Tools for Poker Players

I was just in Dallas working with the folks at Big Slick Poker Academy on a one-day seminar to help their students beat the local weekly tournament. We had a pretty good turnout with about 25 people there for the class on Sunday. We also took the Saturday tournament by storm, comprising about 10 percent of the field. Things went well for the students, until there were three tables left. At that time, there were seven students still in. The next three people out were all students, then a couple more, then the bubble boy. However, the winner of the tournament was one of our students, and he played pretty well throughout. Some might think it’s a disappointment to have them all bust that close to the money, and, of course, getting that close to cashing and not getting there is annoying, but it showed me something. None of them were afraid to use the things that I taught them at my previous seminar and over the time I’d been doing commentary on their recorded hands at the school. They weren’t afraid to bust and they trusted the tools that I gave them to be a better tournament poker player.

Speaking of those tools, I introduced them to some good stuff over that weekend and I’d like to introduce you guys as well. Of course, these tools are only as good as the effort you put in to using them. The real place for improvement as a poker player is the time you put in away from the table. It’s neither plausible, nor polite to make equity calculations versus an opponent’s range at the table in real time when facing a decision at the table. Instead, do them away from the table for common situations and then, when you face that decision while playing live, you can recall that information and apply it to the situation you’re in, even if it’s slightly different. So, here are some tools that can really help you improve your game quickly if you’re willing to put in the work with them.

Poker Stove or Equivalent

I say Poker Stove or equivalent because the current iteration of Poker Stove is not exactly functional. You can find a working version of it if you spend a few minutes looking around, but there are some really good alternatives as well. On my phone, I use Poker Cruncher to run equity calculations after a hand is over. Of course, it only does hold‘em, so there are some limitations, but it has a great interface and runs smoothly. On my computer, and sometimes on my phone when doing calculations for games other than hold‘em, I use ProPokerTools. All of these programs are equity calculators. You input your hand in a given situation and the range of hands you think your opponent is likely to have based on the way the hand has played up to this point and it runs the calculations to see how much equity you have in the hand at that time. This is incredibly useful in tournaments when facing an all-in bet preflop. I’ve had several students go wide-eyed when we ran some situations through an equity calculator. They were surprised at what sort of hands were doing well enough to call against our opponent’s perceived range in certain common tournament spots. I want you guys to experiment with the calculators yourselves, so I won’t share any of these situations, but feel free to contact me on Twitter at @nhgg if you’re running calculations and have one of these moments.

Jam or Fold Table

There are plenty of really good jam or fold tables available online and, if you haven’t found one yet, do so immediately. They are essential tools for the winning tournament player and the quickest and easiest thing to implement in your game to get immediate results. Almost every tournament will find you at a point when you have to play a jam or fold strategy and, if you know that situation well, you’ll instantly be a better tournament player. I’d tell you to learn the math of these tables, but somebody has already done all of the work on this for you and there haven’t really been any advancements in this part of tournament poker in several years because of it. If learning a semi-easy to remember table is all you need to do to improve your game in this aspect, you should take advantage of it.

Reshove Calculator

This is definitely the most advanced tool in this group and you’ll need a good equity calculator as well when using it. A reshove calculator will do what the name tells you. You input the size of your stack, the size of your opponent’s opening bet, what percentage of hands you think they open with, what percentage of hands you think they will call you with, how much equity your hand has against their calling range, and how much dead money is in the pot. Once you input all that information, it will tell you how many chips your reshove nets you. Simple, but effective, and also eye-opening.
Remember that you shouldn’t be using these at the table, since they won’t really be useful unless you can sit down with them with some time on your hands, but if you can get to them away from the table and really let that information sink in, you’ll be a better tournament player for it. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG