Poker-Botics

Holdem Hawk
Precise Odds Calculator and Opponent Stats

What was once one of the original empirical poker calculators combining odds and profiling with a unique visual meter built in, Holdem Hawk and its clone Holdem Pirate had a successful run two years back.

Although the software was quirky and caused screen flashing (as does mose screen scraper software) it had potential becuase of a unique VPIP meter which definately advanced the market for online poker calculators.

Then something happened. As Holdem Pirate had some success they teamed up with some not-so-cool marketers and started mining data for black-hat software – namely Poker-Edge. So as soon as Poker Stars got wind of this, players started getting warnings about losing thier accounts (funds) if they kept using it.

In With The Worst of it: A very tiny and inadequate display of your hole cards, and the flop, seems poorly thought out. Now here is the thing with Holdem Pirate and Holdem Hawk. Some skippy programming that monopolizes your computer screen combined with Poker Stars warnings and you got a major headache.

The Best of it: The sad part is the VPIP meter is unique and extremely useful. You can sit at a table, wait for the BB to come around and have a good amount of statistics before you start, even if you were making a cup of coffee. The layout is user friendly, and the calculations are as fast as your table.

Since the Party Poker collapse last fall, Poker Stars has emerged as the indisputable leader in sheer numbers of online poker players. They have the biggest tournaments, the most active tables, the biggest cash games, and the quickest filling sit and go tournaments online. With that comes power – the power to choose your partners, affiliates, and closer to our point; acceptable software.

Long have I been recommending Holdem Hawk and Holdem Pirate (they are actually the same) poker calculators as easy to use and visibly pleasing poker calculators. Recently though, these products have pushed the boundaries of acceptable use, at least in the view of Poker Stars, and hence have been banned from use on that site. This is sad news, as a decent product, not unlike some of the acceptable software allowed by Stars, is now virtually grounded because the biggest poker site on the planet thinks it’s too closely related to an Operative Poker Calculator.

An Operative Poker Calculator is like a secret agent working for you, collecting and mining player information that you can use against them later on. The thing is, you don’t have to be at the table for this to happen. The software (database) is working all the time for you. For most poker sites, that is over the line of fairness, just as in real life as well.