The Poker Hound-- www.thepokerhound.com

Hi-

I'd like to announce a new online poker tracking web-application called The Poker Hound, www.thepokerhound.com. This software is similar to other stand-alone options out there, with some differences. For one, mine is web-based (i can provide more techie info if you're interested. just email me). It's still in beta, so forgive me if you try it and find bugs. But I've been working my tail off on it for the last 9 months and it's ready for a release.

here are the main features:

-it reads your hand histories and compiles stats from them

-it comes with a real-time satellite window called The Bloodhound, which tracks stats while you play. The Bloodhound automatically finds your table and loads the players

-it provides a number of different ways you can view and analyze stats. The main goal is to improve play, so there are ways to compare how you stack up to the players with the best records, you can compare your stats for when you win versus when you lose (over a certain periods, like a tourney or a stretch of ring games), and you can compare your stats to an aggregate of players.

-right now, it's only compatible with party poker, but it will work with other programs soon. also, right now, it's free

there's lots more to come. i will be making improvements and adjustments regularly, but the software is ready to use. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for letting me make my announcement. i hope you find my software useful.

-Jacob
thepokerhound@yahoo.com

[tigerite]

- it doesn't let you sign up.

[RatFink]

What do you do with all the handhistories you collect?

hand histories are parsed, then the data goes into a db. i'm using a mysql DB and a java app that reads the hand histories. the basic concept is pretty straight forward and probably familiar to most people on this forum. the application reads the HHs, then compiles stats from them, and then presents these stats.

-jacob

[OrcaDK]

Wouldn't this be against the T&C, as with PokerProphecy? You're creating genereal "perfect/alpha" stats based upon a very large number of collected HH's, something a single user would never be able to do himself.

The last time I heard about something like this was Poker Prophecy, which Party later disallowed.

[RatFink]

What I meant is why should people feel comfortable providing you with data that you will store in your mysql database, without knowing specifically whether you will use it for your own purposes. I'm not saying you will, but programs like PT and PO allow me to maintain control over my data, rather than submitting it somewhere that might be collecting data to parse my (and my opponents) particular playing profiles.

My question was more towards giving you an opportunity to clearly state your intentions so people might feel more comfortable submitting their HHs.

well, i've thought a lot about this, and i don't see it that way, mainly because with the poker hound people voluntarily provide hand histories to be parsed. the aggregate stats are a pool of volunteered information. it's as if a bunch of people we're sitting around talking about different people's playing styles, except much more efficient.

in any case, i'm in contact with Party Poker about this issue. They are reasonable and won't ban a program that doesn't infringe on other players' rights (not that they could tell when someone is using the poker hound since it doesn't initiate any processes on your computer)

-jacob

Ok, I see. That's a good question. My intentions are to provide personal stats and community stats. I'm really interested in being able to analyze what you might call a collective player, where you combine data from all users to determine general tendencies etc. While you do get this to an extent with a personal DB, a community DB would be more accurate.

But, this still does not fully answer your question. Here's the Bottom line: right now, the poker hound lets you analyze your own stats and compare those stats to anonymous aggregate models. It also lets you analyze data about other players if you have posted that data. It does not let you access aggregate models of specific players. So, when you upload your hand histories, only you have acess to the data in them (although the data is added anonymously to collevite models)

all of this is taken pretty much verbatim from the terms on the website. also in the terms is a guarantee that anyone associated with the poker hound, namely me, is not allowed priveleged access to stats and may only access stats as any other user would. This is a binding contract; i would be breaking the law if i did not abide by it.

nevetherless, i can understand why folks would be reluctant to upload all their hand histories. so, i'm working on an option that will let people upload a limited number of their own hand histories and still give them access to the anonymous aggregate stats. that way, there won't be a large enough sample size to profile users, but there'll still be an accummulated aggregate pool of data, which is where i think some of the most interesting information lies.

i'm really not trying to do what poker prophecy does or poker tracker or poker ace (which seems like a pretty badass piece of software). but i do think we're just scratching the surface of the data models and statistics that can be culled from hand histories. so, i'm throwing my software in the mix.

[RatFink]

Thanks for the clarification. Best of luck with it.