Poker Strategy: Poker Tools
Improve your game by learning how to use the tools of the trade.
Gone are the days when grizzled road gamblers would deal out hundreds of flops to try to calculate what the percentages were. Today, there are plenty of sophisticated tools that allow you to improve your game away from the tables without having to do all the calculations yourself. Some of them are indeed software products, but there’s a lot of info to be gleaned from books, charts, and other physical media. The more time you put into studying and educating yourself, the better your long-term results will be, just like in almost any other field of human endeavor. The proper use of some of these resources is self-evident, but with others, you might be a bit confused at first. Fortunately, our articles will demonstrate the right way to get the most out of these tools. Making money is fun, and we’re here to help you have as much fun as possible.
Popular Poker Tools
Hand Converter
If you’re playing poker online, be sure to use our Hand History Converter to produce friendly output for our poker forum or other forums on the internet!
Hand Converter Database
There have been nearly 2 million hands converted using the FTR Hand Converter! This hand database will allow you to search through every single one of them!
Note: This feature is still in development.
Bankroll Management Calculator
We’ve developed a simple tool where all you need to do is enter your current bankroll, and we will recommend which level you should play. It will calculate conservative, recommended, and risky stakes for cash games, SNG, and tournaments.
Bankroll Management Spreadsheet
This Excel spreadsheet was put together by one of our members to help you manage and monitor your poker bankroll and keep track of your balances.
Poker Odds Calculator
This free online calculator is very versatile, allowing you to choose one of several differ poker game variations, assign cards to multiple players, specify the cards on the board (flop, turn, etc.), set aside dead cards and then post the results in any forum or blog. Our new graphical interface allows you to simply click on the card images and have the odds of any scenario in seconds!
Tournament Trimmer
Reviewing the hand histories for an entire tournament, or even Sit-n-Go, is extremely tedious, particularly because you aren’t even involved in 75% of the hands! The FTR Tournament Trimmer rectifies this problem by condensing all the hands that are folded pre-flop into a single line of text describing the action and the hero’s chip stack to initial pot ratio. In essence, this poker tool trims the tournament hand history to actually make it useful!
Poker Videos
Poker strategies demonstrated in audio-video format. Our video library is free and shows some of our senior members in action, narrating as they play!
Featured Poker Tools Articles
Study Poker With Spreadsheets (Part 1): The Basics
The math involved in poker analysis turns a lot of people off, but using spreadsheets can make life much easier.
Poker Notes Live Premium Review
FTR recently gave the app Poker Notes Live a closer look to see if it would be worth recommending for live poker players. To sum it up in one short sentence, yes we do recommend the app and find it to be useful for live grinders. For the longer version, read our...
Bankroll Management 101
Bankroll Management Calculator The above tool will help determine which buy-in level you should be playing at, based on the size of your current bankroll. It will give you 3...
How to Review Your Sessions
By using PokerTracker or Hold’em manager to review your play, you can make valuable improvements to your poker game. Interpreting statistics, reviewing hand histories and analyzing your opponents’ leaks are just three of the ways to use these tools to your advantage.
Most Recent Poker Tools Articles
Texas Holdem Expected Value Hand Charts – 8 Players
While you should choose your ranges based upon game dynamics and your personal playing style, it’s sometimes helpful to see the average value of different starting hands. In this chart, we’ve compiled the EV of different cards across millions of hands in 8-player games.
Texas Holdem Expected Value Hand Charts – 7 Players
Working on preflop ranges can be difficult because you’ll almost never have a valid sample size. Check out these results from millions of 7-handed Texas Hold’em tables to see what hands are profitable for other players and what hands lose money.
Studying Poker With Spreadsheets (Part 3): Semi-Bluffing Calculations
This week, we look at even more complicated scenarios and strategies on how to keep your poker spreadsheets organized and mistake-free.
Poker Sherlock Guide
You can learn to select the proper tables to play poker at with the help of Poker Sherlock. While playing, you will be presented with a number of useful stats on your opponents. Poker Sherlock will make it easier for you to get reads on your foes.
Study Poker With Spreadsheets (Part 2): Multiple Betting Options
Being able to calculate two or more EV equations at the same time is the focus of this week’s poker spreadsheet tutorial.
Study Poker With Spreadsheets (Part 1): The Basics
The math involved in poker analysis turns a lot of people off, but using spreadsheets can make life much easier.
Texas Holdem Expected Value Hand Charts – 3 Players
Below is a table of Texas Holdem starting hands, ordered by their Expected Value (EV) in a 3 player holdem game. These statistics were produced by using millions of hand histories to compute the following results....
Poker Hands Odds
Have you ever wondered what the percentage and odds are of certain poker hands? How much of a favorite are you with Aces against Kings? How often will the flush draw hit and crack your Queens? Is the best hand on the flop ever an underdog? We answer all of these...
Texas Holdem Expected Value Hand Charts – 4 Players
Below is a table of Texas Holdem starting hands, ordered by their Expected Value (EV) in a 4 player holdem game. These statistics were produced by using millions of hand histories to compute the following results....
Poker Notes Live Premium Review
FTR recently gave the app Poker Notes Live a closer look to see if it would be worth recommending for live poker players. To sum it up in one short sentence, yes we do recommend the app and find it to be useful for live grinders. For the longer version, read our...
Texas Hold’em Flop Odds
It is often said that poker is a game of partial information. As the betting commences pre-flop, we gain information on our opponents hand. However, in reality, we have no true way of knowing the cards that our opponent holds, except that he cannot hold the cards that...
Texas Holdem Expected Value Hand Charts – 5 Players
Below is a table of Texas Hold'em starting hands, ordered by their Expected Value (EV) in a 5 player Hold'em game. These statistics were produced by using millions of hand histories to compute the following results....
Calculatem Pro Odds Calculator
Below is a nice write-up provided by Calculatem Pro that describes the software package, its benefits, and some testimonials! How To Take Advantage of Bad Players At Online Poker The increase of poker popularity has led to a flood of fish who are just WAITING for you...
Texas Holdem Expected Value Hand Charts – 6 Players
Below is a table of Texas Holdem starting hands, ordered by their Expected Value (EV) in a 6 player holdem game. These statistics were produced by using millions of hand histories to compute the following results. The unit for EV is average profit in big...
Optimizing Your Sessions With Simple Routines
Establishing a set of routines to perform before you begin playing poker will produce long-term, positive results. By properly training your body, you’ll be able to condition your involuntary responses to make you calm, focused and ready to play whenever you want to.
