relative position of you. Is this really fair? The problem as I see it, is that anyone who wants to make money in online poker will now have to buy these tools. Poker no longer becomes a game about hand-reads and table image, but about stats figures and numbers. Is this really the game we all admire and see publicised on shows like Late Night Poker and Poker After Dark?
The online version of poker is rapidly departing from its live sibling. The new generation of players is nothing more than a heave of stats junkies who multi-table 20 or so games at a time. Compare someone of Tom Dwan's ability to that of Doyle Brunson or Phil Hellmuth and tell me the progress is a good thing.
Personally, I think sometimes we have to say no to technology and prevent it from taking over sports or games that otherwise would leave it quixotic and automated by technology. The President of FIFA's decision to not introduce goal-line technology is an apotheosis of this idea. Sports and games such as poker should not diminish from their "human" soul to become ruthless autarkic games with technology.
In conclusion, I am perfectly aware of the many advantages poker software such as a HUD can offer users. But, there comes a point when it has come too far: for PokerStars this was evident by their "ban" of poker-edge software on their site which uses a central database of billions of opponent stats as opposed to a player's own private collection. There is too much weight placed on poker tools now to give opponents an edge. I think the poker sites should work together and ban these types of tracking software altogether.
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