Ground Zero Poker tracker Question?

[edpsu92]

I had always said I would not want Poker Tracker. Now, i am starting to think that it would be nice to have. I would like someone to try to explain to me from Step 1 to where I get workable data, how much time does it take? how does it occur? Assume I have no idea what using poker tracker entails. Sort of walk me through it step by step. I want a tool to help with my poker but i do not want a piece of software that i will be spending hours and hours with trying to get to work correctly, etc etc. Remember, we arent all computer geeks [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] haha!

[robug]

I just moved from PokerOffice to Pokertracker last week. This is the process I have gone through to date.
Install poker tracker and configure observed game importing. This is real easy. You just tell pokertracker where party/empire/etc is installed.
Once this is done PT is able to import and track hands that are observered.
At this point I downloaded Playerview and Gametime+ to see how they worked.
There is some good articles at bet-the-pot.com on how to use PT with GameTime.
These programs both access the PT database and pull player stats to display them on the Party/Empire table so you can see them in realtime.
They need to be told where the PT database is (real easy)
First start by letting PT observe a few tables in the limits you play and after 30 minutes or so PT should have some stats available. Open GT and select a player sitting at one of the tables from the dropdown list(there might be an easier way to do this?). It should display the table. Select it.
Now GT+ will overlay stats for all the players at that table that PT has stats on. This will give you an idea of the power of PT with Gametime or Playerview.

Playerview had a little more setup to get it working good. It involved downloading layouts from the http://www.playerview.net/ website. Basicly these layouts will replace the default table graphics used by party/empire with images that are more playerview friendly. I like Aces_McCoy's layout because it has a legend for the stats in the table graphic. Decide on a layout and download the playerview layout file and the zip file containing the graphics. The graphics need to be copied into the Images folder in you party/empire/etc folder(when the program is NOT loaded) This will change the look of the tables. Pull up Playerview and load the playerview layout file (.pvl) The stats should now show up on the table.

This is as far as I got.
I did not go into alot of detail but this should be enough to get you started.

Good luck.

[edpsu92]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write your repsonse. I know its not always fun to write basic answers for us just beginning with something like PokerTracker.

So my hands played are automatically downloaded into Poker tracker? its like running in the background or something? in other words, i dont have to download hands from Poker Stars every night into Poker Tracker?

The other two softwares just compliment Poker Tracker but are not required? these only work on Party and Empire?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!