Video Software Review
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Table Ninja Synopsis
Table Ninja is a standalone program for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 that allows a user to implement a set of fully customizable hotkeys and tools to make playing on PokerStars a much more efficient process. Features such as automated betting amounts, highlighting tables requiring action, and hotkeys make multi-tabling easier.
We recommend TableNinja for all players who play multiple tables at a time and would like more gameplay options.
Table Ninja Full Review
Table Ninja, the same company that brought you TableNinjaFT, is a productivity tool for playing online poker at PokerStars. At its core, it's a way of automating tasks often reserved for clunky AHK scripts within one program that works on any Windows machine. There are a ton of features within the program, all of which are totally customizable. The central selling points include automatic betting based on the street of the hand, action hotkeys, and table controls.
Installing Table Ninja is a very easy task that requires downloading a .zip folder and running an .exe file. Once you install the program, there is a very short setup period that will take no more than a few minutes to get through. Once that is done, all you'll ever need to do is double click on the Table Ninja link to launch the program before you start your poker session.
Upon opening the program, there is a list of tabs: Action Hotkeys, Table Control, Pot Betting, Fixed Bets, Annoyances, Opening/Closing, Sit and Go Sensei (Beta), Setup, and General. The Action Hotkeys allow a user to set up hotkeys for action at the table. For example, instead of hitting the "Check" button at the table, you can simply assign "CTRL-C.” There is also a place to enter advanced hotkeys and control the bet sizing by the scroll wheel on your mouse. The Table Control tab allows you to set table control modes, cycling hotkeys, and frame colors. The Pot Betting tab is the one that most players will need to configure, as it is the area that will automatically size your bets on each street.
Other tabs are very straightforward and regulars at PokerStars will appreciate some of the shortcuts within the Annoyances tab. For example, if you are a mass multi-table cash game player, then you already know how difficult it can be to toggle through 24 tables to sit in and out. Table Ninja will allow you to assign a hotkey to sit you in and out on all of your tables at once. You also have automatic options that allow you to automatically click the time bank button when it appears, choose the “Never Sit Out” option, and refresh the info tab for tournaments. TableNinja even has an on screen display feature that displays your stack size in big blinds instead of actuall chip counts. Here is a look at the new On-Screen Display tab:
There are many more features and options, but there are just too many to list. You will not be disappointed with Table Ninja. Here are a few screen shots:
For the sit and go grinders, the Sit and Go Sensei tab is especially useful. This tab will allow you to configure your automatic sit and go registration parameters. For example, you can register for the next 20 $6.50 45-man sit and gos simply by choosing some options from the drop down menus. You can specify if you want to play a certain number of sit and gos or for a certain period of time. Sit and Go Sensei has just about everything you can imagine for automated sit and go registration. Here is what Sit and Go Sensei looks like:
The Action Hotkeys and Pot Betting are godsends and the Table Control and Annoyances tabs all have very handy tools that you'll immediately begin appreciating once you start using them. Given that Table Ninja has a relatively low price point, this is the best efficiency/productivity add-on software that money can buy for PokerStars players. Table Ninja truly takes all of those AHK scripts that you use to accomplish different tasks and rolls them into one solid program.
If you play on Full Tilt Poker, be sure to check out Table Ninja's sister program, TableNinjaFT.
Interview with Table Ninja developers
PokerSoftware.com: Where did the idea for Table Ninja originate?
Sutherland: I played poker professionally for over a year on PokerStars before beginning work on TableNinja. I was often frustrated by the fact that the major online poker sites seemed to have developed their software with the casual one-table player in mind. I wanted to provide a completely new way to interact with PokerStars so that multi-tablers could have a customizable interface designed specifically for playing multiple tables and maximizing earnings. I brought this idea to a friend of mine who was working full-time as a professional software developer and TableNinja was born. With my poker expertise, his software expertise, and all of the help and support we've received from the poker community, we were able to build TableNinja into the great program it is today.
PokerSoftware.com: Talk about some of the challenges of creating the program.
Sutherland: The biggest challenges are always in the details and, from the start we believed that it is essential that TableNinja works 100% reliably 100% of the time. Other similar programs might work 98% of the time, but then at a crucial moment a hotkey might fail and, as a result, you might lose a tournament you had been playing for hours. With TableNinja, you can be confident that everything will work exactly as it should 100% of the time. Handling the rare cases that might only come up once every couple thousand hands has been our biggest challenge.
PokerSoftware.com: In your opinion, what are its strongest features?
Sutherland: Personally, I think the strongest features for cash game players are the "Default Bets" and the "Auto Seating/Buyin". I love being able to simply double click a table in the lobby, be seated instantly, bought in at that table, and ready to play. I also think that the default bets can really change the way you play poker. Every time it is your turn, TableNinja automatically enters a customizable percentage of the pot into the bet box for you. This means that all standard pre-flop bets are sized automatically for you, which lets you play more efficiently and allows you to start playing a lot more tables. For sit and go players, I think our Sit-n-Go Sensei, with a fully automated Sit-n-Go Opener and our unique blind-dependent "Sit-n-Go Betting," are definitely our best features.
PokerSoftware.com: What feedback have you received from customers?
Sutherland: We've gotten an overwhelming amount of support from the poker community and are incredibly grateful to all of our loyal users for all the feedback and support they've given us. Most of TableNinja's current features were requested by the community at some point and we really try and make interacting with the community a big part of our development process. I've gotten hundreds of e-mails from people who wanted to let me know how much they love TableNinja and, as a software developer, there is nothing more rewarding than knowing that people appreciate the software you've created.
PokerSoftware.com: Talk about the table selection functionality of Table Ninja.
Sutherland: For sit and go players, the TableNinja Sit-n-Go Opener will automatically open tournaments of the types you specify for an entire session. For example, you can set TableNinja to automatically keep five of the $16 No Limit Hold'em Turbos and five of the $27 No Limit Hold'em Turbos open for two hours. TableNinja will open five of each tournament type and then any time you finish a tournament, TableNinja will automatically detect that and open a new table for you until your two-hour session is over. This allows you focus 100% on playing your best poker and you can go an entire session without ever having to bother registering for new tournaments or messing with the PokerStars lobby.
For cash game players, TableNinja's automatic waitlist handling allows you to specify a certain number of tables you wish to play. You can then join as many waitlists as you wish for the tables that look the most profitable and TableNinja will automatically accept seats and buy you in until you hit the number of tables you want to play. Then, if you leave a table, TableNinja will automatically accept the next waitlist seat that comes up to replace that table.
PokerSoftware.com: What do you see as the future of programs like Table Ninja?
Sutherland: We're going to keep expanding TableNinja and start working on providing support for additional sites. We already have a new program, TableNinjaFT, which provides a limited set of TableNinja's features for Full Tilt players. Furthermore, over the next few months, we have a huge list of improvements planned, including adding more Full Tilt support, adding various types of informational on-screen displays, supporting custom PokerStars themes, and providing some new features that we believe will revolutionize multi-tabling.
PokerSoftware.com: What features are in the works?
Sutherland: Right now, one of the features at the top of our list is an on-screen display that will convert your stack size into big blinds in real-time and display things like your M and "true BBs" for each table. This will make multi-tabling sit and gos a lot easier and remove the need for players to constantly calculate their stack size. We also are working with TiltBuster.com to release a custom TableNinja PokerStars theme that will be designed specifically for multi-tablers. In addition, we have a lot of exciting things in the works for TableNinjaFT and plan to continue to expand our Full Tilt support.
Member Reviews
justind's Review of Table Ninja PokerStars
July, 13, 2009TableNinja makes multitabling so much easier. It was super easy to set up and is fast and reliable. Great program.
Table Ninja Vitals
