O-Poker

EDIT: This post is getting a lot of hits from the HEM website, so I felt like a little bit of a follow up was necessary. I reviewed HEM when it was first coming on the market. Pokertracker 3 was not yet available. I currently use HEM and am still very happy with the software. PT3 has been released and there isn't much difference between HEM and PT3. They have almost identical features. Your purchase of one product or another should probably be based on how well like the particular software. I think that they both have free trial periods, so I would suggest downloading them both and seeing which one "feels" better to you.

The review below is a little out dated and I have not taken the time to update my review of HEM or PT3.


This is not a paid ad - Holdem Manager doesn't even charge anything yet (since they are still in beta testing) and they don't have an affiliate program as far as I know. It is currently available for free at HoldemManager.net.

I was going to write a long review comparing Pokertracker to Holdem Manager. After I started comparing the two, I figured I could just sum it all up in one sentence. Holdem Manager blows away the current version Pokertracker. Yes, that's right. It gives you access to 10x more data from the hand histories than the current version of pokertracker does.

Don't get me wrong Pokertracker along with Poker Ace HUD is great, but they haven't done much to upgrade the features over the years. It seems like all of their updates are just to keep up with the updates of the different poker sites. I don't think that they have added any new features for years. Holdem Manager has even scared them into doing something they should have done a long time ago - a major upgrade with a ton of added features. I'm not sure the time table on the next generation of poker tracker or what features it will have. I'm guessing that it will probably be comparable to HEM, but it isn't out yet so I don't know.

Why am I so excited about HEM? I play cash games and like to review my sessions. It gives you so much information to look at that your leaks and your opponents jump out much quicker. The heads up display (HUD) still needs a few features, but it seems like they will be added soon. (I'm specifically referring to things like check raise. I had the cr stats by street on my PAHUD stats, but currently HEM only has cr overall as an option. The developer said that by streets with be added in one of the upcoming updates.)

The developer of HEM took the right approach to making a poker stats program for poker players. He created an early version and started releasing it for free beta testing to anyone. There is a massive thread on 2+2 where people posted what they want to see in the software, bugs they encounter, and the developer responds to almost every post.

I'm not sure how much he will charge once the beta testing is done, but I can't imagine it would be more than $100 since it includes the software (similar to pokertracker) and the HUD (similar to PAHUD) along with built-in graphing tools.

I would suggest testing it out. I'm also curious to see what problems people have encountered with it. Anyone reading this use HEM?

I posted some screen shots below from a random player in the DB.

Sessions stats - can be sorted by session, day, week, or month.


Graph with a ton of features.


HEM HUD vs. PAHUD. Both are similar, but the main feature that you can put on your HUD with HEM that you can't with PAHUD is 3 bet. Before HEM how often someone 3 bet was one of the main notes that I put on players.




I'll probably make a follow up post about it once I have started used it more.