Column: Is tracking software accepted by the poker community?
Following PokerTracker 4 sponsoring the European Poker Tour last month, Barry Carter asks whether tracking software is now widely supported by both the poker community and industry?
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| The EPT support tracking software |
Last month, PokerTracker 4 was unveiled as one of the sponsors of the European Poker Tour.
In fact, it was named the "Official Tracking Software of the EPT". It is not unusual for an online poker product to sponsor a live poker product (or vice versa), but this still seems like a landmark in the history of tracking software.
Although tracking software is by no means banned by online poker sites, there has always been a degree of ambiguity on what their official stance on it is.
This sponsorship would seem to suggest that 
PokerStars
A strategic sponsorship
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| Tracking software boosts the ecology |
Strictly speaking, however, it is not PokerStars being sponsored but their flagship live series, the European Poker Tour. In my view this is a very clever strategic move.
The sponsorship still manages to keep a degree of distance between PokerStars and tracking software; more importantly it sends a message to a highly-targeted audience while shielding it from another.
If you play in, try to qualify for, or generally follow the European Poker Tour, there's a good chance you are in that group of players known as 'serious poker players'. You already know about PokerTracker and Hold'em Manager, and you probably use one of them.
However all the recreational players PokerStars markets to, who are largely oblivious about tracking software, are still kept out of the loop. Assuming we won't see PokerTracker logos on the televised EPT broadcasts, they will be none the wiser that tracking software exists or that PokerStars supports it.
The benefits to the networks
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| Multi-tabling boosts the network |
Tracking software used to divide opinion in the poker community, but I think it is mostly accepted these days; this sponsorship appears to be a testament to that.
Other than the obvious benefits to the players tracking software also has significant benefits to a poker network, but rarely do operators publicly say that.
Although most poker rooms will tell you that their priority is acquiring new recreational players, the reality is that winning players are needed to generate rake. Tracking software allows that to happen at an enhanced rate.
Although so-called 'bad players' are considered the most important part of a poker ecology because they introduce new deposits to a site, the reality is that they don't generate much rake for the poker room. They tend to deposit, bust their roll quickly, and never play again.
Therefore if you had a network of only recreational players, not much rake would be generated. The losers would leave and the winners would have won a lot of money in quick succession before withdrawing.
The value of serious players to a network
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| Winning players rake more |
Having plenty of good regulars at the tables means that the money is lost much more slowly, and thus more rake is generated.
A table with four serious players and two recreational players will see the money move around the table in a much lower-variance way, all the while generating more rake (this excellent column from our founder Dominik 
Korn'
As an aside, this is precisely the reason why you should ignore all the accusations that a poker room is rigged because someone thinks kings always run into aces. Big pots don't earn a poker room much revenue in the long term; if they really were going to rig the deck they would only deal marginal hands that miss the flop and watch the rake come in very slowly.
Tracking software helps the overall ecology of a poker room. The HUD allows players to multi-table more efficiently, which means there are more players at the tables in general and more winning players at each. If a serious player generates a lot of rake at his usual $1/$2 No Limit table then anything that allows him to play ten times as many hands in an hour is going to be looked upon very favorably by the poker network.
Acceptance in the poker community
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| HUDs are only as good as the user |
So the online poker rooms have accepted tracking software, whether they publicly admit it or not. What about the poker community in general?
Although I do not know the actual numbers involved, I have several times heard as many as one in six online players uses a form of tracking software. Such a figure would suggest that pretty much the entire non-recreational minority of poker players are users of tracking software.
The previous detractors of tracking software in many cases didn't really understand what it allowed players to do, and incorrectly assumed it gave them an unfair edge by giving them access to new information.
Tracking software doesn't give you new information you were not privy to at the time (like datamined hand histories do); all it does is essentially allow you to replicate the single table experience across multiple tables.
Only as useful as the player who uses it
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| Most serious players use software |
If you gave tracking software to a 'bad player' then not only would they still lose money, they might lose more over the long term because they used the information incorrectly.
If you gave me the best tennis racket in the world and gave Andy Murray a frying pan, there is no doubt he would still destroy me in straight sets.
If you only play one table and your opponents are playing ten each, you are actually playing against a worse version of your opponent. If they would normally win 2BB/100 at a single table, across ten they might only be a 0.5BB/100 winner.
Overall they are winning more per hour, but at your specific table they have given up a lot of edge, rather than gained any. This is good news for weaker players and the poker ecology too: it means they are 'broken' more slowly and stay in the game for longer.
This is why I personally have no problem with tracking software and now since it has been around for a long time I think most of the poker community feel the same way too. However, as the EPT and PokerStars clearly know, there is a benefit to not being too vocal on their position on tracking software.
It's not because we should be deceiving recreational players about its existence; it is simply too complicated to explain to a new player why it's actually an acceptable part of the game.
By Barry Carter
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