PokerCruncher Tutorial





Introduction


This Tutorial shows you how to use PokerCruncher to improve your game by:
  • Thinking in terms of hand ranges, not just specific hands or random hands.
  • Understanding flop odds, in addition to the usual river odds.
PokerCruncher is an advanced Texas Hold'em odds calculator that supports:
  • Fully General Hand Ranges
  • Deal-To-Flop and Flop Texture Analysis
  • Many Stats: hand histograms, flop hit stats, odds for flopping draws and combination draws
  • Range Equity Breakdown Heat Maps And Hand Combos Stats
Few, if any, odds calculators have these powerful features at the level of PokerCruncher (including PokerStove, the excellent Windows PC program). But with all of these powerful features it may be hard to see where to start to use PokerCruncher effectively; this is the goal of this Tutorial.



General Usage


PokerCruncher is a powerful odds/equity study and analysis tool for improving your game. You can of course use it however you'd like, but it's not meant to be used in real-time in the middle of a live hand.

For starters, no casino would allow you to use an odds calculator in the middle of a live hand (would you really want to?; with all due respect we think players who would try to do this are fishes, and that's putting it mildly :)). In internet play, it may be helpful to use desktop software or tools that automatically integrate themselves into your online poker site and into your tables/hands, but using an external odds calculator on a mobile device would probably slow you down too much (again with all due respect we think players who would try to do this are fishes). In other words we feel it's too late to study for an exam after it has been handed out.

Rather, we suggest you use PokerCruncher as a study and analysis tool to improve your odds knowledge and decision making process:
  1. Review key hands you've played to analyze the odds and equity each step of the way, to see if you made the right decisions and how you could have played better. Discuss your big hands and strategies with friends or on forums.
  2. Set up and analyze realistic "what if" scenarios you're likely to encounter in the future.
  3. Analyze and test yourself on random scenarios (use the "Rnd" button to generate random player and board cards).
  4. Analyze specific hand vs. hand range scenarios. Poker is a game of incomplete information, you don't know your opponents' cards, so being able to estimate your equity against a range of hands is very important.
  5. Analyze flop odds/equity, in addition to the usual river odds/equity. PokerCruncher's Deal-To-Flop and Flop Texture Analysis features let you do this. These features also give you many stats - hand histograms, flop hit stats, odds for flopping draws and combination draws.
The below sections explain how to use PokerCruncher's powerful features to do the above things, using real-life hand situations as examples.



Basic Calculation (More>)


You can enter up to 10 players and you can enter specific or random (blank) cards for the players and board. This is useful e.g. for reviewing hands you've played where in retrospect you know your opponents' cards (or use random (blank) cards), or for analyzing "what if" scenarios.

You can enter dead cards (tap Menu->SetDeckCardDead/Live, then tap a deck card to mark it dead/live).

Note that some other odds calculators don't support up to 10 players, or random cards, or dead cards, or don't let you enter cards for more than one player. So PokerCruncher goes beyond some other odds calculators even at this basic level.

Real-Life Hand Situation: How well does AA hold up against <n> opponents?:


Say heads-up?, against 3 random opponents?, 5 random opponents?, 9 random opponents? These are easy questions to answer using just PokerCruncher's basic features.

Using PokerCruncher's hand ranges feature (described in the next section), we can answer a more real-life situation than above: how well does AA hold up against say 3 opponents that each have the hand range top 10% of hands? In real-life situations we're usually not up against random hands but against hand ranges that are conditioned to be better or more specific than random. For example if 3 opponents call your strong pre-flop raise then they most probably have well-above-average hands e.g. top 10% of hands. But here we'll give a screenshot of just a basic random hand situation.

Screenshot Example: AA vs. 9 Random Hands:


Up To 10 Players


 

Fully General Hand Ranges (More>)


Poker is a game of incomplete information; you don't know your opponents' cards. So you must put your opponents on ranges of hands given the information you've gotten so far in the hand, not just on specific cards. PokerCruncher's fully general hand ranges feature lets you do this, and this feature is where PokerCruncher starts to separate itself from many other odds calculators.

Real-Life Hand Situation: How to play QQ pre-flop when facing a re-raise?:


Let's look at a specific simple pre-flop situation that's very common - we call it the QQ dilemma; this example illustrates why QQ can be a difficult hand to play. You're in a 2/5 no-limit game and you have a 500 stack. You're in early position with QQ and you raise to 20. A solid tight-agressive player on your left (also with a 500 stack) re-raises you to 60. Everyone folds, and you re-re-raise to 200, thinking your QQ is the best hand (this may not be a smart play on your part, it may be better to just call, but we won't discuss that here). Your opponent goes all-in for 500. It's 300 for you to call his all-in. Should you call his all-in?

It all depends on how this opponent plays of course. If he only makes this play with AA or KK, then you should fold, because it's 300 to you to win 707 (your opponent's 500 + your 200 + the blinds = 707), so you're getting about 7:3 pot odds for the call, but you're a 4:1 underdog (your QQ has about 20% equity against AA or KK), so you don't have enough odds to make the call.

But let's say this opponent loves to make this play with AK too. Now the situation is more complicated. Here's how you can analyze this situation in PokerCruncher using hand ranges:
  1. Player1 (you): Enter specific cards QQ (suits don't matter).
  2. Player2 (opponent): Enter hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}. To enter a hand range select (tap) a player's field and tap the "Rng" button, or just double-tap a player's field. "KK+" means "KK or better" i.e. KK or AA. "AKs" means AK-suited. "AKo" means AK-offsuit.
  3. Calculate. You see that your equity with QQ is about 40%.
This is pretty decent, not too much less than 50%. You may have thought your equity would be lower than this because you're an 80:20 underdog against AA and KK, and you're only a 57:43 favorite against AK. But there are 16 hand combinations for AK (4 combinations for AKs, 12 combinations for AKo), and only 6 hand combinations for AA and KK each, so your opponent will have AK more often (16 hand combinations) than AA and KK combined (12 hand combinations). Beware, not all odds calculators take this number of hand combinations factor into account.

Back to your decision - you're getting about 7:3 pot odds for the call (you need to call 300 to win 707), so you need more than about 30% equity. You have about 40% equity, so this is a profitable call. Best decision: call (if the hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo} for your opponent is accurate of course).


Screenshot Example: QQ vs. hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}:


Hand Range Calculation: QQ vs. {KK+, AKs, AKo}          Hand Range Calculation: {KK+, AKs, AKo}



Range Equity Breakdown Heat Maps And Hand Combos Stats (More>)


This feature lets you dig down into a range's overall equity and lets you see the equity of each hand in the range so you can detect useful patterns. Even PokerStove can't do this ...

The breakdown is shown using a color-coded equity heat map. If you tap the "View Details" button you can see the specific equity and hand combos stats for each cell and also a %age value for each cell that tells you what %age of the range the cell comprises (taking dead and already assigned cards into account). You can also see the number of hand combinations for each cell and for the entire range.

Note that due to Monte Carlo (random sampling) simulation, each hand's (grid cell's) equity has a higher variance (margin of error) than the entire range's equity. You can set the Monte Carlo simulation "Number Of Trials" setting to 2x or higher or Infinite to get a more accurate result.


Screenshot Example: Top50%OfHands vs. Top25%OfHands, Equity Heat Map and Detailed Stats of Player 1 (Top50%OfHands):


Equity Heat Map:


Range Equity Breakdown - Equity Heat Map: Top50%OfHands vs. Top25%OfHands

Detailed Stats:


Range Equity Breakdown - Detailed Stats: Top50%OfHands vs. Top25%OfHands



Deal-To-Flop Analysis (More>)


Most odds calculators (including PokerStove) can only deal to the river. But when we play e.g. speculative hands like 75s or JTs or even AK, especially for a pre-flop raise, we'd like to know how often these hands can flop big made hands and draws. We're not necessarily playing these hands for their river showdown value; we'd like to know how often they can flop big. PokerCruncher's Deal-To-Flop feature lets you do this. PokerCruncher also has Deal-To-Turn and Deal-To-HoleCards.


Screenshot Example: See the "Many Stats" section below




Many Stats: hand histograms, flop hit stats, odds for flopping draws and combination draws (More>)


Set Deal-To-Flop, bring up the Stats view, then tap the "Hit" button to switch to flop hit stats from the default make hand stats. For example these stats can tell you how often AK hits an Ace or King on the flop (OnePair), or hits TwoPair or 3OfAKind on the flop. The default make hand stats are weaker; they include cases where the board's cards are solely responsible for making the hand, e.g. for OnePair, when the pair is on the board.

For Deal-To-Flop, the Stats view also shows odds for flopping draws and combination draws. Tap the Stats view's "S" <- and -> buttons to see these stats.

Real-Life Hand Situation: How much do you want to pay to see the flop with a speculative hand?:


You're in a 2/5 no-limit game and you have a 500 stack. A couple of early position players limp. Say you limp in middle position with a speculative hand like JTs (or 75s, etc., i.e. a suited/connected hand). A middle/late position player raises to 30, and the two early limpers call. Should you call with JTs to see the flop?

Actually we can't answer this question because we haven't given enough information:
  • What are the stack sizes of the other players?
  • What style of player is the pre-flop raiser?
  • What implied odds does the pre-flop raiser (and the other players) offer on his (their) entire stack? I.e. do these players lose entire entire stack easily (especially the pre-flop raiser)?
  • How likely is it that the early position players limped/called with monsters?
  • What's your table image?
  • What's the recent hand history at the table?
  • Etc.
But - one factor in your decision should be how often your speculative hand is expected to flop a big made hand or a big draw. Knowing these odds will help you figure out if the additional chips you need to call to see the flop are worth it. The below screenshots show these odds for JTs.

You can see that on the flop, JTs hits OnePair about 29% of the time, hits TwoPair about 2% of the time, and hits 3OfAKind about 1.4% of the time. JTs flops a flush draw about 11% of the time and flops an open end straight draw about 9% of the time. Etc. Are these odds of flopping a strong hand good enough for you to call the pre-flop raise?, also taking all of the other considerations into account (stack sizes, player styles, etc.)?

Screenshot Example: Deal-To-Flop Analysis For JTs, Many Stats:


Hand Histogram, Flop Hit Stats:


JT-suited Deal-To-Flop





Odds For Flopping Draws:


JT-suited Odds For Flopping Draws



Odds For Flopping Combination Draws:


JT-suited Odds For Flopping Combination Draws


Flop Texture Analysis (More>)


Real-Life Hand Situation: How to tell if a specific flop hits your opponent's range of hands?:


Any game, any player stacks. You have AJo, and say you put an opponent on a certain range of hands, e.g. top 10% of hands (use the range %age slider to assign this range). Then a specific flop is dealt, say it's 8s7s2d. You'd like to know if this flop hits your opponent's range of hands, and how hard it hits it, or if this flop misses your opponent's range of hands. Flop texture analysis lets you do this.

Set Deal-To-Flop. Assign a hand range (say top 10% of hands) to your opponent and assign your cards (say AJo). Assign a particular flop (say 8s7s2d). Bring up the Stats view, turn on flop hit stats, select your opponent's player number in the Stats view. Calculate. The Stats view shows how this flop hits your opponent's hand range (hand histogram). Tap the Stats view's "S" <- and -> buttons to see odds for flopping draws and combination draws.

The below screenshots show the above example. Note that on the flop, your opponent (top 10% of hands) hits OnePair about 29% of the time, hits 3OfAKind about 3% of the time, and hits a flush draw about 5% of the time. Note that since the top 10% of hands range consists mostly of high cards, when this range hits OnePair on this 8s7s2d flop, it will have an OverPair on the flop, as also indicated by the 32% PocketPairAndNoOverCard stat.

Of course flop texture analysis also works if you assign specific cards to your opponent. But the more common use case is to see how a hand range hits a particular flop.


Screenshot Example: Flop Texture Analysis: How hand range {top 10% of hands} hits flop 8s7s2d:


Hand Histogram, Flop Hit Stats:


Flop Texture Analysis: Hand Histogram, Flop Hit Stats

Odds For Flopping Draws:


Flop Texture Analysis: Odds For Flopping Draws



Conclusion And More Information


These examples just scratch the surface of what you can do with PokerCruncher's powerful set of features. See the PokerCruncher main page for more details on PokerCruncher's features. See the Odds Questions page for more examples of challenging scenarios that PokerCruncher can calculate.

Please write to us or post on the PokerCruncher TwoPlusTwo forum thread if you have questions or suggestions or ideas for future development. Thank you.