PokerStove calculator review
PokerStove is a free calculator for calculating equity in poker.
This article is introductory, and we don’t impose an idea of using PokerStove on you. Now there are more modern and advanced poker similar calculators. Among them is the free Equilab.
Functionality of the program
You can see your winning odds with the help of PokerStove indicating pocket cards of players and community cards of a hand. You can also indicate cards or hand range of your opponents for a more detailed calculation.
Example
Suppose you have a queen of spades and a queen of clubs. You raise and the opponent from your left side shoves. You know that this is a pretty tight player who do this only with JJ + or AK +. By entering your cards and the variants of your opponent's hand into PokerStove, you will find that your chance of winning is 47% if you decide to call. Even if you are unable to identify your opponent's hand, you can simply request the program to calculate the situation for top 5% hands, and PokerStove will automatically calculate such hands.
There are both desktop and mobile versions of this poker equity calculator.
It is very convenient to use a mobile app, especially when you play on a computer and want to calculate your equity concurrently (of course not in every hand but only in particularly important moments; for example, heads-up with an opponent, you have a monster hand and the opponent goes all-in, etc.). Wherein you will not have problem with the fact that off-site soft is open on your computer. In addition, you can use the application offline due to its mobility.
Everything is pretty simple – you indicate the players’ cards and cards of a board, then you receive equity of all players for every street.
Where to download PokerStove?
Unfortunately, official site of PokerStove doesn’t work anymore. Most versions which you can find and download on the Internet will display the following error:
But we have good news for you. We managed to find a working version of the PokerStove program on the expanse of network. To practice calculating equity when playing poker, you can download PokerStove for free on our site.
PokerStove instructions – how to use the program
First, let’s figure out how to use PokerStove on your Android device.
Everything is very simple: you choose a card and indicate its suit; do the same operations for each player. Then click on the orange big button to see the results.
In a line, the suit is indicated not as an image, but as a letter ("s" - spades ♠, "d" - diamonds ♦, "c" - clubs ♣, "h" - hearts ♥). However, you select it as a picture at the bottom. You can also indicate suited cards (button “s” below the button of “diamonds”) or offsuit ones (button “o” below the button of “clubs”).
During the game, you need to constantly keep the program's window open and enter data as and when the cards are dealt. Careful monitoring of the game will ensure the correct entering of data for calculation. When the time comes to fight against any of the players, you will already be prepared for a duel. By simulating various situations in your free time, you will have a clearer idea of which hands will be more profitable in certain cases.
Formerly, you could download PokerStove on a smartphone or tablet in Play Market, but recently it has been removed from app store. Instead, you can find a lot of other poker calculators in the Market.
But if you are looking for exactly this application - you can download PokerStove on android directly (an installation application is in WinRar archive).
Now let's get through the PokerStove application for PC.
Run the program as administrator
First, you need to configure a start of the application as administrator. To do this, click on a shortcut of the application with a right mouse button, select "Properties" - "Shortcut" - "Additionally", set a tick "Run as administrator".
If you start PokerStove not through the shortcut but through .exe file, then click on “Properties” with the right mouse button and select a tab “Compatibility”. Set the tick on item “Run this program as administrator” there.
Important: Unless set “Run as administrator”, the application will not work stably, with errors, etc.
How to use PokerStove
There is a list of players (player 1, player 2, etc.) in the application lobby.
In order to select the cards of player 1, click on inscription “Player 1”. You will see a new window with two tabs. You can indicate your cards or opponent’s cards if you have already known them for some reason in the first tab. In the tab "Preflop" you can specify a supposed hand range of the player which he has entered the game with. In the same place, at the bottom right you can choose the combinations of card suits which you want to remove. For this, click on the combinations that you don’t need.
Click on button “RD” (random) near the inscription “Player X” in order the statistics is calculated for random hand of the player.
Upon completion, click on “Evaluate” to calculate the equity for every player.
In section “Dead Cards” you can specify mucked cards which became known for some reason (if the player has mucked the cards faceup).
The functionality of the PokerStove poker calculator is quite modest, but it's enough to understand how strong your hand is against the opponent's range on a particular board.
PokerStove calculation modes
This poker hand equity calculator has two modes for calculating equity: "Enumerate All" and "Monte Carlo".
"Enumerate All" mode is a standard method for calculation of your probabilities. When using this mode, you will get the computation of all possible hands. However, if there are many players in hand, it will take you more time to get calculation when using hand ranges. In this case, you are able to apply "Monte Carlo" mode for complicated simulations.
"Monte Carlo" calculates the random situations and displays the winning odds. It may compute a huge number of various situations in a matter of seconds. Therefore, if you want to get accurate calculations, give more time for PokerStove.
As for the players' opinion concerning PokerStove, they are satisfied with this program and advise to use it in the game.
Greg WalkerPoker player
«If you only ever download one poker program, it should be PokerStove»
PokerStove advantages
PokerStove calculator allows you to quickly find out your chances of winning with specific pocket cards. For a beginner, this is a good opportunity to understand which pocket cards have the biggest potential, as well as to know how their value changes depending on the number of players at the table.
It is not so easy to use the calculator while playing at the poker table. Playing online, you don't have much time to think and use a manual calculator. It is better to download such soft that automatically calculates the indicators by reading data from the poker client.
PokerStove is also useful when analyzing your own game. The player needs to analyze his sessions to identify his own mistakes. By calculating the probabilities for the hands played, you can see whether you acted correctly or you entered the game with a hand that had a low chance of winning.
So let's summarize PokerStove advantages:
- Comprehensible interface;
- Free version;
- Ability to calculate chances in the game at full and short tables (up to 10 players);
- Modeling of any situations;
- Instant and accurate calculation of your winning chances.
As you can see, PokerStove is very easy to adjust for most situations you will encounter with. By paying due regard to the work with this program, you will significantly improve your skills of reading the hands.
If you want to understand the work of PokerStove in more detail, we offer you watch the following video:
Unfortunately, this soft is prohibited for using during the game in all poker rooms, but if you play on computer and calculate the equity on phone (or conversely), no one will be able to figure you out. Practice your calculations in PokerStove separately, play at your favorite poker rooms and achieve the best results.
Here is a list of the top poker rooms that prohibit PokerStove using during the game:
PokerStars
Online poker led to creation of many supporting tools that can make your play better. However, PokerStars takes charge of its users, and it stands for equal conditions in the games. Therefore, PokerStove is not allowed during the game.
PartyPoker
PartyPoker also prohibits PokerStove, as well as the other programs that are aimed at collecting statistics on other players.
888poker
888poker also belongs to the poker rooms with certain restrictions. However, if you want to get more detailed information concerning your program, we recommend to contact support service of your poker room.
GGPoker
GGPoker actively fights against the players who use prohibited software. Violation of the rules has implications in the form of ban and confiscation of funds.
