I’ve been looking into purchasing a new poker odds calculator to help improve my game. If you play poker online then you need software like this. This week I decided to test out Magic Holdem which claims to have over 200,000 customers using their product and the easiest to use software out there. I only play on two sites right now Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars. Both rooms are both supported as well as hundreds of others. For this review I tested exclusively on Pokerstars.

The software currently supports Windows XP and Vista. When I asked support if they supported Mac they said they have plans to accommodate Mac soon. After downloading and installing the software there were 4 simple steps to setting up the Magic Holdem client. The program is really small and very simple to setup. I was up and running in minutes!

Pros

• Real Time Odds
• Free Trial gives you 100 hands to try the product

While 100 hands may seem like a lot you could easily use up your free trail in 1 hour of multi tabling just as I did. The good thing is that during this trial I emailed support and was able to get an extra 100 hands to continue my testing.

• Get the product for free by signing up with one of their supported poker rooms
• Works with multiple tables open
• Support for over 100+ poker sites
• Auto advice

The nice thing about the auto advice feature is that you can adjust the advice to your style of play. It’s a nice feature for people just getting into the game of Holdem. (*Update*) After little deeper research I found that because of this feature this software is banned from Pokerstars. As with any aftermarket software, please be sure you verify that it is permissible to use the software on the site. Just because a company says it’s supported doesn’t mean it’s approved.

• Warns of possible straights, flushes, ect
• Works with No Limit, Limit, and Tournament Holdem (Real or Play Money)
• Easy setup

Cons

• Can not move or reposition layout

I wanted to position the odds and possible outs charts to different locations around the table but I was unable to. The windows also bind to the table which I found very annoying.

• Does not support resizing your table

This was probably the most disappointing feature of this product. I usually have 4 tables open when I play and I was so annoyed by this lack of support that I only played one table at a time. While the product does support multi tabling it does not support resizing. This means that you can not tile your tables and must keep them in cascade mode. It also seemed to loop in an error when you resized the table and did not automatically revert back to the standard table size. This is a big down fall for experienced players. Once again, support said that this feature is in development.

• Very basic and not made for the advanced player

Neutral

Customer Support

I contacted customer support via email to ask some questions about the cons of the program. It took almost 24 hours to get back to me, but they offered an extension on the 100 free hands. They were also very diligent about answering my concerns. I work in customer/technical support so I’m a little tougher on this than others might be.

Overall I think Magic Holdem has a good product that is ridiculously easy to use and setup. The program is geared for the beginning player and is a good place to start if you’re in the market for an odds calculator. Advanced players will definitely expect more for the price. There is some room for improvement. I would recommend Magic Holdem as a means to learn about odds and hand values, but as your skills advance you’ll be need something a little more sophisticated and compatible.

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