Full Tilt Poker, the second largest online poker site, recently released some well-documented upgrades to its software client. The upgrade included significant adjustments to both the table and lobby in order to produce a more stable environment and more efficient lobby experience. Full Tilt Poker provided these renovated features for both its Windows PC and Mac OS X software clients.
One of the unexpected roadblocks with the new Full Tilt Poker software was that many of the third party software solutions were suddenly rendered useless. From AutoHotKey (AHK) scripts to buddy lists, none of the software that helped make online poker more efficient would interface with the new software. This left many scrambling to find out when their favorite programs would be updated to tackle the new software upgrade from Full Tilt Poker.
PokerTracker 3 and Holdem Manager, the two most popular hand history tracking programs, have updated their software through beta patches that are free to download at their respective websites. In the case of Holdem Manager, a few of the functions of the new built-in Table Scanner were not working. With the release of “Beta 25” for Holdem Manager, the program’s Table Scanner will now be able to not only open a table from inside the scanner, but also join one. This works for both the classic and new “standard” Full Tilt Poker lobby.
Users of Full Tilt Shortcuts were quickly assured that developers behind the program had a software solution coming to allow players to enjoy shortcuts. Windy Hill Technology released a new software program called Poker Shortcuts that works across both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. The company is releasing regular updates to a beta version that is available for paid customers of Full Tilt Shortcuts. We have word from Windy Hill that a major announcement is coming next week about Poker Shortcuts.
Another shortcuts program, TableNinjaFT, had been in a private beta. Similar to Poker Shortcuts, TableNinjaFT is a collection of shortcuts that range from table highlighting to automatic time bank checking. The program also allows users to enter specific percentage bets for streets, which assists in multi-tabling efforts. On Thursday, the development team behind the program announced that a public beta is available for download and will remain free until the program is out of the beta testing phase.
Data mining sites appear to be completely operational after a few weeks of being down. HHSmithey1, HandHQ, and Poker Table Ratings all report that they are once again tracking hand histories at tables. Each has its own pricing and delivery system for bundled hand history files from Full Tilt Poker games.
Popular online poker buddy list PlayerGPS has been operational for PokerStars games, but has not been working for Full Tilt since the software update. The site manager for PlayerGPS told us that their tech team will have Full Tilt Poker tracking working within the next two weeks. Shortly after that functionality is back, they are going to release tracking abilities for Titan Poker.
The good news for online poker players that use these productivity software programs is that the wait is almost over for everything to be back to normal. Many of the software programs already have addressed the issues with a working update, while others are only a week or two away from having solutions available to the public.
