I, like many others on this forum, own and play poker on a mac. In the past, this has been a cause of extreme frustration as there wasnt much support out for mac poker players. More recently, however, software developers have been working to help this group by creating better and better programs that provide the tracking capabilities and HUDs that programs like PT3 and HEM have been using for years.

For a while, Poker Copilot was the only viable option for a mac poker player in terms of tracking software, and although it was very good (Copilot is a truly great program and at this point I would reccommend it to anyone using a mac) it was still somewhat incomplete. Very recently, two new poker programs, XyptoPoker and PT3 have come out with beta versions of tracking software that could potentially usurp Copilots title of best poker program for macs.

In this thread Id like to provide an arena for discussion of all of the programs available for macs. Which programs do you like and why? Have you tried the others, and if so why did you not stick with it? Etc.

I hope this thread can be a useful resource for mac users looking to get serious about poker and make opinions and information available to those interested.

Being the creator of this thread, I feel it only fair to begin the discussion with my current thoughts on the various programs.

Poker Copilot - This is the program I currently use. I have been following it for over a year now and have seen it develop into a very respectable tracking software. It has many of the features of the more well-known programs like HEM and PT3, but it is not as comprehensive. I know there is a huge group of people for which copilot works great but on my computer, copilot occasionally becomes very sluggish and makes the rest of my computer slow to a crawl. The HUD is good, but again it has given me problems of intense lag and sluggishness (I should note that others have not had this problem). The developer, Steve Mcleod, is extremely devoted to the project and is one of the most attentive and responsive software developers I have ever seen. He fields all questions and concerns and is committed to making Copilot the best that it can be.

Poker Xypto - This is a very new program, information on which can be found right here on this very forum. I have tried it out for a bit but have definitely not used it enough to make a definitive statement as to its quality. A couple of notes: the upload speed for hands is faster than any program I have ever seen. It is truly amazing. Right now, however, you have to set the auto importt feature every time you log in. Additionally, I have had trouble getting the HUD working because I cant get it to reliably find the hands I am playing. I cant auto import from my hand history folder because it is to big, but when i try to savev my hands to a different location, it cant find them. This may be a problem caused by my own stupidity and not the programs fault, a few more test trials will be needed to verify.

Poker Tracker 3 - A giant in the poker tracking program industry, Poker Tracker, has recently released a beta version of their popular software: Poker Tracker 3, for mac. I havent really had a chance to fully try this out but I have a few initial reactions: hand uploading is much slower than the other two programs. To upload my who database of hands (~350k hands) took 4-5 hours. Because of this, I just had it upload the hands overnight, which seemed to work fine. PT3 has some great graphing software that can quickly (faster than copilot as far as i can tell) create detailed graphs of lots of statistics. PT3 also includes the much used, but much despised EV graph (which copilot does not). If you wanna tell your friends how bad youre running and actually show them, PT3 can do it.

Xypto Poker - Currently in beta

PokerTracker 3 - Currently in beta

Poker Copilot

BlazingStars - Open-source at Google Code.

I like this thread idea.

- Right now I table mass using co pilot but am having alot of lag problems with the newer versions. Anyone table massing best version to do it with is 2.16, for some reason on that version I can play up to 32 with lag problems. every version since will eventually lag up on me if i play more than 16.

- I bought Cross Over for mac for like 40 bucks so I can run little small apps made for windows (pokerstove, etc). Would recommend it for anyone who is having trouble using Wine. Cross Over basically allows you to use windows apps for mac, but I find it great for downloading all those free/trial apps poker related that weren't made mac compatible.

- Just started using poker tracker demo. Ran a 32 table session with no real problems. Think I might switch to it once they come out with a full version.

i have tried copilot and Xypto really a lot on Mac. PT only tried a lot on Windows because apparently its leopard and snowleopard only and have only tried on my tiger mac then cancelled the download when i saw it was leopard and snowleopard only. could try on my MBP with leopard but im really fine Xypto...

me too... copilot forums lots of issues with slow, few hands supported by the database, problems with HUD.

I think its incredible too. I'm constantly refreshing the beta-tester download page hoping for next builds. I can import one and half million hands DB in a few minutes. First build I try it was already doing 3000 hands/second now next build is at 3300 or so for me. i will not be suprised if next build are even faster than that. last stat added and importer got faster, not slower!

You talk about showing friend EV graphs with PT but you need to know that i tried Xypto because it claimed to display correct EV graph and it does. look the Xypto forums, it explains how to access EV graph and see every hand with EV math in the replayer. And it is very fast, because it is done at import speed: i can install Xypto, load one hand half million cash game hands and graph them all with EV in less than 10 minutes.

no problem here but i separate the old hands and autoimport hands folder so that theres not too much hands in autoimport folder. HUD works fine and is really responsive 18 tabling with lot of hands in my DB.

i think you really have a problem with your setup.

copilot vs Xypto vs PT: I say that people who wants lots of stats should go for beta of PT. People who want speed and try something different should go for Xypto. Try both they are free while beta so you can use for probably some time. Nobody should for copilot because its not adding up against PT and Xypto.

So my summary: native mac today use PT or Xypto and they are both free anyway for beta so why pay for another program that i think is really not as good? i see hardtime ahead for copilot now that there are two program in free beta that in my opinion are already both better than copilot.

How is the beta for the mac version of poker tracker going?

is anybody having trouble with the poker stars mac client? it keeps quitting unexpectedly and i have been having this problem for over a month now.

Dude if you want to use software written for .Net then just install VirtualBox and run windoze in a VM (seamless mode). I use Ubuntu and the only thing I've run successfully in Wine is Pokerstars (which deals the absolute coldest cards ever) so I run FTP (my fav) on a windoze VM. I assume if you knew about these technologies, you wouldn't post this thread in the first place, but just google any terms I mention that you don't know and you should be fine.

i'm assuming that is directed at the OP, but i'm going to respond anyway.

most Mac users are well aware that they can run Windows virtual machines and/or install Windows via BootCamp on their Intel Macs, but don't be thick..why do you think they bought a Mac in the first place?

there are at least 5 sites that offer a native Mac client now, so there should be no need to use their Windows clients. the point of this thread is to let Mac users discuss the current native OS X poker applications and to encourage development and/or porting of Windows applications to OS X, so please keep the "install Windows" crap out..nobody wants to hear it.

just bought a 27" inch Imac, thinking of installing XP because I cant make supernova elite without HEM

I use Win 7 on Parallels on a iMac i7 and it runs great, lets me use all the pc software and switch back and forth with my mac programs without any problems. Just cant see playing without HEM or TableNinja

anyone tried to run paralles in macbooks?

I think HEM + Tableninja + 24tables willl be kind of slow even with Windows7.... no?

I currently run it on a 13inc macbook running XP.

I use a couple AHK and sometimes a HUD. I can play more tables without a HUD so it depends on what I need to do and if I am playing cash or SNG.

The only real limitation is your macbook itself. Not parallels.

And GoldnEagl is correct. We know we can boot windows on a mac. That's not the point of a mac software thread. Yes I play 99% on my windowsXP run via my macbook but that is not to say I would prefer to use native Mac applications.

i heard about win7 being really fast..maybe I give it a try if people in a 13inc is saying that its possible..
i tought win would be really slow..

I am not really up to date with OS info but from what I remember, running Vista used 1GB RAM. So on a 2GB macbook (max you can have) you basically are running with only 1GB. If this is the same with Windows 7 then I can think of a number of reasons as to why you would not want to try mass multitable with AHK/HUDS/etc. Ofc if W7 is very fast that maybe that makes up for the loss of RAM, but like I said I am very rusty these last couple years with windows since i got a mac.

i have a macbook and i'm certain that running parallels would bog it down to the point where it would be nonoperational, if i wanted to use a application like HEM or PT along with a HUD.

recently, i've been thinking of buying an entirely new (and windows-based) setup, simply because i'm tired of running poker copilot. the program barely touches the surface of information that HEM and PT cover.

but, now that i've learned PT has a beta version for mac, i don't think i will.

does anyone know how limited the beta version is?

im using the beta...20 tables here macbook13... 2gb ram... really fast... faster than copilot IMO and with lots of options of statistics...

how comprehensive is the beta version? does it have all in ev?

i think its better you ask this in the PT3 topic, because i just been using the program for 3 days.dont really know how to calculate the all in ev...so dont know if its possible or not.

how did you get it working? i'm confused by this postgresql server stuff.

i just did the normal install..accepted what they told and it is working good...I think if u go to their web or forum and read there they should solve everything. but I do really like PT3

As title really, did a search but couldn't find too much.

Any thoughts would very much appreciate

I use Poker CoPilot, but only because I couldnt get PokerTracker to run properly on the Mac.

CoPilots pretty terrible IMO, at least compared to the Windows version of PokerTracker. Real clumsy and about all its good for is displaying stats. It cant auto import tournament results, you have to get them emailed to you and then import from the email. The graphs and filters and stuff are all just difficult to use. Better than nothing though I guess.

There is another alternative, but the name slips my mind. Poker tracker has a free trial-give it a shot.

You can voice support for a holdem manager for mac in this thread.
I also found this post dated Feb 2010 so they are at least thinking about it. Go vote and spur them on.

could i use cross over to use poker shortcuts ? i am looking for a program that allows me to use a usb joystick/controller to control the tables (ie poker shortcuts).

great thread - thanks OP