Video Software Review
PokerHandScout Synopsis
PokerHandScout.com is a website that sells online Hold'em poker players hand histories that import into tracking utilities such as PokerTracker, Holdem Manager, PokerStrategy Elephant, and PokerOffice. People buy hand histories to perform analysis of other online poker players and have data load in a Heads-Up Display (HUD). The site offers both bulk purchases and retail subscriptions.
PokerHandScout Full Review
There are two types of purchases at PokerHandScout.com, bulk and retail. The bulk hand history option will bring a user the latest "X" number of hands from a desired game. If you choose, you can have a .zip file emailed to you daily with your hand histories allowing you to immediately build a database for a specific game in one shot. However the email option is completely optional, because the program has a client you can utilize with an "Autopilot" feature that performs the download for you automatically. Run it a night if you want, then perform a simple import the next morning and you are set.
Buying a bulk set of hands is a great thing for a player just jumping into a new level as they climb the cash game ladder. When you go into the bulk purchase method, a distribution graph is shown so that you can see how far back a particular number of hands goes time-wise and information about the daily average captured. The pricing is very competitive, with a one million hand database costing $46. One million hands, for example, goes back a little more than three weeks at a major poker site like Full Tilt at $0.50-$1 stakes. The more hands you buy, the more of a discount you will get. By comparison, purchasing five million hands in one bulk purchase will cost $125.
The retail purchase first requires a user to select what game they wish to receive hands for. Once that has been determined, there's a pricing matrix that allows a user to pick their stakes and site. If a user wants hands from the same level, they can get a discount for every additional site past the first one. Again, once you make this decision, you are taken to a distribution graph that shows how many hands you can expect to arrive in your inbox every day. For just $15, you can have every hand during a month at one site and stake.
If you are curious just as to how many hands per day are tracked by individual poker site, you can filter your search by site, game, stakes, and format to see how many hands are available before you decide to purchase a package. The search results are for the most recent 30-day period. Here is a look at a sample search:
PokerHandScount.com comes with its own download client, so you aren't boxed into using your browser to download and unpack the hands in order to import them. The software client will allow you to easily configure the way to store and download your hand histories. Here is what you can expect from the main screen:
Overall, PokerHandScout.com is one of the more sophisticated hand history data mining sites available. The quality of hands is extremely impressive and the pricing structure is fairly competitive with the industry. It's definitely worth a look if you're interested in building or updating your player database. Please check your pokersite's Terms and Conditions prior to using Poker Hand Scout.
Member Reviews
SickJ's Review of Poker Hand Scout
June, 1, 2010The download tool is really amazing. No need to fiddle around with links on the website. You wake up in the morning and new hand histories already arrived and imported into HoldemManager automatically. Great benefit.
PokerHandScout Vitals