A lot of players have often mentioned playing poker on the internet has the biggest disadvantage of all – and that is not being able to see your opponent across the table. That may be true if you are able to discern tells to the point of profitability, but many pros, including Daniel Negreanu say that part of the game is overrated. Some also concur that you should be using betting patterns rather than bluffs and tells to out play your competition.
Actually, on the internet you have tools that will give you an advantage over live play to track and monitor your opponent’s activities. Shark Scope is one of those tools.
SharkScope.com is predominantly a resource to find statistics on your sit and go tournament opponents. The information it provides is rather in depth, complete with graphs, recent games, ROI%, average stake and total profit. SharkScope also adds further analysis by adding hot, tilt, and super tilt labels to player who are either blowing or building their bankroll.
There are a lot of internet players that play sit and go tournaments exclusively. The successful players are generally tight and prudent with their hands during the early stages of a tournament and will be taking advantage of that time to observe their opponents. Many of them use SharkScope during that very same period and source out each of their opponent’s records.
Herein lies the difference between taking your poker progress seriously or not. The ones who are successful in the sit and go business rely on the kind of information that SharkScope offers up. Others who are not as serious probably wouldn’t know how to decipher it anyway.
I have researched players on opposite ends of the scale. There are perennial losers that constantly reload and are down thousands of dollars while the constant winners show ROI% above 10%, effectively out performing the DJIA! The scale would also show players who have played more than 10,000 sit and go tournaments as opposed to some who haven’t played more than 10. Who would be your favorite?
Sharkscope also updates virtually immediately after a tournament is completed, so it is simply the most accurate source of player information on the internet. As well it includes databases for Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, Party Poker and all the Cryptologic sites as well, so it covers the mass majority of sit and go tournaments on the internet.
Next time you enter a sit and go tournament, help yourself to some free searches on your opponents. You will be surprised at how much you can learn, but the next step is actually using that information to your advantage.
By Marty Smith
Marty Smith is webmaster and a regular online poker player. He has a FREE Sit and GO Video Strategy Series on his website at http://www.PokerSitandGoReport.com. He is also editor of http://www.PokerCalculatorReport.com.