The folks in charge at Poker Office have always done things their own way and this newest edition is no different. They seem to be learning exactly what the players want and Version 5.0 may be a real contender in the poker tracking and analysis market.

License:$99 per year

Compatible sites:

• Absolute Poker Software
 | 
• Full Tilt Poker Software
 | 
• Party Poker Software
 | 
• PokerStars Software
 | 
• bwin Poker Software
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Features:

• Built-in heads up display
• Easy to learn and use
• Excellent graphing and real time opponent modeling
• Fast imports of large hand libraries and databases

Poker Office has always been techologically advanced. For a few years, it was much prettier, faster, and more powerful than its competition, but lacked a few important pieces. The new edition suffers from a few of those same problems, but most of them have either been fixed or are in the works. Overall, we were very impressed with the program, but it lacks flexibility in one or two places that will turn some players off. In addition, the asking price is the highest of the big three stat tracking programs.

Let's start with the good. There's a lot to love in Poker Office 5.

The list of available stats is now at least as large as Holdem Manager or PokerTracker 3 and may be the best of the three. Stats can be displayed in an excellent Heads-Up Display (HUD) that allows a traditional stat overlay as well as the most advanced icon system we've ever seen. Five choices of stats and the ability to import your own 16x16 icons makes this a great option for people who play on a large number of tables and don't have time to read stats as each table pops up. A brightly colored icon is faster to recognize and read. This author really liked the icon system after a little customization.

The graphics in Poker Office are top-notch, with more functions and options within graphs than either of its competitors. Graphing tournament results by buy-in or cash game results by limit is something that no other program can do and that is just scratching the surface.

The program is almost too filled with features. Most of the interface is very intuitive and, within an hour, it is possible to understand the program well enough to see how powerful it really is. The online manual is very complete and easy to use; someone put some serious time into writing it.

Picture every stat you can think of, customizable pop-ups, and infinite reporting possibilities for your own stats once the session is over. There are not only a large number of options for stats, but also a ton of ways to display them. The analysis section contains tools that will actually help you find leaks in your game and allows a infinite number of filters. It's almost like having too many channels and not knowing what to watch until you get used to having so many options.  Here is a look at the Live Tracker statistics:

Poker Office offers some really nice graphs to track your progress:

Poker Office 5 auto-detects tables, imports hands perfectly, and uses very few computer resources while doing so. A pot odds display is included in the table overlay; clickable notes and known hands icons round it out.

Now for the downside. There aren't many things wrong with Poker Office 5, but the few thngs we didn't like are very important and we don't see any indication as to when they may be corrected.

One of the biggest problems with Poker Office for a few years now has been that the HUD stats are not movable on the table. With the advent of PokerAce HUD and the new versions of Holdem Manager and PokerTracker, experienced users are accustomed to being able to put stats on the table anywhere they like. The stats and icons in the table overlay are not movable in Poker Office, so we recommend that you check out the free trial and make sure you can handle the stats and icons where they are. We have no idea why such an advanced program hasn't listened to the users who have been asking for this feature for so long and we can only hope that this is changed soon.  Here is alook at what to expect from the HUD:

The stats are also limited to only two rows, which is fine for most players, but heads-up and short-handed specialists who use five or six rows of stats will be disappointed. Players who use custom skins on some sites may also find that their notes and player icons can blend into the background.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by Poker Office 5, but it's sad to see it so close to being really great and just missing a few important pieces.