[bhudson]

Not quite... it's about understanding and it comes with experience.

First, don't mess with NL. Play limit until you get a graps of odds.

There are different kind of odds. At the most basic level, and you certainly need to take care of this first, there is implied odds vs draw odds. You take your pot odds and add a reasonable avg of what more you can take out of your opponents should you make your hand. Then you compare this with the odds of making your draw - you need to be careful here that if you make your draw, it's good and not a second best hand. When that risk is high, you'll need much better odds to continue. You'll need to understand hidden outs, discounted outs and combined draws - but this is all very doable.

This is easy with a little experience. This is basically all those programs will do (and do poorly) for you. They are unnecessary. I used to use them as a crutch all the time. They aren't worth it.

The second kind of odds is all about hand reading. What does your opponent play preflop and is it consistent with his actions postflop? How does the statistical possibility of him holding the hands you've put him on adjust the odds?

No program will help you there, and this is a very difficult, yet crucial skill to improve.