Playing online again after 2 yr hiatus, need advice/opinions

[Arcy]

First like to say first time poster long time lurker, with that out of the way thank you to all regular posters as I have made it a habit to absorb this forum like a sponge.

I apologize ahead of time if the post is long, would rather those who contribute know my situation/mindset upfront.

I have been playing poker for about 12 yrs (nothing serious, just friendly cash games amongst friends) so I have a pretty good grasp of the basics. I played a bit online before the poker boom and enjoyed the easy bonus whoring and fishiness of the times. My wife convinced me to stop playing online when all the sites I played cashed me out when the laws in the U.S. changed. I decided to start playing online again for a few reasons:

1. Recently disabled at a fairly young age (36) so I have time to kill.
2. I love the game, I enjoy knowing I played something right...win or lose.
3. Financially my home life is secure and monthly/yearly expenses are not an issue for me so playing will not affect my finances other than my bankroll.
4. My friendly home games do not satisfy me (poker wise) as I have long looked at it as a social event and not serious poker.

Anyway on to the meat and potatoes now that you have a brief background.

I made a deposit in to PS last Monday to start grinding the bonus there as I knew cashing out in the U.S. wouldn't be an issue. Tuesday I entered a $3.30+R NL 25k Guaranteed tourney and placed first for just shy of 6k. I pulled 3k out (to spend on the wife as 6k is unreasonable sized br for the limits I am playing) and left the balance at PS with the intentions of depositing the max for bonus/rakeback at FTP.

My main focus and the questions that I have:

I want to continue to improve, learn and fix leaks in my game so I have decided to spend a significant amount on books I don't already own as well as some software and a subscription to one of the video/coaching sites. I know a lot of what I will ask is opinion based but I still want to hear your views and pro's cons of each.

Software:
I had my choices narrowed down to Poker Office and Poker Tracker but then saw Holdem Manager. Any pro's cons that you could list for each would be appreciated. They all seem solid and again it may come down to preference but I would still love to hear it.
In addition to some form of tracking program above are there any other "must haves" software wise out there? I know that office has a HUD built in, any thoughts other than some form of HUD and if you use a HUD which do you use?

Subscription sites:
Narrowed it down to the following: PokerXFactor, Stox and Cardrunners. I plan on playing tournies/sngs till i feel I am ready to take the next step. Stox is in the lead ATM due to the current deal they have running. Any thoughts ?

I plan on posting hands here regularly as well as reading as much as I can. I don't about "making money" as much as I care about improving my game....don't get me wrong money is nice but not my reasoning for playing poker.

Thank you in advance and would love any and all input as well as anything i may have missed (which I am sure I did) that any of you feel is vital to growing as a player.

Rob (Arcy)

[WCGRider]

Huge Brag: Fought for 8 hours to win a 3$ Rebuy.

I don't use a subscription site, but i have heard good things. (However i play full ring and most people play 6 max.)That said, i am very happy with pokertracker/pokerace, and i believe that is the general consensus. There are other options, but i couldn't get holdem manager to run on my computer and poker office isn't as good a program as pokertracker in my opinion.

The most important thing you can do is decide what you want to play, read that forum, post in it, get a hud/database tracker, and put in the hands. After that you can re evaluate, but you seem to have your stuff together and i don't think you should have any problems with moving up through the limits.

Good luck.

[Arcy]

Thank you for the advice....the tourny went almost 9 hrs zzzz....i should have bought a powerball/lotto ticket that day as the odds were probably as good. First thing I did after the win was order a laptop....final table no breaks for 3 hrs made that decision a no brainer as sitting out to take a restroom break gets costly.
Another question to add, If I play on multiple computers (laptop and desktop) is it fairly straight forward to "merge" the databases of the two for say poker tracker?

Thanks in advance,
Rob (Arcy)

[WCGRider]

I am not too knowledgeable about pokertracker's databases, so i cant help you with that. I would imagine its possible though.

[saal13]

PokerTracker / PA-HUD seems to be standard. I've recently started using HoldemManager (free at the moment as it's in beta) and RealTimeHUD (also free) and really like them.

I'm a member at Stox and CR and both are good. If I had to choose one I'd go with Stox because it's seems to be offering slightly better value.

[basementproject]

[ QUOTE ]
Another question to add, If I play on multiple computers (laptop and desktop) is it fairly straight forward to "merge" the databases of the two for say poker tracker?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey- with PT you get a liscense for 2 computers for specifically this reason. Exporting databases is simple- export it from CPU1, email it to yourself, and import it on CPU2 in PT.

[ICMoney]

Congrats on the win.

As someone mentioned, Holdem Manager and PT3 will be out before the end of the year.

HM is available in beta and you can use it for free right now.

I use Chop's free HUD. It has good stats like 3bet and donk bet %.



As a side note, because of legislation/CardRunners, etc, the games are much different than they were a couple of years ago.

Light 3betting was only seen at the high stakes a few years ago.

Now it's the standard in my 50nl games.

[Arcy]

basementproject:
Ty for the PT database Q & A, spent a good portion of last evening reading all documentation I can and will make a solid effort today to play some hands to import so I can learn the functions. (side note...may join you all next Sunday/Monday for the beginners game if it's open to all).

ICMoney:
Ty for the heads up, played just a few cash tables and noticed the difference immediately. Will take some adjusting too but hey that is why I am here at 2+2.

Thanks again to everyone, anything else that anyone wants to chime in please do so.

[sharpyetblunt]

i think Pokertracker/pokeraceHUD is the most popular choice as far as software goes so you cant really go wrong with them, they also offer good support and there are many tutorials on here and the web on how to use pokertracker so i would say it is the best option.

As far as subscriptions go i would say xfactor for tournies and cardrunners for cash games, dont know about stox. Overall though i think Cardrunners has the most content.

[basementproject]

[ QUOTE ]
(side note...may join you all next Sunday/Monday for the beginners game if it's open to all).

[/ QUOTE ]

Please do! Tell all your friends as well. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]