Is PokerSnowie worth it?
Barry Carter takes PokerSnowie 4 for a spin to see who would benefit from it and where it has limitations.
10 day free trial
In the last couple of years I have done some deep dives into GTO software because of book projects I have been working on. However, until very recently I had managed to avoid one of the OGs in solver technology - PokerSnowie 4.
The reason I have started to use it was because it is one of the few tools out there where you can get good advice on multi-way pots. We used it in my most recent Chip Race video where I reviewed some family pots I played.
Since then I have been making myself familiar with the software and have some thoughts on its strengths and weaknesses, coming at it from the point of view of somebody that has been using tools like PIOSolver for some time now.
Fast and easy to use
Probably the first thing to say is how fast and easy to use it is. The software is really crisp and simple, which is often not the case with solver technology. You can set up hands quickly enough, though thankfully not so fast that it could ever be used in real time at the tables, and the hand history import function is seamless.
Most solver technology takes a long time to solve a hand, but Snowie uses a cloud based library of lessons learned from trillions of hands played at all table sizes and stack depths.
The end result is a strategy that is difficult to exploit. Like any solver technology, if you are trying to memorise the ranges to the letter you are missing out. The real value of solver tools is to try to work out why it took the line it did, so you can apply the lessons as heuristics at the tables. If you watch the video we did below, you will see Snowie take some very interesting lines and thankfully Dara O'Kearney was on hand to explain them for me.
Best for cash/early spots and multiway
There is a training feature which is excellent. Unlike some other solvers that have training features it simulates a whole cash session or tournament, that plays on with new stack sizes after every hand, rather than random hands in a vacuum one after another. After the session you can review it like you can the hand histories you import.
One criticism is that it does not appear to be ICM aware at all, so take the MTT simulator with a pinch of salt and perhaps limit the hand history reviews to the pre ICM stages of tournaments. Given the endgame in MTTs is mostly preflop anyway, HRC or ICMIZER gives you most of what you need there.
The real value of Snowie for me was the reason that I came to it in the first place, which was the multiway pot analysis. It's obviously no good for endgame multiway pots but most ICM hands are heads-up anyway. It is particularly good for the early game family pots and it has uncovered some major leaks in my game (again, watch the video to see just how different multiway strategy is). Most solvers are heads-up pots only.
I'm a big fan of PokerSnowie, of all the solvers out there it is perhaps the fastest and most robust one out there. It's a great introduction to solver technology for a newbie and a must have for cash game players. It is flawed for MTT players but if you go into it with the intention of studying mostly early game and/or multiway pots you will get the most out of it.
If you have any questions visit our official PokerSnowie support thread in our forum.
