Poker Rooms cracking down on Software
Ever since PokerTracker came out a few years back, there have been numerous other updates to this product as well as copycat versions which seek to improve upon PokerTracker in little ways. And for those who are unfamiliar with this kind of software, the jest of this stuff is that it keeps track of different things like pot odds, implied odds, opponent tendencies, and other very useful information.
Some players swear by this kind of software since it gives them lots of percentages and statistics they might not figure out by themselves. In the case of some products like Poker Office, it almost seems like cheating since a person can find out the cards you mucked which will give them an idea of what you do and don’t call with. Even still, Poker Office is widely used at major online poker rooms across the world.
However, one product you won’t see in use much anymore is SharkScope which was recently banned by PokerStars. What this boils down to is that SharkScope has amassed a giant database of information (178 million tournaments to be exact) which PokerStars thinks gives players too big of an advantage. What’s more is that I found out PokerStars has banned 42 other products such as SharkScope showing that others may share the same sentiments I have about this stuff giving people too big of an advantage.
But truthfully, I don’t know what SharkScope does that is so bad as compared to software like Poker Office and PokerTracker. They all use databases of information and they all give players a huge advantage over their opponents. But maybe I’m missing something here and PT and PO’s smaller databases don’t help players as much as SharkScope does.