PokerStove is a must-have program for any poker player. This software can be used to calculate your equity in any given hand. You can input your hole cards, known or suspected opponent hole cards, and board cards to give you your exact equity of a given pot. Below is an example of PokerStove after it calculated the equity of my AKs vs villian’s QQ on a board JhTh2s. The program shows that, although I have no pair, my AKs is a favorite to win at showdown.

PokerStove is very useful for calculating your equity versus an opponent’s preflop shoving range. This example simulates my AQo against an estimated 4bet shoving range of my aggressive short stacked opponent. According to my assumptions of his holdings and PokerStove’s calculations, this is an easy call.

One more great use for this program is for determining your opponents probable opening ranges. With detailed stats taken from your tracking software, you can get a rough idea of what your opponent holds when he puts in a standard preflop raise. If you are playing FR or 6-max you will need to get these stats broken down by position.

For simplicity I’ll give an example from a heads up match I just completed. My opponent was raising 42% from the small blind, if you play heads up you should know that this number is quite low. I can plug this number into the preflop distribution section of PokerStove, make a few logical adjustments, and I have what is probably a very good estimate of the hand ranges that my opponent is opening with a raise.

This program should be used frequently while reviewing hand histories to help validate your decision making and correct any mistakes. Did I mention that it’s free? Download it at www.pokerstove.com.

I will be posting a future video to help you get the most out of this program.