Back in 1992, Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross released a song called “The Best Things in Life Are Free” and this is especially true on the internet where you have access to some of the best free poker software available.
Whether you play most of your poker online or in a live environment you should download the fantastic programme that is PokerStove. This software performs thousands upon thousands of calculations in a matter of seconds to show the user their equity in a specific hand.
You can put in your exact hole cards, and those of your opponent and it will tell you how much equity, or chance of winning, you have in that situation. Of course, we hardly ever know our opponent's exact hand so you can also put in a range of possible holdings and again it will tell you how your hand stands up against your opponent's perceived range.
By inputting a few hands from your session, you will quickly discover what hands are profitable in certain situations and that the “bad beat” you thought you were on the receiving end of was not actually as bad as you thought as your opponent had much more equity than you gave them credit for.
PokerStove also comes in handy when you are using ICM calculators or Independent Chip Model calculators to give them their full title. This software is best used for tournament poker and in particular when you are on the bubble or are short-handed towards the end of the tournament.
ICM basically assigned a monetary value to each of the chips still in play and as a result you can work out whether calling, folding or raising all-in is the best move to make. You need to perform at least three calculations in order to discover this information and it is almost impossible to do during play but if you spend some time after your tournament has finished then you will quickly learn what hands work well on the bubble and against what stack sizes and you will reap the rewards in the long run.