Live Tracker

One of the most important and most useful features of PokerOffice is the Live Tracker. The Live Tracker has two key purposes:

  • Track play in real-time: The Live Tracker keeps track of play during the hand. It gives you real-time information about your play, your opponents' play, and your outs and pot odds. This information is continually updated so that you always have access to the most up-to-date information

  • Import data to database: The Live Tracker also automatically imports each hand into your PokerOffice database during play. The Live Tracker does all the work to ensure that your database contains all hands you've seen on all of your open tables.

On many poker sites, you can use Live Tracker to start tracking a game before you even sit down at the table. The tracker will then still track your opponents' hands and arm you with valuable statistics once you actually do join the game.

Note that much of the information available in the Live Tracker window can also be viewed through the Poker Table Overlay.

The following sections describe the use of Live Tracker:

Starting Live Tracker

You can put a Live Tracker on each of the poker tables that you have open (see the Appendix for a list of the maximum number of tables that can simultaneously be tracked for each poker site). There are two ways to start a Live Tracker:

  • Auto Detect Mode - In "auto-detection" mode, a new Live Tracker will automatically be started whenever you open a new poker table. Leaving the auto-detection mode on is the simplest way to take advantage of Live Tracker's features.

  • Manual Mode - Manually start a new Live Tracker. This allows you to control which tables are tracked.

Note that if you start the Live Tracker in the middle of a hand, the tracker will start tracking when the next hand is dealt.

Starting Live Tracker in "Auto-detection" Mode

It's generally easiest simply to set Live Tracker to "auto-detection" mode. Then, every time you open a new poker table, a new Live Tracker window will automatically open. To activate auto-detection:

  • In the Main Program, open the auto-detection window by pressing the auto-detection icon button or selecting "Live Tracker auto-detection icon" from the Live Tracker menu.

  • Press the "activate" button in the new window to turn on auto-detection.

    • When auto-detection is activated, PokerOffice will automatically detect open tables (note that you may need to be logged in to your poker client).
    • Depending on your settings, PokerOffice will either open a Live Tracker window for each of these tables OR will overlay a Heads Up Display on each of these tables or will do both.
    • The auto-detect mode will remain selected after PokerOffice closes, so you will no longer need to manually open Live Tracker windows.

  • You can also choose any of the startup options.

    When auto-detection is active, you will see a green arrow over the auto-detection icon in the main program window. To stop using auto-detection, press the "deactivate" button in the pop-up options window.

Deactivate Auto Detection

Starting Live Tracker in Manual Startup Mode

To start Live Tracker manually, either press the Live Tracker icon button or select "Start Live Tracker" from the Live Tracker menu. When you start Live Tracker you will see a pop-up window which will allow you to select your startup options.

Manual Live Tracker

Select your poker site and hit OK and you will see a window displaying the names of all your open tables. Use the check boxes to select which windows will be tracked using Live Tracker.

Startup options (Auto-Detect or Manual Mode)

  • Select Poker Site - Select the appropriate site or poker network from the drop down menu.

    Please note that most poker sites belong to a poker network; if your site is not listed on the drop down menu, you may need to choose the appropriate network instead.

    See the Appendices for a list of supported poker sites and networks.

  • Display Stats - Check this box if you wish to display stats in the Live Analysis Window during play.

    By default, the box is checked and the Live Analysis Window shows statistics on each player at the table. This can give you invaluable information about your opponents' playing style.

    You can turn off stats section of the live window (and make the window smaller) by unchecking this box. Data will continue to be imported into your PokerOffice database.

  • Display Odds - Check this box if you wish to display odds in the the Live Analysis Window during play

    By default, the Live Analysis Window gives you information about the current strength of your hand and mathematical probability of improving to a stronger hand.

    You can turn off the odds section of the live window (and make the window smaller) by unchecking this box.

  • Don't Use Live Window

    Check this box to turn off the live window. Note that even if the live window is closed completely, data will continue to be imported into your PokerOffice database and you will still see the stats on the table via the poker table overlay.

  • Poker Table Overlay options - The three checkboxes allow you to choose whether or not to display Stats, Odds, Player Moves on the Table Overlay.

    Note that the options that you choose here can be overridden by the Table Overlay options screen; it's probably easiest just to leave these checked and to use the Table Overlay options screen to set all your configuration options at the same time.

    You can also click the Don't Use Table Overlay checkbox to turn the the Table Overlay off completely.

Closing Live Tracker

If you manually close a Live Tracker window, you may receive a prompt asking you whether you would like to refresh your data. If you answer Yes, you will notice that your Main Program tables and graphs are immediately recalculated using the data from that Live Tracker.

Whether you answer Yes or No to this prompt, your PokerOffice database will always retain all of the information from your Live Trackers. The only effect of answering No to the prompt is that you won't immediately see the new information in your Main Program tables and graphs.

You can manually refresh your Main Program data at any time by clicking the Update or Refresh Cash Games / Tournaments button near the top of the screen. You may find it easiest to turn off the prompt box and simply manually refresh your Main Program as needed; this way you won't be interrupted by the popup window.

The prompt can be turned off by checking Always Answer No; it can also be turned off from the Main Program by going to Settings | Preferences | Advanced and unchecking the box next to Refresh Window on Live Window Closing.

Overhead Tabs

The key information available in the Live Tracker window is accessed by the four overhead tabs

The Main Stats tab gives you whatever statistical information you want to see about each player at the table. To filter this information based on the player's position or starting hands, click on the player's name and then click on one of the other overhead tabs.

Main Stats Tab

By default, each new Live Tracker window opens to the Main Stats tab and provides information in two panels:

  • Live Statistics Panel - in the top half you will see Live Statistics, providing you with a summary of information about each player at the table
  • Odds Panel - if you're playing at the table, the bottom half of the Live Tracker window will also show you your cards, the cards on the board, and a summary of information about the strength of your hand and the likelihood of improving to a better hand. The Odds Panel will remain visible if you click on one of the other overhead tabs.

Main Stats

Live Statistics Panel

The top half of the window shows you Live Statistics for each player at the table. Each row provides statistical information about one of the players at the table and each column shows a different statistic. The last row shows a summary for the entire table.

In its initial setting, this panel displays only a few key statistics for each player. PokerOffice is capable of displaying a huge number of statistics, however, and you can customize the panel by adding or deleting columns. See the following sections for more information:

For complete list of all the statistics in PokerOffice, see the Glossary

Working with Tables

  • Sorting the table: By clicking the header for a specific column you can sort the table on that column. It can be sorted in either ascending or descending order.

  • Column heading tooltips: Moving the cursor over any of the column headings will display a tooltip giving specific information about the statistic shown in that column.

  • Column width: to change the width of any of the columns, just click on the dividers between the columns and drag left or right

Note that as your database grows large, the calculations for the total statistics of your own player will become quite complex; you may therefore want to exclude this for performance reasons. You can, in any event, always view your own data in the main PokerOffice window. By default, PokerOffice will exclude your stats once you exceed 500 hands at the level you are currently tracking; your own stats will then be replaced by a "-" in the tables and your icon will become a question mark. If you want to continue to display your own stats past the 500-hand mark, you can change this setting by using the Performance options.

Odds Panel

The Odds Panel displays probabilities for future hands, pot odds, best hands etc. It is always based on your current hand and arms you with valuable information about future hand development. The Odds Panel displays the following information:

  • Stage: Displays the current stage of the game, Pre Flop, Flop, Turn, and River.
  • Pot Odds: Pot Odds represent the instant return on the pot. A Pot Odds of 5:1 should therefore be interpreted as "If a bet 1 dollar and win, I will make a profit of 5 dollars". The Pot Odds is continuously updated throughout the hand.
  • Pot: Displays the current value of the pot and is continuously updated.
  • Rank: (Pre Flop) Displays the rank of your starting hand, as defined by the Malmuth-Sklansky groups [see Hold’em Poker For Advanced Players, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth].
  • Rank: (Flop, Turn, River) Displays the rank of your 5 card hand as compared to all possible 5 card hands.
  • Best Hand: Displays the best possible hand for the current board.

Probabilities for Flop, Turn, and River: Display the probability distribution for improving to a certain hand on each street. The probability is presented both as a percentage and as odds. The following information is presented in this section:

  • Outs: The number of cards that will make the future hand.
  • Odds: The probability expressed in odds. An odds of 3:1 is interpreted as :3 times out of four I will not make the hand, 1 time out of four I will make the hand".
  • Percentages: The probability expressed as a percentage.
  • Total Playable Hands: Display the summarized probabilities for all future hands that are acknowledged to be roughly playable. Probabilities shaded in gray are defined as not playable.
  • Hands and probabilities shaded in grey: Defined as not playable and are therefore not summarized in the Total Playable Hands.
  • The Color of the odds: Odds that are below the current pot odds are colored in green and odds that are above in red.

Flop Stats Tab

You can access information about a player's flop actions by clicking on a Player's name in the Main Stats window and then clicking on the overhead Flop Stats tab.

The upper table is called Flop Hand Analysis. Here the player's actions are summarized by type of hand the player had on the Flop; each row represents a single Flop type.

The table is divided into two parts, one purple and one yellow. The purple part shows the player's actions where he was the first person to act on the Flop. The yellow part shows his actions where someone acted before him and made a bet on the Flop; his actions after that bet are described here. This information may help you discover habits in your opponents' play.

  • Both purple and yellow parts

    • HandType - The type of Flop hand
    • Times - Number of times you have had this particular hand on the Flop
    • $Won - Amount which you have won or lost for the specific situation in the column to the left; winnings are displayed in green and losses in red.

  • Purple part - You're the first to act

    • CheckFold % - Percentage of hands where you were the first person to act and checked, someone made a bet and you folded to it.
    • CheckCall % - Percentage of hands where you were the first person to act and checked, someone made a bet and you called it.
    • CheckRaise % - Percentage of hands where you were the first person to act and checked, someone made a bet and you raised it.
    • Bet % - Percentage of hands where you were the first person to act and you made a bet.

  • Yellow part - Someone already bet before you acted

    • Fold - Percentage of hands when someone acted before you on the Flop and made a bet which you folded to
    • Call - Percentage of hands when someone acted before you on the Flop and made a bet which you called
    • Raise - Percentage of hands when someone acted before you on the Flop and made a bet which you raised

Flop Stats

Position Stats Tab

When you click on a player's name in the Main Stats window and then click on the overhead Position Stats tab, you can view the player's statistics filtered by his position at the table. The Button has position 0, the Small Blind position 1, the Big Blind position 2, and so on.

Position Stats

Starting Hands Stats Tab

You can access information about the actions a player has taken with various starting hands by clicking on the Player's name and then clicking on the overhead Starting Hands tab.

This table shows each of the starting hands that you saw dealt to that player, regardless or position. Each row represents a single starting hand and gives information about the actions the player has taken with that hand.

Starting Hands

Menu Options / Customization

The purpose of the Live Tracker window is to provide you with useful data on your play and the play of your opponents. Live Tracker comes preconfigured to display many of the statistics that you may find most useful. But, you might want to change the statistics that you see; or you might want to change the order in which the statistics are displayed; or you might want to see statistics only when you have a certain minimum number of hands on your opponents. PokerOffice gives you the ability to customize the Live Tracker windows so that data is displayed in the way that you find most useful.

In general, you can get to the customization options from the main PokerOffice window (by using the small icons on the right side of the screen, or from choosing one of the options under the Live Tracker menu) or from the Live Tracker window itself. The various customization options are described in more detail below.

Note that some of these changes will only take effect once a Live Tracker window opens.

You have the following options for customizing your Live Tracker windows:

Customize Display

The Customize Display option allows you to alter the appearance of the Live Tracker window. PokerOffice offers an extensive list of statistics and lets you choose which ones to display in your Live Tracker windows. You can customize the order in which the statistics are displayed and determine the heading and size of each of the columns.

There are several ways to access the Customize Display window:

  • From the PokerOffice Main Window, go to the Live Tracker drop down menu and choose Customize Display.
  • From the PokerOffice Main Window, click on the small icon on the upper right of the screen.
  • From the Live Tracker Window, go to the Statistics menu and choose Customize Display

Customize Live Tracker

From this window, you can Add or Remove any of the available statistics or Clear all of them. Choose the order in which the statistics will be displayed in the table by using the Up or Down buttons. Type a new name in the Display As box to change the name that is displayed at the top of the column.

Filter Live Statistics

The Filter Live Statistics option allows you to filter the data that was used to calculate the statistics that you see. For example, you can filter by number of players and display a player's statistics from short-handed tables only. Or, you can choose to view only statistics from the current blinds level.

There are several ways to access the Filter Live Statistics window:

  • From the PokerOffice Main Window, go to the Live Tracker menu and choose Filter Live Statistics.
  • From the PokerOffice Main Window, click on the small icon on the upper right of the screen.

  • From the Live Tracker Window, go to the Statistics menu and choose Filter Live Statistics

    Filter Live Icon

You have the following options for customizing your data:

  • Filter by Number of players -

    • The first section of the Filter Live Statistics window allows you to select a filter based on the number of players that were in a hand. When you select this filter, the data in your Live Tracker window will reflect only those hands where your opponents were sitting at a table with the selected number of players.

    • Manual Filtering allows you to see only the statistics that were generated when a certain number of players were at the table. So, if you're playing in a full ring game, and you know that some of your opponents play both full-ring games and short-handed games, you can set this filter to 7-10 players. The statistics in your Live Tracker window will then reflect how your opponents played in only the full-ring games and not the short-handed games.

    • Most players will find it easier to choose the automatic setting: Filter on current number of players. Select one of the four radio buttons and PokerOffice will display only those statistics that match the number of players currently at the table.

      • When you choose the second option (Intervals {2, 3-6, 7-10}), for example, PokerOffice will determine whether you're playing headsup, short-handed, or full-ring, and will only display statistics that were collected when your opponents were playing in the same type of game. As players enter or leave the game, PokerOffice will automatically adjust the display to match the current number of players; so if you're at a full ring table and only 4 players are currently playing, you'll see statistics for a short-handed game. When 3 more players sit in, the display will switch to display the full-ring statistics.

    • Two more notes about these filters:

      • Any filter that you choose here will be applied not only to the Live Window statistics, but to the overlay statistics, the popup windows and the player icons as well

      • Also, the filter will only be applied to the total statistics and not to the session statistics. Wherever session statistics are displayed, (i.e. the stats for the ongoing session or tournament) they will always be unfiltered.

  • Filter by Level - The second section of the Filter Live Statistics window allows you to choose whether to view only data from the current blinds level. There are two options here:

    • Use all hands from all levels - All the data you have gathered for your opponents will be used, regardless of what blinds level your opponent was playing at the time.

    • Only use hands played on the specific level - Will filter the statistics based on the current level of play. For example, if you are playing $1/$2 limit hold'em, the statistics displayed will only use hands that were played at other $1/$2 limit tables. PokerOffice will not include any no-limit hands and will not include any limit hands from any other blinds level.

  • Filter by Date - You can choose to view only data that was collected after a certain date. You may find this useful, for example, if you started playing in a different game or for different stakes.

  • Table Summary Settings - The bottom section of the Filter Live Statistics window allows you to determine how the table summary data is calculated. There are two choices here:

    • Straight Mean Value (Unweighted) -

      • This option calculates a mean value from all the players at the table, regardless of the number of hands that a player have played.

      • This is the default and recommended approach, especially if used in combination with the option "Only include players with at least X hands played".

    • "Only include players with at least X hands played" option -

      • This filter determines whether a player's data is included in the table summaries. Since a player needs to play a certain number of hands before his stats are somewhat realistic, you may wish to exclude players that have played less than a certain value. Otherwise these will distort the mean value. For example, lets say that a player who usually is very tight player and only plays 15 % of all starting hands, sits down at a table and happen to catch a good first hand. He will then have a sawflop % of 100 % after 1 hand. So if this player is included in the mean value it will show much higher than supposed to. If you instead specify that a player must play at least 10 hands it will show a more realistic value.

    • Correlated Mean Value - Calculates a mean value that is weighted by the number of hands played. So, if one user has played a lot of hands, his stats will have a greater weight in the mean value.

  • Exclude Stats - Finally, you can use the checkbox to exclude your own stats from the calculation of the table summary.

Performance

You can improve the speed and performance of the Live Tracker by setting the Performance tuning options. You can access the Performance options from the PokerOffice Main Window or from the Live Tracker window itself:

From the PokerOffice Main Window, go to the Live Tracker menu and choose Performance.

From the Live Tracker Window, go to the Statistics menu and choose Performance.

As your database grows, calculating and auto-rating your own player statistics becomes quite performance-intensive. You may therefore wish to exclude your own total stats from the Live Tracker Windows (since it is quite redundant when playing live).

You can choose to exclude your hands Always, Never, or when the number of Hands for the player reaches the selected number.

Note that any session stats that you have selected will always be visible. Only your lifetime stats will be excluded from the Live Tracker windows. Also, you can still view your "lifetime" stats from the More Detailed Statistics window or from the Replayer.

When your own stats have been excluded, you will no longer see an icon for yourself and you will see only two dashes in place of your statistics in the totals column.

Player / Table Icons

Overview

For every player in your database, PokerOffice provides a Player Icon that summarizes that player's general tendencies.

  • Based on how often they see the flop, players are characterized as Loose, Semi-Loose, or Tight

  • Based on how often they bet or raise as compared to how often they check or call, players are also characterized as Passive, Neutral, Aggressive.

Icons are assigned to players based on these two characteristics; a player who is tight and aggressive preflop and aggressive postflop (generally considered to be the strongest combination) has a wizard's hat, for example. In general, the icons follow a color scheme:

  • Green Icons for loose players (these are often the most desirable opponents to have at your table);
  • Blue Icons for semi-loose players
  • Red Icons for tight players

There is no consensus in the poker world as to exactly what numbers make a player "loose", what the ideal amount of aggression is, etc. These numbers will vary depending on the type of game you play (limit vs. no-limit), the blind levels, the poker site, and other factors. In general you should strive to be a tight aggressive player, especially if you are starting out in poker. Over time you may be able to open up a little bit and play more marginal hands in order to exploit weaker opponents or vary your play.

PokerOffice comes with a default set of rules to characterize players. These rules are optimized for 10 handed ring games. Once you become comfortable with how PokerOffice calculates the various statistics and confident in your ability to assess other players strengths, you may wish to alter these rules so that they more accurately reflect your own personal assessments.

The Table Icons setting provides you with a single icon that summarizes these same tendencies for all of the players currently playing at a table (players who are sitting out are not included). In general, the Table Icon provides an average of the various players playing at the table.

The following sections describe the options for customizing the icons.

Edit / View Icon Rules

Begin by opening the Player / Table Icons Settings Window. There are several methods:

  • From the PokerOffice Main Window, go to the Live Tracker drop down menu and choose Player Icons / Table Icons.

  • From the PokerOffice Main Window, click on the small icon on the upper right of the screen (the tooltip for this icon reads ‘Player (or Table) Icon in Live Window').

  • From the Live Tracker Window, go to the Icons menu and choose Player Icons or Table Icons.

General Options

From Icon Settings Window, you can save your current settings, restore the PokerOffice defaults, or specify a minimum number of hands that a player must have before receiving an icon (Player Icons Window only).

Edit/View Rule

Clicking on this button will allow you to view the current rule or to edit it. You can use up to 5 fields to define your rule and you can create up to 14 different rules.

For an explanation of the statistics available, please see the Glossary. Note that the Min / Max figures are expressed as percentages

If you customize the player rules and you see a question mark instead of an icon, this may be because a player's statistic contains a number for which you have not provided a rule. For example, if you determine that a "loose" player sees the flop 40% or more often, and a semi-loose sees the flop 30-35% then a player who sees 37% of the time will have a question mark instead of a loose or semi-loose icon.

Edit Icon

  • Click on any of the icons to exchange it for your own icon file.
  • Choose any 16x16 pixel .gif file as an icon and set the path here. Please note that we strongly recommend that you use icons of the standard GIF format (GIF89a). Please also note that Windows Paint sometimes does not create standard GIF's so we recommend using another program. The Poker Table Overlay especially may have problems showing the images if they are not standard GIF's.
  • Note that you may only choose a new icon if you have no Live Tracker windows open; open the Player / Table Icons Setting window from main PokerOffice program if you want to change the icon.

Priority

When you have overlapping rules (for example, one rule for players who see 25-35% of flops and another rule for players who see 30-100% of flops), the priority setting will determine which icon is shown for a player who fits into more than one category. The rule with the lowest priority will be applied.

If a player's statistics fall into a gap between your rules, you will see a question mark instead of an icon.

Icon Description

This allows you to create a text description along with the graphical icon.

Other Menu Items

  • Table Overlay - You can access the Customize Table Overlay window from any of your Live Tracker windows. Read more here.

  • Save State - If you adjust the size of your Live Tracker window, you can make its current size the new default size by clicking on the Save State menu.

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