If you need to advance in your poker game play, you certainly need to gather and analyze your opponents hand history. Most professional online poker players make use of several tools to get a winning edge in the game and to sharpen their game skills.

The meaning of collecting and sharing hand histories

Typically, one has to understand the meaning of amassing and sharing hand histories. The collecting and sharing of hand histories is also known as data mining. Data mining is in two segments – Collecting and analysis of hand histories and Hand Sharing.

Collecting and Analysis of Hand Histories: Commonly, it is the method of collecting important information of several opponents hand histories including analysis of each player’s hand history making use of poker tools. With the use of poker tools, a player is able to observe the game play of each adversary on the table and the tools will reveal the habits of each player.

Hand Sharing: this is a process by which player are able to collect hand histories from several online card rooms and thereby convert them into formats appropriate for their own use. Hand sharing is also known as Hand Converting and players are able to show the hands played by different opponents to other players for the purpose of dialogue and analysis. Most online poker sites store players hand histories so as to enable players to keep track of their own effectiveness or for the purpose of discussion and analysis.

The Benefits of Hand History Sharing

By collecting, sharing and analyzing hand histories a player is able to avoid tough games and select soft ones. Data mining elevates your game play and a player is able to identify the rocky, passive, loose aggressive and tight aggressive players. With data mining, a player is able to recognize the fish and shark. Therefore, every online poker player is out there hunting for the weak and data mining is one efficient way of discovering where the fish is.

Players are able to track their game play and examine their playing style utilizing poker software. With data mining, a player is able observe where s/he did wrong throughout the game and in so doing correct his or her errors and this is one way of improving your game play. Studying the long term playing style of an opponent is very valuable if you play against them a lot. You need a large sample to this however.

There are more and more poker software applications for such things.

There are several tools available online used for data mining. Although there is an upfront cost to such software, frequent players will have no problem justifying such purchases, as they play practically every day. Poker tools such as poker tracker and other several data mining services such as Hand HQ, Poker Edge, Shark Scope and many others are used for the collection and analysis of hand histories.

Why Poker Stars does not allow for players to trade and analyze hand histories through the use of poker software.

Poker Stars accept players to make use of some of these poker tools and services to increase their winning odds during the game. However, Poker Stars has banned so many poker tools and services in their card rooms because they say the tools are so close to cheating.

One main reason is that the players collect a huge database of players profile and sell it to other players. A player who receives this detailed information gets an unfair advantage over these opponents and is able to manipulate each opponent according to how their previous hands have been played. The ideal here is that you can build an edge in your game, over your competition. Even small edges are increasingly critical in cash games. Players who make use of data mining tools such as poker tracker are able to observe the loose players and avoid the tight players. Hence, Poker Stars has prohibited players to take this unfair advantage against others during the game.

Poker Stars only accept players to make use of poker calculators simply tell you the starting hand recommendations and odds. Note: Not all poker rooms permit players to data mine. For that reason, players should always check their poker card room before deciding to make use of tools for the purpose of data mining.