What's the software difference?

[ChronoGrl]

So I'm a card dork with my friends and I'm completely new to the whole online poker concept... I've been looking online at various poker software and I'm a little overwhelmed...

Does it really matter what software you use? Are there big differences between them? I don't want to find out down the line that I've registered with a site that is totally sketchy...

Before downloading stuff on my computer... What should I know about what's out there?

Thanks. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Khaos4k]

Poker tracker or Poker Office are pretty similar I think. They both keep a database of your hands and allow you to sort through various statistics. You only need one of them. PT runs about $50. PO is $80. I've only ever used PT, so can't really offer advice on which one to get.

Poker Ace HUD lets you see some of these stats at the table. Poker office comes with this for free. Poker tracker does not. Costs $25

Pokerstove is a free program that lets you input villains hand ranges to see what your equity is.

Poker Grapher lets you make a graph of your winnings over whatever time period you choose. Free. Only for use with PT as PO makes its own graphs.

That should be about all you need.

[StefanBD]

His seems to be asking about various pokersites (and their related software). I've pretty much only been playing on Pokerstars (with a little of PartyPoker at start), and I believe that it's the best avaible option for a low-limit player because it has a really good variety of micro-limit cash games available as well as SNGs and MTTs for as low as $1.10. Their rake is also pretty low, and starting with that site until you build a decent bankroll would also allow you to keep other First Deposit Bonuses on FullTilt, Absolute, etc.

The other post above is also really usefull once you get the hang of online poker though, these softwares are pretty much gold.

[ChronoGrl]

Yeah, I'm definitely still feeling my way around... I guess I really wanted to get started...

I'll have to check out Pokerstars... I'm currently tripping around PartyPoker (they seem to have a decent Help section here)... I know it's silly, but I'm just so paranoid when downloading stuff onto my computer (in my youth I used to have no problems, which is probably why my collegiate PC died a slow and painful death).

[16710Pepsi]

There's no need to be afraid about virii, trojans, spyware or the such, if you stick to the bigger, more well-known sites.
As to the functionality and overall look and feel:
(from top to bottom)
Full Tilt
Titan Poker
Poker Stars
Empire Poker
Everest Poker
those are the only ones I tried.

But it's always good to keep available bonuses and rakeback deals in mind.
For starters Stars might be the best address taking number of nits, software, available games into account (and the low limits one can play at).

If you are concerned about overall internet and computer safety though, here's a few generic tips:
Use anti virus software, use a firewall, don't surf weird fetish porn sites, don't surf hacker, cracker sites, don't surf warez sites or others with illegal download capability or advertisement (at least if you dont really know, what you are doing).

Maybe this helped you a bit.

good day and the best of "luck"
timo

[runout_mick]

This link should help answer a lot of your questions.

Read through the FAQ at the top of this beginner's forum for more helpful info/inks.