FAQ

Money

How much does Premium Poker Tools cost?

$25 for the basic version, or $75 for the premium version. If you purchase the basic version and want to upgrade later, you'll only have to pay the $50 difference. See the table below:

How does the free trial work?

When you register, you will automatically be entered in to a 14 day free trial. This will give you full access to everything that Premium Poker Tools has to offer. You can see how much time is left on your free trial on your account page.

How doess it work if I purchase the basic version now, and want to upgrade to the premium version later?

You'll only have to pay the $50 difference, not the full $75.

Will Premium Poker Tools really pay for itself?

Nothing is 100%, but I believe that the answer will almost certainly be "yes".

There are two main reasons for this: 1) Premium Poker Tools will make you money by improving your winrate, and 2) Premium Poker Tools will save you time, which really is pretty interchangable with money.

See the widget below to get a feel for how much money Premium Poker Tools will make you. And keep in mind that it not only improves your current earnings, but also improves your future earnings as well. For example, if you're playing NL10 online right now, it might not make you that much money, but it will bring you closer to the point where you are playing NL50 or NL100 or NL200 where you will be earning more money.

Also, consider the value that you place on your time. If Premium Poker Tools saves you just one hour per month of time, and you value your time at $10/hour, it is already paying for itself.

Does Premium Poker Tools have an affiliate program?

Email contact@premiumpokertools.com and we'll talk.

General

Will Premium Poker Tools work on a Mac? Windows? Linux?

Yes, yes, and yes. Premium Poker Tools is a web app, so as long as you can use a web browser like Chrome, Firefox or Safari, you can use Premium Poker Tools.

Is there a mobile app? Can I use it on my phone?

There is no mobile app, but you can absolutely still use it on your phone. Just open up your web browser (eg. Chrome or Safari) and go to premiumpokertools.com. It is designed to be mobile friendly, so you won't have any issues with fat fingers or squinting.

I'm a beginner. Will Premium Poker Tools still be useful to me?

Absolutely! In fact, you'll probably get more value out of it than anyone else. Psychologists have this idea of a learning curve that says how progress is usually fast at first and harder to come by as you progress. Think about someone who has never lifted weights before. Initially they're going to make great progress, then slower progress, and then at some point they'll plateau.

Depending on how early on you are, you might have to spend a little bit of time learning how to use poker software like Premium Poker Tools to study. This will be easy though. My YouTube channel has a bunch of videos to help you with this, and there are so many books, blog posts and other videos that teach you this as well (I'd recommend The Course, The Grinders Manual, and The Theory of Poker if you're just getting started). And if you ever run into any trouble, I'm always here to help!

I'm an expert. Will Premium Poker Tools still be useful to me? I feel like I only need to study GTO and solvers.

1) This depends on how big the game is that you play, but even at a game like 5/10, people are still regularly making mistakes that you can use an exploitative style to take advantage of. See Ed Miller's article Mistakes $5-$10 Players Make. This applies even moreso at 2/5. See Mistakes $2-$5 Players Make.

2) Premium Poker Tools doesn't "give you the answers" in the same way that a solver would, but it does something that I believe is even more important. It helps you understand the answers that the solver gives you. If you don't actually understand the answers, how is that going to help you in the middle of a real game? Are you going to memorize them? I don't believe that that is realistic.

3) Even if you primarily study with a solver, you still want to have an equity calculator and hit calculator at times too right? And if you're playing high stakes, investing $25 or $75 is certainly going to have a positive ROI right?

I only play casually in home games. Would it be worth it for me to get Premium Poker Tools?

Eh, probably not. It's a tool for studying, and if you're not putting in the time to study it probably isn't worth having. Unless you just want to use the equity calculator to see how lucky your friend got when they hit that straight on the river against you.

I'm a beginner. Can you help me?

Absolutely! I'd love to Skype to walk you through the app and help you grow as a poker player. I currently do this with a variety of other PPT users.

If it makes you feel any better, there's something in it for me as well: user research. It's super helpful for me to see how real people use the app. What they like, what is confusing, etc.

I mostly play cash/tourneys/short-stacked/deep-stacked/heads-up/whatever. Will Premium Poker Tools be useful to me?

Yes, absolutely! Poker is poker.

Why are you so eager to talk/Skype with users?

Well, first of all I really enjoy teaching, learning, studying, and meeting new people.

But there's another more selfish reason. Any entrepreneur - or product person for that matter - if you want to be successful, you have to talk to your users. That is something that I really believe, and something that is pretty well accepted actually.

Product sense and design sense a la Steve Jobs can only get you so far. Feedback and iteration is necessary for anyone who wants to build a good product.

What are some good reasons for me to get in touch?

Here are some (but not all!) good reasons to get in touch:

• You're willing to Skype with me and let me watch you use the app. This would be very useful to me and I'd really appreciate it. They call it "user research". I've never done a user research session and not learned something new.
• You don't understand how something works. If you don't understand how something works, you're probably not alone. Don't think "I'm just being stupid". It's one of those things like when you're in a big lecture and have a question. You think "It's probably a stupid question, I don't want to ask it" when in reality, 90% of the lecture hall is probably thinking the same thing you are. If you have a question, others probably do too, so please let me know so that I can address it.
• You have a feature idea. I'd love to hear it! Similar to the above point, if there's something that you think would be useful, chances are other people will find it useful as well.
• You like something about the app. It's important for me to get feedback about what does and doesn't work. Smart people have bad ideas all the time. You can't just assume that your ideas are good. You have to get feedback and confirm this with users. (This is the whole idea behind the Lean Startup approach.)
• You don't like something about the app. Also very important. I promise, you won't hurt my feelings.
• You're new to poker and want some guidance. I'd be happy to get you started with the basics and answer any questions.
• You're more experienced with poker and want a study buddy. This would be super useful to me! Especially if we can study with Premium Poker Tools.
• You have advice for me. I'm all ears! I know that there are a lot of smart people out there, and I'm always eager to take advantage of an opportunity to learn something new.
• You found a bug. I spend a lot of time testing my code thoroughly to prevent bugs, so hopefully this doesn't happen. But if it does, definitely let me know.
• You're in Vegas and think it'd be fun to hang out. I've been able to hang out with a bunch of people I've met through Premium Poker Tools and it's always a blast!
• You want to talk about entrepreneurship or programming (or anything else!) I'm always down to talk! If you're interested in getting started programming, I can definitely point you in the right direction and answer any questions you have.

App

I'm confused and don't really know what to do.

I try my best to make things user friendly, but ultimately, PPT is a powerful piece of software and does require an initial investment of time to learn how things work. Check out the "Specific tools" sections on the help page, and please take the time to watch the videos.

Also, I'm always here to help: contact@premiumpokertools.com.

How do I select specific suits?

See the "Selecting specific suits" section of the quick guide.

How do I do X? What is Y?

Check out the quick guide, the answer is probably there.

If it isn't, email contact@premiumpokertools.com.

What are those tables with two rows that light up green and red with ✅ and ❌ emojis after I run a simulation?

I call them the insights sections.

Here is the insights section in the equity calculator:

And here it is in the hit calculator:

Here is what the insights section in the equity calculator is saying:

• If you have 4:1 pot odds, your call needs to work more than 20% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• If you have 3:1 pot odds, your call needs to work more than 25% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• If you have 2:1 pot odds, your call needs to work more than 33.3% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• If you have 3:2 pot odds, your call needs to work more than 40% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• If you have 1:1 pot odds, your call needs to work more than 50% of the time to be immediately profitable.

To calculate how often a call needs to work by yourself, the formula is risk / (risk + reward). Or, stated differently, right side of ratio / (right side of ratio / left side of ratio).

Consider an example. Imagine that the pot is $15 and you need to call $5 to stay in the hand.

One way to think about it is that you need to risk $5 to win $15. We can use the risk / (risk + reward) formula. 5 / (5 + 15) = 5/20 = 1/4, so calling needs to work more than 1/4 of the time to be immediately profitable.

Another way to think about it is that the pot odds are 3:1. We can use the pot odds formula of right side of ratio / (right side of ratio / left side of ratio). The left side is 3 and the right side is 1. 1 / (1 + 3) = 1/4, so calling needs to work more than 1/4 of the time to be immediately profitable.

Here is what the bluffing section of the hit calculator insights section is saying:

• A 1/3 pot bet needs to work more than 25% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A 1/2 pot bet needs to work more than 33.3% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A 2/3 pot bet needs to work more than 40% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A 3/4 pot bet needs to work more than 42.9% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A full pot bet needs to work more than 50% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A 1.5x pot bet needs to work more than 60% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A 2x pot bet needs to work more than 66.6% of the time to be immediately profitable.

To calculate how often a bluff needs to work by yourself, the formula is risk / (risk + reward).

Consider an example. Imagine that you bet $5 into a $10 pot as a bluff. You are risking $5 in order to win $10. 5 / (5 + 10) = 5/15 = 1/3, so that bluff needs to work more than 1/3 of the time in order to be immediately profitable.

When the initial bet size is 1/2 pot (ie. your opponent bets half pot), here is what the numbers in the bluff raising section of the hit calculator insights section mean:

• A bluff raise that is 2x the initial bet needs to work 20% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 3x the initial bet needs to work 33.3% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 4x the initial bet needs to work 43% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 5x the initial bet needs to work 50% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 6x the initial bet needs to work 56% of the time to be immediately profitable.

When the initial bet size is 3/4 pot (ie. your opponent bets 3/4 pot), here is what the numbers in the bluff raising section of the hit calculator insights section mean:

• A bluff raise that is 2x the initial bet needs to work 23% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 3x the initial bet needs to work 38% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 4x the initial bet needs to work 47% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 5x the initial bet needs to work 55% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 6x the initial bet needs to work 60% of the time to be immediately profitable.

When the initial bet size is full pot (ie. your opponent bets full pot), here is what the numbers in the bluff raising section of the hit calculator insights section mean:

• A bluff raise that is 2x the initial bet needs to work 25% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 3x the initial bet needs to work 40% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 4x the initial bet needs to work 50% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 5x the initial bet needs to work 57% of the time to be immediately profitable.
• A bluff raise that is 6x the initial bet needs to work 63% of the time to be immediately profitable.

If you'd like to calculate how often a bluff raise needs to work yourself, the same risk / (risk + reward) formula that was used for bluffing and calling still applies.

Consider an example. The pot is $10. Your opponent bets $5. You want to know how often a raise to $15 needs to work in order to be immediately profitable.

Well, raising to $15 can be thought of as calling the $5 bet and then, subsequently, betting $10 into the pot. After you call the $5, the pot is $20 - the original $10, plus $5 from each of you. Now you want to know how often betting $10 into the $20 pot needs to work. Well, you are risking $10 to win $20. 10 / (10 + 20) = 10/30 = 1/3, so your bluff raise to $15 needs to work more than 1/3 of the time to be immediately profitable.

What do the ✅ and ❌ symbols mean?

✅ means that it's an immediately profitable play, and ❌ means that it is not an immediately profitable play.

Consider an example.

For a full pot bluff to be immediately profitable, it needs to work more than 50% of the time. In this case, your opponent will hit the board 54.95% of the time, which means that he will miss the board 45.05%, which means that the bluff will only work 45.05% of the time, which is less than 50%, so a full pot bluff will not be immediately profitable, and an ❌ will appear.

On the other hand, a 3/4 pot bluff only needs to work 42.9% of the time to be immediately profitable. In this case your opponent will miss the board 45.05% of the time, which is more than 42.9%, so a 3/4 pot bluff will be immediately profitable, and a ✅ will appear.

Of course, be sure to remember that your opponent will most likely adjust his play based on the size of your bet. In this case, your opponent will probably call a 3/4 pot bet more often than a full pot bet due to the better pot odds, so when considering different bluff sizes, always remember to adjust the check boxes. Perhaps your opponent would call with weak pairs to a 3/4 pot bet, which would bump his hit percentage up to 64.79%, making a 3/4 pot bluff not immediately profitable anymore.

What does immediately profitable mean?

Imagine that you have, say, 33 on an AJ7 flop. Suppose that we know for some reason that our opponent has A9 and we would like to bluff him off of his top pair and win the pot.

A half pot bet needs to work 1/3 of the time to be immediately profitable. Basically, saying "immediately profitable" means that it doesn't take in to account the fact that we could hit another three on the turn or river and make a set. It doesn't take in to account that even if our bluff gets called, we still may win anyway.

"Immediately profitable" is saying:

Dude, even if you never hit one of your outs, this bluff would still only need to work 1/3 of the time for us to show a profit. In reality, when our bluff gets called, we will get lucky and win some percentage of the time, so our bluff really only needs to work, say, 30% of the time or so instead of 33.3%."

Note that with 33, we only have 2 outs, so when our bluff gets called, it's very unlikely that we end up hitting one of our outs and winning the pot. But with a flush draw, we have 9 outs, and so the difference between a "profitable" and "immediately profitable" starts to become notable. Hence why we call a bluff with a flush draw a semi-bluff rather than an outright bluff.

Equity calculator

Why isn't the equity the same every time?

Because Premium Poker Tools runs simulations, rather than computing the equity exactly. Computing it exactly would take too long.

It runs 25,000 simulations by default, but you can change this in the settings. With the default number of simulations, the equity will only vary by 1% or so, which will never really end up influencing your decisions as a poker player.

Hit calculator

Why aren't the hit percentages the same every time?

When possible, Premium Poker Tools will compute the exact value of the hit percentages, so they'll be the same every time. But computing exact values in other scenarios would slow down the app too much, and often times crash your browser.

What does the "Set checkboxes" dropdown button do?

Here is the button that the question is referring to:

Suppose that you want to know whether you should bluff an opponent after he checks to you on a Tc8c4s flop. In analyzing this question, you're going to have to make an educated guess about what your opponent would call or raise with. Weak pairs? Middle pair? Gutshots? The "Set checkboxes" button basically lets you ask Premium Poker Tools what it thinks a tight, straightforward or loose opponent would continue with in the given situation.

Premium Poker Tools gives a different answer depending on whether you're on the flop, turn, or river, because most opponents will continue with different hands on the turn than they would on the flop, and would continue with differnet hands on the river than they would on the turn. Namely, they tighten up as the hand progresses to future streets.

Premium Poker Tools also gives a different answer depending on the flop texture (when only the flop is set). On a scary board like a monotone triple broadway (eg. AcQcJs), no one is going to call with just a gutshot. But on a something dry like a raggedy rainbow board (eg. 9c6s2c), a gutshot would be enough for many players to continue with.

On the turn and river, Premium Poker Tools isn't smart enough to understand board texture and gives you the same answer regardless of what the board looks like. In the future I will make it smart enough to understand board texture on the turn and river.

Why is a bar for 40% the same length as one for 60%?

Check this out:

If the probability is over 40%, the bar will always be 85 pixels long. That way we can "zoom in" and better distinguish between probabilities of, say, 5% and 10%. If 100% was 2.5x bigger than 40%, a 5% bar and 10% bar would both be really small and hard to distinguish between. Most of the time we're more interested in the smaller probabilities.

Rarely asked questions

When I run simulations with three players, the equity does not equal win percentage + (tie percentage / 3). Why is that? Don't ties get split three ways between the players?

Sometimes there are three-way ties and the ties get split three ways. But other times, despite three people being in the pot, there may only be a two-way tie.

Eg. if two players have trip nines with the same kicker, and the third player only has a pair of kings, the pot will be split by the first two players with the trip nines, and the guy with the pair of kings doesn't get anything.

The hit percentage is greater than if you add up the percentages of all the checked items. Is that a bug?

No, it's not a bug.

Imagine that you only have the made hand of overpairs, and the combo of overpairs and flush draws checked.

Suppose that after running the simulations, it shows that you get the made hand of overpairs 30% of the time and the combo of overpair and flush draw 10% of the time.

Then you look up at the hit percentage, and it says that only 30% of the hands hit. Huh? Shouldn't it be 40%? 30% + 10% = 40%, right?

To understand why the true hit percentage is 30%, not 40%, imagine that ten simulations were run with the following results:

1. Overpair
2. Overpair
3. Overpair + flush draw
4. Flush draw
5. Ace high
6. Ace high
7. Ace high
8. Ace high
9. Ace high
10. Ace high

What percentage of the time did we get an overpair? Well, 3 out of 10 times, so 30% of the time.

What percentage of the time did we get an overpair + flush draw? Well, 1 out of 10 times, so 10% of the time.

What percentage of the time did we hit the board? Well, we hit on the first, second and third simulations, but missed the remaining seven, so we hit 3 out of 10 times. 30% of the time. Not 40% of the time.

The following pie chart should clarify things further:

Consider what we're doing when we add 30% (overpairs) to 10% (overpairs + flush draws). The 30% consists of the left/red + middle/purple sections. The 10% consists of the middle/purple section. If we added 30% to 10%, we'd be counting the middle/purple section twice.

The sum of all the percentages is greater than 100%. Is that a bug?

No, it's not a bug.

Imagine that you have TcTs on 9c8c7c.

• You have the made hand of an overpair.
• You have a flush draw.
• You have an open ended straight draw.

This example demonstrates that:

1. You can have an overpair and a flush draw at the same time.
2. You can have an overpair and an open ended straight draw at the same time.
3. You can have a flush draw and an open ended straight draw at the same time.

In other words, these things aren't mutually exclusive.

Here are the results of running that simulation:

Note that:

1. The sum of the draws is 200%, and thus exceeds 100%.
2. The sum of the made hands, draws and combos is 500%, and thus exceeds 100%.

The reason why both of these facts are possible is because some things aren't mutually exclusive.

To be more specific:

• Made hands are mutually exclusive with one another. Ie. you can't have a flush and a straight at the same time. You can only have one or the other.
• Made hands are not mutually exclusive with draws. Ie. you can have an overpair and a flush draw at the same time.
• Made hands are not mutually exclusive with combos. Ie. you can have an overpair made hand and an overpair + flush draw combo at the same time.
• A flush draw is mutually exclusive with a backdoor flush draw. Ie. you can't have a flush draw and a backdoor flush draw at the same time.
• Straight draws are mutually exclusive with one another. Ie. you can't have an open ended straight draw and a gutshot at the same time.
• Having the draw of "two overcards" is mutually exclusive with having the draw of "one overcard". Of course, when you have two overcards, it is also true that you have one overcard, but it only counts as having two overcards, not as having one overcard.
• Flush draws are not mutually exclusive with straight draws. Ie. you can have a flush draw and an open ended straight draw at the same time.
• Flush draws are not mutually exclusvie with overcard draws. Ie. you can have a flush draw and a "one overcard" draw at the same time.
• Straight draws are not mutually exclusive with overcard draws. Ie. you can have a straight draw and a "one overcard" draw at the same time.
• Draws are not mutually exclusive with combos. Ie. you can have a flush draw and a flush draw + gutshot combo at the same time.
• Combos are not mutually exclusive with one another. Ie. you can have an overpair + flush draw combo and a gutshot + one overcard combo at the same time.