First time poster-online software (long)

Greetings,

My name is Jeffrey and this will constitute my first post. I would like to first articulate how much I appreciate this site and the contributions of so many insightful poker enthusiasts. Now the issue I'm interested in is online poker software. I realize I can no longer pretend online software isn't an essential component of winning online poker after reading numerous threads and doing the free limited Pokertracker trial.

I have read the horror stories at Party Poker in reference to the use of 'data mining' programs. I profess no expertise and almost complete ignorance on this subject but wish to greatly expand my knowledge. Hence, I'm trying to gather as much information as possible on all online poker software programs that have any uility.

Given that I'm just getting started with online software, which programs do you recommend I try/purchase. Are there any good free/trial programs? I am looking for programs that wil help me with statistics (while playing if this is permissible) as well as hand analysis (my own and others).

I currently only play at Pokertars. I had an extremely nice 2 month winning streak that came to a crushing halt when I started losing and compounded my problems by playing 'negative progression.' I basically moved up in my limits trying to quickly recover and went from about 1k ahead to 500 dollars down (in a week). I know, online software doesn't help with emotional stability.

Any help is appreciated,

Jeffrey

[Sciolist]

PokerTracker is certainly a good start. It costs $55 though, but it's worth every penny.

I also use a program called Poker Villain to replay hands quickly - it's much nicer than PokerTracker's replay function. However, it has a registration fee too, and it's pretty buggy. This isn't a vital program to use by any means, but I don't know of any other good hand replayers out there.

As for statistics, I wouldn't recommend using that kind of program. Calculating these things yourself is much more useful, and once you've worked them out in your head a couple dozen times, you'll have no problem whatsoever with your odds.

Thanks for your feedback Sciolist. I guess I'm going to have to cough up the money and turn my trial Pokertracker into the pay version. Also, it seems apparent I'll have to spend a lot of time learning how to efficiently and effectively operate the PT software.

As far as calculating odds goes, I really don't have a problem making typical on the spot calculations, it's the more intricate situations that arise. I think I remember hearing about a program called 'ScoopMonster' years back that would analyze your hand and make recommendations based on your holding (never used it). I also remember hearing about Paradise banning it! Are there any legitimate/allowable programs that will offer 'tips.' Maybe this gets into that automation of play thing the poker sites disallow. This is really unexplored terrority for me.

For retrospective analysis of hands played, I go to twodimes.net and use their hand analyzer. Nothing fancy but it's given me insight into the relative strengths of hands with different number of callers.

To reiterate, I'm going to purchase Pokertracker. Heck, even the support person at Pokerstars told me he uses to brush up on his poker game. I think you can generally figure out bad players just by watching them play a dozen or so hands. This is how I usually selected tables. However, I would like to take some of the guessing out of it and expedite the process of figuring out where the inferior players are.

Thank you,

Jeffrey