Poker Edge - How to use it. (Post 2 of 3)

In yesterday's post I had a look at Poker Edge, a fantastic piece of software that you can use to help improve your poker game.

The software runs on top of your poker table giving you live access to each player's style of play (see the picture). It also defines each player by a playing style such as rock, shark and fish.

The display automatically recognizes your opponents and overlays their key statistics next to their name at the table. An icon is also displayed showing their playing type (fish, shark etc). This can help you to quickly identify what type of player you are up against.

I use this software all the time and it pays for itself over and over. It will show me the same information (and more) that is shown in the table above. First thing I’ll normally look at is how often the players to my left defend their big blinds. If they fold to a raise a high percentage of the time I’ll know I can get away with stealing their blinds regularly. Conversely, if I know they like to defend their big blind, I’ll save myself chips by only raising with premium hands.

I can also look at how often a player raises pre-flop. If this percentage is too high I know it’s less likely that this player has a big hand and can feel more confident calling the raise or perhaps raising them back. Conversely if a player raises, who only raises pre-flop something like 5% of the time, I can give them the credit of having a good hand and lay down my marginal hand and save myself a lot of chips.

If you'd like to take part in a five day trial you can download the software for free here.

In tomorrow's post I'll tell you how you can get the full software (worth $110+) for three months.