"Poker Crusher" datamining and HUD review

[BaDonkeyDonk]

Cliff notes:
1. New software, supposed to datamine and give a HUD.
2. Doesn't work anywhere near reliably enough to spend any money on it.
3. Could be considered an 'unfair advantage' and get you in trouble.

So at some point I got on an email list and I get these poker strategy tips from “Roy Rounder” every once in a while. Yesterday it was an advertisement for new poker software called “Poker Crusher”.

http://www.royrounder.com/
http://www.pokercrusher.com/

You can go to the website and read all the stuff, but here are the basics:
1. They datamine at 100+ sites (not pokerstars)
2. The software connects to their database and gets all the stats on any players at any table you have open, and shows all the stats on a HUD.
3. It’s a subscription based service. Costs from 14-37 dollars/month depending on which options you get.. for 14 dollars you only get up to 3/6 Limit and .25/.50 NL.
4. They offer a 5 day free trial.

I downloaded the software to test it out with 5 day free trial. The download and installation went smoothly. Running it became a bit annoying.

Good stuff:
(Note that it only worked one time for me and crashed after 10 minutes so there may be other good stuff I didn’t get to find)
- They cover most poker sites. Pokerstars was the only one I use that wasn’t listed.
- I opened 3 tables at random and 90% of the players had stats, with anywhere from 100 to several thousand hands played.
- The HUD is very configurable. It shows 9 stats and you can select which stat shows in which position (3x3 grid). However, on the HUD it’s just a bunch of numbers so would take a bit to remember which number is which stat, but if you click on the stat box a larger one opens with labels for all available stats. Also you can’t change where the stat boxes appear on the screen.
- It shows player icons which are pretty similar to Poker Tracker’s. The stats available are pretty much the standard options similar to Poker Tracker…VPIP, PF, folded BB to steal %, etcetera.
- The 5 day free trial is awesome. You can find out it doesn’t work without wasting any money.

Minor Problems:
- When you start the program, it launches your poker site for you. If you poker site is already running, the program refuses to start.
- If the program is running and you want to open a table from a different poker site than the one you originally selected…you have to shut it down and restart it.

Major Problems: - About 25% of the time I started the software, it froze up my computer completely to the point cntrl-alt-del doesn’t even work. (Windows XP, Core2 duo, 2G ram, very capable computer)
- About 50% of the time, it didn’t freeze up my computer but the software did not run…meaning that if you put the cursor over it you get an hourglass, and when you look at your task list it says “This program is not responding”.
- Out of 10 or 15 attempts, only once did it start up and actually connect itself to their database and show the HUD stats.

Legality:
Most sites do not allow this sort of thing. (I didn’t play at any of the tables I tested it on) Here is an example from Full Tilt’s site terms:
- Full Tilt Poker prohibits the use of external player assistance programs (EPA Programs) which are designed to provide users with an unfair advantage over their opponents. Full Tilt Poker defines external to mean computer software (other than the Full Tilt Poker game client), and non-software-based databases or profiles (e.g., web sites and subscription services). Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play. You agree that Full Tilt Poker may take steps to detect and prevent the use of prohibited EPA programs. These steps may include, but are not limited to, examination of software programs running concurrently with the Full Tilt Poker software on the player’s computer.
- The Poker Crusher people seem to know this, since they say that most sites allow their program to be used but they took the time to try to hide it. Here is their statement:

Q. Is Poker Crusher™ allowed by the online poker rooms?
A. Poker Crusher™ is allowed by the majority of the online poker rooms. However, PartyPoker (and it's skins), and PokerStars are deeming Poker Crusher™ as an unfair advantage at their tables. Fortunately, we have proprietary security technology in place such that the poker site has no way of knowing if you are using Poker Crusher™, so they can take no action against you.

Bottom Line: - Don’t waste your money, but if you really interested you can use the 5 day free trial to see if it works for you.
- May or may not be legal/moral/ethical, could get you in trouble with the site if you were using it on a site that doesn’t allow it.