Poker Sleuth Review

Video Software Review

Poker Sleuth Synopsis

Poker Sleuth is a one-stop shop that offers everything you need to be successful at the virtual tables. In addition to standard tracking and analysis tools, Poker Sleuth offers an equity calculator similar to PokerStove and a variety of hand history tools. The entire suite of software runs $69.

Poker Sleuth Full Review

One-stop shops often dominate industries. Take Wal-Mart, the market leader in many areas, which has stores featuring everything from groceries to automotive necessities to electronics. In the poker world, Poker Sleuth offers an all-encompassing suite of poker software that will undoubtedly breed highly-successful players.

First and foremost, Poker Sleuth is a full poker tracking software that allows you to review and analyze your play and that of your opponents. It may not be as slick as some of the high-end tracking programs, but it gets the job done and offers a whole host of other functions.

One of these other features is an Equity Calculator that works much like  Poker Stove. Type in the hands that your opponent may have and the equity calculator will instantaneously regurgitate your equity. The program seamlessly integrates with Poker Notes and Poker Bar and can also automatically incorporate the information from the latest hand you played. Think you may have miscalculated the odds? Consult the equity calculator!

The equity calculator allows users to input hand ranges, specific cards, hand rank percentages, and even descriptors such as any suited connectors between 4-5 and 10-J. The program was designed by a Ph.D. who put a significant amount of time and energy into developing not only his thesis, but also the thought process behind Poker Sleuth. Consequently, you'll find advanced stats being used in his program, including Monte Carlo simulations. The best part is that the Equity Calculator is completely free:

Poker Sleuth also boasts a Note Taking application that allows users to review hands quickly and easily. It also permits quick hand history uploads to your favorite online poker forums. In addition, you can add notes within hand histories for later use.  Here is a look at the notes module:

One of our favorite tools is called a Poker Taskbar, which allows you to review hands instantaneously no matter what table they appeared on. This excellent program for multi-tablers places hole cards of the most recent hands in the toolbar of your Windows-based computer. All you have to do is click on the cards you're interested in and the software will bring up the entire hand history. No more going back through the online poker rooms to figure it out.

Changes in Poker Sleuth 2 include that clicking marks the hand for later review, which is very handy for multi-tablers who need to mark a hand with minimum effort. In addition, right-clicking allows the player to view the hand history or load the hand in the Equity Calculator:

Recently, Poker Sleuth unveiled a series of new applications that makes the software even more invaluable. The first, called the Player Analyzer, allows users to view opponents' tendencies with certain hands while in certain positions at the table. Using a special algorithm, this feature will actually infer an opponent's range of starting hands. The table is sortable, so if you want to see which hands a player uses most often in a particular position and situation, just click on that column. Click on the “Hole” column to return to the regular order.

A Heads-Up Display (HUD) has also been implemented. It will pull data from hand histories you've logged and then publish it right on the table. The difference is that rather than give you an actual number for various statistics, Poker Sleuth utilizes ranges. After all, with a Ph.D. behind the program, its HUD is far more sophisticated. Bayesian statistics and a display that blends in with the table are just a few of the features you can expect.  Here's what the Poker Sleuth HUD looks like:

Additionally, Poker Sleuth has two web-based tools that are completely free to all users. The Hand Converter allows you to change hand histories into a variety of forms for use in the TwoPlusTwo forums, ASCII, Deuces Cracked, FlopTurnRiver, HTML, LeggoPoker, OutFlopped, Poker Collectif, PokerPro.si, and Poker-Strategy.org. Just paste your hand history into the designated box, click "Go," and you're off to the races.

The Bluff Calculator incorporates game theory to give you the optimal bluffing frequency against anyone else at your table. Input the Bet Size, Pot Size, and Winning and Losing Hands You'd Play and the Bluff Calculator takes care of the rest. It's a unique tool that's only available through Poker Sleuth.

The whole suite of programs will set you back just $69. That price includes absolutely everything we've gone over in this review and, quite frankly, it's a steal. There is also a 30-day free trial available. To get your copy of Poker Sleuth today, you'll need to download the trial version first in order to receive a product key, which is used when upgrading to the full version.