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My personal experiences with Holdem Genius

Sunday, October 12th, 2008 | Poker software | 5 Comments

In this post I will tell you about my experiences with the poker analysis software Holdem Genius.

First a few words about the software. What is the sense of Holdem Genius? How could it help to improve your game?

Generally speaking, Holdem Genius is an odds calculator which gives you real-time betting advice based on the strength of your hand, your outs, the community cards, and what your opponents likely have.

I bought Holdem Genius at the beginning of September 2008. As you can see in the graph below, I lost a little money in the first 250 hands I played with the software (click on the image to enlarge it). How could that be?

Before you can use this software profitably, most time you will have to adjust the settings of Holdem Genius to match your personal playing style: making it e.g. more aggressive in late position or tighter pre-flop. Between hand 1200 and 1600, I tried another adjustment which cost me a little more money. But after that, I found the perfect setting for me.

After I found the right adjustment, the software really helped me playing winning poker. In the screenshot below you can see a normal situation in a poker game: You have a flush and an inside straight draw on the turn and want to know your odds and outs. Holdem Genius shows you all that facts in a second, so you can concentrate on your opponents and not on the math.

On the right side you see that you have overall 12 outs: 3 for a straight and 9 for a flush. You can also see, that your percentage of winning this hand on the river is only 19%. Therefore Holdem Genius gives you the advise to check this hand or, if the turn is bet, to fold. Your holecards, the betting advice and the strength of your hand is also shown in the middle of the table. A feature, which helps a lot if you are multitabling.

But there is one thing, that you must always keep in your mind: Holdem Genius is only an advanced odds calculator, not a “magic software” or a “miracle pill” that wins all hands for you.

There are a few limitations:

• Holdem Genius can’t tell you if your opponent is bluffing or not. The software will only show you your outs, odds and winning percentages, but its on you to decide if your opponent has a hand or not.
• Holdem Genius doesn’t track your opponents playing behavior. If you want to track your opponents playing style, you have to use a software like Poker Tracker or Poker Office.
• Holdem Genius won’t tell you exactly how much to bet or raise on a strong hand. It will usually just say something like “Raise or Re-Raise” or “Check or call one small raise”. It’s on you to decide how much you will bet or raise.

In my opinion, these are just minor limitations of the software, which are in fact obvious. The benefits are much greater. Playing winning poker is much easier since I use this software.

Holdem Genius is for free. All you have to do is opening a new account at one of their partner poker rooms. You can get a free license on the Holdem Genius website.

If you use another software or if you have a different opinion, please let me know. Criticism and comments are welcome.

Tags: analysis software, odds, outs