Mastering PokerStove: Unleashing Poker Strategy
PokerStove is a handy poker odds calculator used to examine hold’em hand matchups calculations. It’s a tool that every poker player should have on their computer – and thanks to RPS consulting, the creators of this excellent tool, it’s completely free!
To be clear – PokerStove isn’t a tool you’ll use in battle. It’s something you should use after the smoke has cleared. You can then take the lessons learned away from the poker table, with the help of PokerStove, and make smarter decisions upon returning to the game.
If you’ve not done so already, visit pokerstove.com to download your free copy of the software. It doesn’t take up much room on your computer and is very simple to install, so you should have it up and running within minutes.
How Does PokerStove Work?
PokerStove allows you to enter an exact hand, a random hand, or a range of hands for the players involved. There’s room for inputting data for up to ten players, although most of the time, you’ll probably only need to enter data for two or three players at a time.
Upon pressing ‘evaluate,’ the software quickly simulates millions of hands and displays the equity for each player. You can see that player two is a favorite in our example. The equity figure is also shown using a color—the more green the color, the better the equity.
Hand Distribution
PokerStove offers a couple of ways of inputting player data. You can manually enter the hands of the players involved into the fields provided on the main screen. Alternatively, you can click on the player number, and another box will appear just like this:
There are two tabs at the top of this screen; ‘cards’ and ‘preflop-.’ In the above example, we’re on the ‘cards’ tab and select the exact cards for the chosen player. This method is generally used to determine your cards since you know what they are. It can also be used if you know the exact cards your opponent is holding.
As you should already know, in poker, it’s important to put your opponent’s on a range of hands, not just two cards. It’s very easy to select a range of hands using the ‘preflop’ tab in PokerStove, as shown here:
You can use pre-set buttons (i.e., any pair) or click on the most likely hands in your opponent’s range. The hands that are highlighted in yellow are the ones we have chosen. This means we’ve put our opponent on a field that includes any Broadway hand, suited ace, and pairs of 8′s or better. This represents 17.6% of all hands, as shown at the bottom of the screen.
The slider and data field at the bottom of the screen allows you to choose a percentage of the top hands. You can move the slider or enter the rate into the area, and the software will display which hands fit in the selected ratio.
Post-Flop Equity Calculations
PokerStove can do more than just preflop match-matchups and determine your equity in a hand post-flop. You can enter the board cards and any exposed cards into PokerStove to see how the equity changes with each card. Here’s an example:
Any board cards can be chosen, and in the above example, we’ve selected two opponents with random hands on a board showing. To put players on a lucky hand, click the “RD” button next to each player. Of course, you should be putting your opponents on a range of arrows most of the time.
It’s important to note that the PokerStove calculations also include split pots. The output section at the bottom of the main screen shows the results. Here’s the output for the above example:
As seen from the above output, in just over 6 seconds, the software ran a huge number of simulations (966 million) to determine the results of our example situation.
Pot Equity and Pot Odds
PokerStove uses the concept of pot equity to determine whether or not calling a bet is the best strategy. For instance, if the player has a 35 percent chance of winning the hand, and the pot contains $1000, the player has $350 in equity. If the opponent’s all-in bet is less than $350, the equity in the pool makes this a profitable call, despite the odds that put the player at a disadvantage.
Pot odds and pot equity are similar concepts, but calculating pot equity is not as straightforward as figuring out pot odds. Since pot equity calculations rely heavily on putting an opponent on a range of hands, it will not be as reliable in determining how to proceed as pot odds. With the added dimension of putting an opponent on a hand, which can be highly difficult during stressful situations at the table, the equity analysis of PokerStove is to be used as a guide away from the table rather than as a decision tool during play.
Conclusion
PokerStove is a useful tool that every poker player can use away from the game to analyze various situations. If you’ve not done so, visit pokerstove.com and install the software. You will learn the true benefits of PokerStove by running your simulations against the tendencies of real (or imagined) opponents and refining your strategic approach. PokerStove can help you understand the concept of pot equity and how it can affect those crucial betting decisions.
