These days it is difficult to play online poker effectively without using some sort of tracking software. I started playing online in 2000 and went full time in 2002 and so I have seen the changes to the online game in that time. However it is tracking software that has become the key component in online poker these days and the industry leader in this area is PokerTracker. In my mind having undertaken to a do an in depth study of financial trading, my knowledge level in that field had now risen to a stage where I can see tremendous similarities in the two fields.
I almost see online poker as like a sort of re-incarnation of trading in a slightly different way. When the trading world went automated then the environment became tougher to make money in some aspects and especially for the older more traditional traders. But on the other hand it also opened up whole new avenues as well by giving traders more opportunities to trade. The same thing has happened in the sports betting area where the game went through a sort of technological revolution in the 1980’s and 1990’s and by 2000, the big mistakes that betting firms used to make had been somewhat corrected.
This meant that the older traditional ways of making money were no longer working but the arrival of the internet still provided far more avenues to make money. This same process is now happening in online poker where the online game is a tough way to make money for older established players and players have become far more sophisticated these days. So online game is tougher but it also presents to us more opportunities to make money. One such opportunity is to use advanced tracking software like PokerTracker against opponents who do not suspect that you are using it. This means possibly playing lower than what you had planned but this is really where the profits are for many players these days.
