Card tracking programs

Yesterday I posted a question about the quality of Party Poker 2/4 games, and I got adviced the level should be okay to begin with (thanx for all replies).
I'm posting this as a new thread because I think the subject reaches far out from the newbie section. A long time I've been told to stay out of the Stud games, because a lot of players have programs to keep track of dead cards from folded players. Is that true, or is it regarded as cheating? Is it important to have an exact knowledge of dead cards, or is a fair estimation enough (if you play 3 or 4 tables it should matter)? And do you believe it's a difference between low and high limits?

Is this a tabu subject? lol
It would be interesting to know how you guys who plays more than one table are handling this.

[TheSalche]

check the FAQ ... andy put some links to past threads up there

[frappeboy]

I am not aware of any player who uses one of these programs. It's not even a big deal if someone uses a program like that, all you need to do is learn to remember the cards too. When I play, I am able to remember 2 tables worth of cards. When I first started, I could barely remember 4 cards, so it is definitely something you can learn to do.

[PoorLawyer]

someone a few months ago put a link up to a program he created to track dead cards. you had to manually put the cards in and there really wasnt enough time to use the program before it was your turn to act and certainly could not use it when multi-tabling. I tried it for all of 5 hands and shipped it right over to the recycle bin.

[ QUOTE ]
I am not aware of any player who uses one of these programs. It's not even a big deal if someone uses a program like that, all you need to do is learn to remember the cards too. When I play, I am able to remember 2 tables worth of cards. When I first started, I could barely remember 4 cards, so it is definitely something you can learn to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, when I play stud/8 i can give two tables enough attention but when I play three I sometimes finds it hard to follow the action. One reason for asking is because I know it's not uncommon with hold'em players playin 8-9 tables at the samt time to increase the hourly winning, this is iow not possible when you play stud.

I actually have used card tracking programs on Party and Stars before, when I played lower limits. The time it takes to review those cards and make informed decisions hampers your ability to fully understand and realize what outs are missing and calculate odds on the fly. In short, you are benefitting slightly from the program but in the long run you are cheating yourself out of what is the most important facility in Stud 8/b - playing and knowing what live cards are.