The update is now available on the App Store! Up to this date, Poker Analytics let users try the app with 15 sessions and it ended there, you couldn’t get more data in the app unless getting the pro subscription.
Poker Analytics is focused on pros and serious players, so today we are slightly modifying the offer to give more casual players the opportunity to track their sessions on the long-term.
So now, by default, any user will be able to save up to 6 sessions before choosing a plan:
1 session per month, or 12 sessions a year, is free for all users.
1 session per week comes at $19.99 per year for the United States. You can check the price for your country in your local App Store. When subscribing, you immediately get 52 sessions for the year to come.
Unlimited sessions, which is the yearly original plan, stay at its current price.
That’s it for the new plans!
We also changing the way the app exports XML and CSV files. You’re now able to choose how you want get your file, whether it’s by mail, on your cloud app or whatever. Files are additionally stored locally on your device.
For cash games players, the duration of sessions can vary widely, from a quick 30 minutes online to several days at a live table. The duration of a session most likely depends on a delicate and unpredictable mix of enjoyment, profitability and schedule.
For regular players, when maximizing your profit on a long run becomes your priority, it can be difficult to know exactly when to stop a session.
After playing for 7 hours at a live table and making a decent profit, it’s not always obvious if putting in an extra hour is worth it. You might be a bit tired, you might experience a lack in starting hands, maybe you feel like playing a hand or two for fun, but actually it might be a good time to stop, and maybe you should have done so one hour ago.
So why is it important to stop at the right time?
When getting tired, you’re prone to make more mistakes at the table, as you’re not in the position to follow all the action. You can miss some action, you can miss a tell, or just take a sub-optimal decision that can immediately cost you.
A single mistake due to inattention or an unconscious loosening of your game can have a big impact on your hourly rate. If you usually run on a +5BB per 100 hands rate, a 5BB mistake at the end of a session can cost you 4 hours of play if your table plays 25 hands per hour.
Cash games are forgiving because you can quit as soon as you’re not playing your best game. Doing mistakes at the end of a tournament is another story, as it can cost you much more. Making a bad move can send you to the rail prematurely and make you miss the big payouts of the final table.
Mistakes will also obviously increase your risk of tilting. You want to avoid tilt at any cost. A single occurrence of tilting is never good for your results and for your mental health. Some players really want to avoid tilt as it builds up over time and can end up with a disastrous impact on their bankroll.
In the long run, especially if poker is your first source of income, you’re also at the mercy of a lack of motivation and burnout. These can have a really bad toll on you and your bankroll, so you definitely want to be cautious about that. More often than not, it’s a good thing to stop even if you still want to play. You’ll be extra motivated to play the following session. Stopping a session exhausted, tilted, or because you’ve lost too much is never a good sign for your long-term goals.
Limiting the length of a session have a positive effect, as you’re getting some time back, time to:
Work on your game and get better;
Get in a better condition for future sessions with whatever works for you: working out, getting more sleep or meditating;
Enjoy your time with any other activities.
When should you stop, then?
There are many signs that can indicate you it’s time to leave the table.
If you recognize some of those patterns you should ask yourself if it’s a good time to leave.
Plain fatigue: You start to yawn, you feel uncomfortable on your chair, you just want to sleep.
You’re constantly distracted by what’s around the table, you’re having trouble following all the action at the table.
You’ve just lost a big pot and feel like you won’t be playing your best after that.
Here are other ways to call it a day:
You have a heavy schedule of 8-hour sessions five or more days a week, you might want to play one hour less every day and see how it goes for you. You can set an alarm to remind you to leave the table.
The whale at the table went bust or left.
The field is tough and the game won’t be very profitable.
You’ve played a significant amount of time, made a decent profit and decide it’s time to leave happy with your result.
So take your time management seriously as it has crucial impact on short and long-term. Give yourself a moment to think about your approach to poker as a whole, and see what you could do differently.
There is always a time where playing more won’t produce a positive effect, and there is probably a way to allocate your time to produce better results when you play. Think about what you want to achieve in poker, and go get those chips!
Poker Analytics 4.2 introduced cash game notifications. Now is the time to tell you a little bit more about it!
In version 4, we added the duration report showing you how you performed over time. We wanted to go one step further with this and bring you the information when you most needed it. So we’ve refined the engine behind the report to estimate your optimal game duration. Now when you’ll start a session, the app will try to find that duration and will notify you when it judges that you’ve reached your peak performance point. It means that it’s the moment where your hourly rate starts to drop, so that’s a good moment to stop playing.
Stop notifications are enabled by default in the app, and you’ll automatically be notified if the app finds a fatigue point in your data. If not, it can still be a good idea to manually setup an alarm to end your session. See below why the app might not always setup the notification.
What you‘ll see if the stop notification is set
Continue to vary game durations
As variance is part of the game, your results are too. Sometimes it possible that chance makes the result a little bit biased, but the more you play, the more the result should be refined and close to reality. Turn off the notifications in the settings if you feel it doesn’t help you. You’ll be able to enable them later on.
Your ultimate goal should be to make the app unable to compute the fatigue point, meaning you’re managing your time perfectly. You should be able to stop your games early as soon as you feel tired, and maybe play a little longer when you feel the game is very profitable.
Time management is very important when you play regularly, so you should try to make breaks during your sessions and to quit early any time you feel you won’t play your best in order to maintain a healthy poker rhythm.
Why don’t I get stop notifications? 🙁
There are multiple reasons for this.
Negative results
If you’re losing in average, you probably have important leaks to fix in your game. It’s possible though that you’re a losing player because you play too long. You might want to start playing shorter sessions and set up an alarm with a reasonable game duration.
Lack of data
To get reliable results, it’s important to have a lot of sessions. The engine uses your sessions history to estimate the optimal duration, so it’s necessary to have a lot of data point on different time intervals. Also, if all your sessions last 4 hours, the app won’t be able to correctly guess if you’re getting tired. Consider an average of 50 sessions with various duration to start getting notifications.
You’re doing very well
Finally, it’s also a possibility that you’re already managing your time very well. If you maintain a consistent hourly rate whatever the duration, the app won’t judge necessary to setup a stop notification.
That’s it! Enjoy your games, manage your time well, and let us know about your experience with this new feature!
We’re super excited with the release of this version as it might go down as having a huge impact for cash game players around the world.
Let’s jump into the new features:
Cash game stop notifications
In Poker Analytics 4, we’ve added the duration report, which showed you the impact of duration of your results.
Now, we’re using the engine to estimate the time where you start getting tired, and we’re sending you a notification telling you that.
This is very important for several reasons: the app gives you back time and keeps you away from higher risk of tilt when you’re tired. More on it in another detailed post later!
What you might see the next time you start a cash game
Players
Also introduced in version 4, the players notes are seeing a couple of improvements:
We are adding the ability to set a color to players, in order to classify them. You’ll have 8 colors to choose from.
You’ll now be able to search for players in the players list, using their name or a part of a note you’ve taken.
Shortcuts
Users having 3d Touch on their device have access to shortcuts on the app icon:
new cash game session
new tournament
new hand
new player note
New shortcuts from your device home!
Data indexing
Your data starts to be locally indexed on your device. What it means is that you’ll be able to search for sessions, players or hands using Spotlight search.
That’s it for 4.2! We hope you’ll love it. As always, don’t hesitate to tell us what you think, and please crush the tables!
Every once in a while we’re asked if there is a guide to the app. Unfortunately we don’t have a proper guide at the moment but we’ve started to write some posts that you’ll find in the how-to category of the blog.
Alternately, we have some starting advices to set up the app.
Settings
When launching the app, we recommend you to go in the More tab > Settings to setup a couple of things.
Currency
Check if the currency symbol indicated fits you. The currency selected will be used as your main currency and all your statistics will be computed in that currency.
Pin code
You can lock the app from strangers by setting a PIN code. The code will be asked each time you open the app. Please note that the code is stored locally so we have no way to retrieve it for you. If you’re on iOS, you can use Touch ID or Face ID in addition to unlock the app.
Bankrolls
By default, we’re creating your Live bankroll for your live games. Bankrolls must be set either for live or online games. This will change a couple of fields when editing your session.
Typically, you’ll want to create a live bankroll for each currency, and an online bankroll for each room you’re playing on. There is a field to indicate the original value of your bankroll so you can start wherever you want.
Bankrolls have a currency field, and a specific rate. It means that you can have different bankrolls with the same currency but with a different rate, which can make your accounting easier for each trip abroad.
Sessions
Configuration
Most users will spend a lot of time creating sessions. When editing a session, we display fields that are relevant to the type of game you play. Poker Analytics selects your favorite game configuration based on the location you’re playing at. Make sure to enable geolocation in the app, this way you’ll be located every time you start playing and your favorite configuration will be set automatically.
Duplicates
To create your sessions faster, you can duplicate the parameters of an existing session. In the sessions list, you can do that by making a long tap on the row of the session you want to copy, which will make appear the Duplicate button.
iCloud (for iOS)
You can use iCloud to backup your Poker Analytics data automatically and keep your iPhone and iPad synchronized. We strongly recommend you to make frequent backups, whether it is your device or your data. Nobody wants to lose his data if something bad happens.
Theme (for iOS)
Poker Analytics 4 introduced a new light graphical theme, test the diamond theme right now to see if it suits your taste better!
