poker software = cheating?

[notsosmart]

Hi All - I'm fairly new to the site so please excuse my ignorance if this has been talked about before (most likely, and if so please point me to the thread – I couldn’t find much in a quick Search).

I had an argument with a friend of mine - he was telling me about the advantages of pokertracker and calculatem and other enhanced pieces of software that can run alongside your game window on certain sites while you're playing Online.

Does this not strike anyone else as a form of cheating? I know it does not explicitly tell you what your opponents hands are, nor can you be 100% sure of any 'recommendations' it gives based on past hand data....But, it still gives you an unfair advantage over other players at the table. No?

I am all for tracking programs that will help you analyze your own play and make you a better player in that sense, as that is for self-improvement. But, it seems that there are an increasing number of programs coming out that stay open alongside your table software (or even on top of each player) to *help you make decisions* based on 'past data' for that player?

Maybe I am out of line - I've only been playing online for about 5-6 months and may not be familiar with the ‘actual’ or ‘proper’ uses of these programs, but I was just wondering if anyone shared my opinions or could change my opinions on this matter?

I have read some strong comments against Online collusion where two players will go online and run up the pot or just tell each other what hands they have to ‘slightly’ increase their chances and split their earnings at the end.....this is obviously widely frowned upon, but I haven't yet seen anything strong like that against software that would enhance your chances of winning just as much or more against certain players.

It is one thing to take your own notes on a player and ‘have book’ on him/her. It is completely another to download entire table histories where you weren’t even at the table to gain information about how each player played each hand while you weren’t there! No? If not, why wouldn't the sites just provide this information for you?

In my mind, poker software should be used to keep track of one's own hand/roi/itm/bb-100/etc. for monitoring personal statistics. It shouldn't include anything specific about other players’ play that would give you an unfair advantage at the table. This should be done through experience, not automation?

Any and all comments appreciated. Please don't rip into me too much as I know many of you are for and even involved in creating this software - I'm just looking for advice and/or general discussion here that might enlighten me to this aspect of playing online.

Matt