I am looking at Poker Sharpener Software, and it seems pretty good. I haven't seen much on it in the forums. My primary requirement is tracking other players in realtime with a HUD. Should go for Sharpener, PokerTracker or something else?

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe he ever answered us about getting approval from the pokers sites. Read the entire thread here: Poker Sharpener.

We haven't forgotten about you or your question about site approvals. We have submitted our software to the sites for approval as requested. Please be aware that you can use Poker Sharpener at any of the supported poker sites without concern as we are not prohibited by any site, and we will continue to cooperate with the poker sites to make sure we comply with their rules. Sorry we haven't been able to get back to you with an official approval but it has proved to be a time consuming process. For those of you who would appreciate the details please read on:

We happened to catch Poker Stars in the midst of a policy change that took effect Sept 1, 2007 regarding this type of software. This delayed their response to us significantly and ultimately ended in them asking us to make a modification to our software based on the following new rule:

"Any software that offers advice on the appropriate action to take, and which is also programmable or configurable beyond a simple slider to choose a level of aggressiveness or tightness."

Before the rule change Poker Sharpener was fine the way it was and Poker Stars stated we were on the razors edge even after the rule change. We immediately disabled our preflop strategy functionality to ensure our existing customers could still use Poker Sharpener and started working with Poker Stars to make sure that any functionality we replaced it with met with their approval. We have since obtained pre-approval for our new functionality from them based on our description and prototypes. The new functionality has been implemented and submitted to Poker Stars. We are just waiting for them to conduct their final review and place us on the official approved list. We hope to hear from them any day now but they do things at their own pace.

Full Tilt just responds to us with the list of products they do not allow and we are not on that list or any other prohibited list. Party Poker doesn't seem interested in getting back to us, but we are not in violation of any of their rules which they clearly post on their web site.

Having said all of that we have never actually been in the business of trying to offer advice as you play. Our original preflop strategy functionality was put in place to allow you to document how you wanted to play so you could develop your own strategy, play more disciplined, and refine your play over time. This functionality has been replaced with a simpler slider based piece of functionality that allows you to see if your starting hand falls within the tightness targets you set for each position. The advice component has been completely removed to avoid any controversy regarding the status of Poker Sharpener in the future.

We will start a new thread announcing the official Poker Stars approval along with the complete Poker Sharpener feature set as soon as they get back to us. In the mean time feel free to check it out at:

Poker Sharpener Web Site

Thank you for your response.

Pokersharpener, you have a pm

We are very pleased to announce that Poker Sharpener is now officially approved for use by Poker Stars:

"Poker Sharpener as modified by you per our request has indeed been approved and will be on the PokerStars Permitted Third-Party Applications list. I've forwarded that change to the webmaster (before I Emailed you), and it is in their hands. If I don't see that change by early next week, I'll poke them to see what the delay is -- they're usually much faster than this.

Best Regards,

Jeff
PokerStars Game Security
"

New Thread with revised feature set

i would like to know, why i should buy poker sharpener instead of pokertracker + pahud?

could you name a few reasons in favor of a poker sharpener purchase?

Both provide a heads up display, mucked cards, and the ability to analyze you game, but Poker Sharpener provides other useful real time information that adjusts as the hand progresses. Some of these features include:
<ul type="square">[*]An odds calculator that shows you your Outs &amp; Probabilities to make a given hand or better[*]The Pot Odds being offered[*]Your starting hand ranking and starting card selection features[*]The Average Tightness and aggression of your opponents that are still in the hand[*]Your Position, M, etc.[/list]Additional features available from the hand Monitor that update as each hand is completed:
<ul type="square">[*]See the cards your opponents have played recently and how they played them. Call up a hand history for even more information. [*]Configurable live charts that clearly display trends at your table as opponents adjust their game (Updates automatically live)[*]Compare statistics with the table summary grid [/list]Further details and screen shots regarding these real time features

We developed Poker Sharpener to provide an integrated, well rounded set of live features, along with post game analysis functionality that provides innovative ways to analyze your game and find ways to improve it.

I hope that helps.

Best Regards