So after my end of year post I opened some tables and tried to play more moderately – less bluffs, more pot control, and generally less spewage. Straight away it started working with a great session, winning 2 buy-ins. That was on Party Poker, and then today I switched to Pokerstars which was in a real state – I’d lost $60 there and it was down to $15 in the account. I considered reloading it, and then figured I’d just put $5 on a couple of tables and see if I could revive it by playing. 150 hands later I’d won $30!
Spot the other difference? That graph is from Hold’em Manager – I watched a video where this guy was doing some nice analysis with HEM and I figured I ought to splash out and try it.
After trying it for a few days I’m hooked! It’s way better than PokerTracker. The interface isn’t as pretty (grey isn’t a good colour), but the functionality is way ahead. I can now plot my winnings so it includes rakeback and bonuses, and for the first time it’s actually a winning amount rather than a losing amount 
The HUD is also easier to operate and hasn’t struggled at any of the sites I’ve tried. It has a fantastic hand review feature giving a very clear and instant view – PokerTracker you have to dig out the hand and view it in the replayer which is a bit too clunky when you’re trying to play at the same time.
Filters are really comprehensive, although PokerTracker wasn’t too bad in this respect.
The only thing that PokerTracker wins is the final export of the graph – as you can see in the pic above HEM isn’t as aesthetically streamlined as the PokerTracker charts. I’ll perhaps still plot out the charts using PT for this blog, although for now HEM is definitely replacing my tracker of choice…
