PokerStove Software Review

Poker Stove (www.PokerStove.com) is a powerful poker calculator that can be downloaded free of charge at PokerStove.com. This powerful little tool is elegant in its simplicity, but don’t let its simplicity fool you. This is one of the most widely used poker tools in the world – and the best party is that it’s 100% free.

How Poker Stove Works

Poker Stove provides two basic functions. In one function, you can input two specific hands to find out how those hands fare against one another. For example, you can compare how often 22 wins vs. AK. You also have the option to specify the suits of each card or leave the suits random.

The second function of Poker Stove is where the program's power really shines. In the above example, we were only able to compare two known hands. That information is useful to have, but you will rarely have it at the tables. The vast majority of the time, you will have an idea of your opponent’s range of hands, but you won’t know their exact cards for sure. That’s where Poker Stove's second basic feature comes to the rescue.

Unlike any other poker calculator out there, Poker Stove is able to calculate how well your hand fares against a range of hands. For example, let’s say you have QQ preflop and an aggressive player goes all-in. You don’t know for sure what your opponent has, but you have a pretty good idea that he would only make this move with AK or TT-AA.

With Poker Stove, you can input your hand (AK) into the calculator and then input your opponent’s range of hands. Poker Stove will then calculate the winning percentage of your hand vs. your opponent’s entire range. Poker Stove knows every possible combination of each hand in your opponent’s range and then runs millions of simulations to figure out how likely your hand is to hold up in that situation.

This same functionality can also be used in multi-way pot scenarios. If you are up against two opponents, Poker Stove will tell you how likely your hand will hold. It will also tell you the winning percentages of each other person’s range. You can also input “random” if your opponent’s range of hands is any two cards.

Poker Stove: Is It Worth It?

Considering the fact that Poker Stove is completely free, it’s pretty easy to recommend this program to poker players. Poker Stove provides a unique service to poker players and it is well worth taking the time to learn how to use it. It’s not the prettiest, shiniest program on the internet, but it does its job very nicely.

If you visit poker forums, you will see references to Poker Stove during strategy discussions. If you take the time to learn how to use Poker Stove, you will gain more from all poker strategy discussions. You will also learn about how well certain types of hands do against one another. In the end, PokerStove will make you a better player.