After using the Sharkscope HUD for a couple of weeks, I decided to just turn it off. It wasn't that it was not helpful. But it sort of confused my game.
The first effect that I noticed was that it made me play looser against the fishes to the overall detriment of my game. A case in point, I got AQ in cutoff. No action beforehand. So I raised 3x BB. The guy in the SB reraises me. Everybody else folded.
Normally, my play is just to call, take advantage of my position and see the flop & take it from there. I would also sometimes fold if I strongly believe he has KKs or AAs.
This time around, the HUD was there and it shows a flopping fish. HAHAH!! Bluffing, eh. So I put him all-in. Of course he shows AAs and I am a huge underdog. This kind of false tell happened once or twice with different kinds of hands. Hands which I could have easily gotten away from if I had played my normal game turned out to be bust-outs against certified fishes.
So I decided after a while to just turn it off and play my usual game without any enhancements. And surprisingly, my overall results were much better.
So what this does show? Well, for one thing, it shows that just because they're a fish doesn't mean that they don't get lucky. The often quoted "you don't need skill to play them Aces" also come to mind.
The HUD has some value especially near the end game where knowing who is good or bad is relevant to end game SNG play. But at my low limit levels, playing with it especially in a full table just makes me play looser. And that's bad. We all know that playing disciplined ABC poker in the lower levels is enough to keep a good ROI. So I don't think I'll renew it once my free subsciption ends.
Another product which I installed lately is Pokerbility. This is more of a traditional odds calculator which attaches to the main game window and gives you the percentages of hitting certain hands. It also has a hand ranking system for your opening hands with real time advise on whether to fold, check, call or raise. Sounds good in theory, right ? But at the end of the day, I also ended up not using it.
Why ? Well, it didn't give me any information that I already didn't know. After playing more than a year now, some of the odds I already instinctively knew. Chasing a flush draw while the opponent is overbetting is neg EV and vice versa. It doesn't work for multi-tabling as you can only attach it to one table and you also cannot adjust table size while using it. Finally it doesn't take into account implied odds in certain situations. So not much benefit for me.
But I believe this product is useful especially for a beginner. It allows you to be more disciplined in your starting hands and gives logical advice if you end up flopping good hands. So this product I would recommend wholeheartedly for those newbies just learning the game. But for some of you veterans out there, it's kind of redundant. Attached a screen shot in case you are interested to know how it looks
So there. Two "supposed to be helpful" poker products and I end up using not one of them. I guess nothing still beats the human mind. =)
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