What is Hold'em Resources Calculator (HRC)?
Hold'em Resources Calculator (HRC) is a specialized poker tool for tournament players who want to calculate the equity or ICM of several scenarios, simple or complex. To summarize, we will say that HRC is, among other things, a ICM calculator (it is also much more as you will see in this article)
HRC is available as computer software compatible with Windows, MacOS and Linux. HRC is a very popular tool for pro tournament players to study their pre-flop strategy as well as to study the late stages of no-limit Texas Hold'em tournaments (push-or-fold situations in particular)
During poker or sit'n'gos tournaments, when approaching paid seats or in paid seats, it will be essential to always keep the ICM issue in mind in order to make optimal decisions over the long term. That's why having access to an ICM calculator is so important
For the curious, HRC has a free trial version to test the software
What is ICM?
We could go on and on about ICM for pages and pages, but for simplicity and to give you a basis if you're unfamiliar with the term, ICM is a mathematical model for calculating our fairness in a tournament or sit'n'go (or any form of tournament type poker). This equity is often converted into money representing a fraction of the remaining paid seats in a given tournament. In an ICM calculation, only objective data will be taken into account. This data includes the size of our stack, the number of players remaining in the tournament, the number of paid seats and the size of these different paid seats. The ICM is the value of our theory mat at a specific time in a tournament. Knowing the theoretical value of our carpet will help us to make the right decisions when we play our hands
How to install Hold'em Resources
To get started, go to the HRC home page by clicking here
On the home page, click on FREE TRIAL to download the trial version of HRC. The trial version will entitle you to the full functionality of HRC for 14 days. During this period, you will be able to familiarize yourself with the software before taking out a paid subscription
HRC is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Choose the version that best suits your situation. For these instructions, we will install the application under Windows 10. The following instructions will be given for Windows, but the installation under MacOS or Linux will not be that different
Once the file is downloaded, double-click on it to start the installation of the software
You will then see this window appear:
Press "Next" to continue the installation
You will then have to accept the terms and conditions (License Agreement):
Then press "Next" to continue
Now select the location where you want to install the software. You will be able to install it wherever you want, but it is always easier and recommended to let the software install in the proposed default location (otherwise additional configurations on your part might be necessary)
Press "Next" to continue the setup configuration
Your computer now installs the software:
Once the installation has been successfully completed, you will see this window:
Click "Finish" to complete the installation
The program will launch itself automatically. You will then see this window:
When you first launch Hold'em Resouces Calculator, you will have the following options:
- Set Licence Key (if you already have a key that comes with your subscription)
- Purshase (to select the type of subscription that suits you)
- Request Free Trial Key (to request a free trial key valid for 14 days)
If this is your first steps with Hold'em Resources Calculator and you just want to test the software using the trial version, you can click on "Request Free Trial Key"
To obtain this key, simply fill in the following boxes:
Please note that we are not required to check the box regarding email news to receive your free key
Some useful features of Hold'em Resources Calculator
HRC has many uses. First, you can use it as a standard equity calculator. Of course, HRC can do much more (buying HRC simply for its standard equity calculation function would be like buying a computer just for the calculator), but can still be very useful
Let's test this option. Let's see here the fairness of 3 players according to their rank:
Above, we simulated fairness between three players. The green rectangle indicates the players involved in the hand (Player 0, Player 1 and Player 2)
The red rectangle shows us the extent of the range of naughty. For example, "Player 1" has 29.4% of all possible Hold'em hands in his range. It has 29.4% of the strongest possible preflop hands
In purple you have examples of the hand(s) included in the range
Finally, the black rectangle tells us how fair each of the rows is in relation to the other two. Note here that "Player 2" will win the hand 42.2% of the time with his hand (AQo). Fairness tells us the percentage of time all three hands will win the prize pool at the river. Fairness is only valid if all hands go to the slaughter every time. It is a theoretical result to help us understand the value of a hand or a range
Let's now look at a simple hand analysis by asking about the Independent Chip Model (ICM)
On the home screen, we will select "Advanced Hand" to create an ICM scenario. Several other calculation options will be offered, but we would need a whole book to go through them all in detail. For this article, we will see the most practical and popular options
For this hand, our equity model will be "Multi Table ICM"
In this scenario, we will be BB with 690 chips. Our starting hand will be A-Q. We are 4 players at the table with the carpets distributed as shown in the illustration above. The tournament (or sit'n'go) will have a very special structure since there will only be a $100 cash prize given to the winner. In such a structure, you will have to play very aggressively
Carefully analyze the details of the hand above
In this hand, there are only 4 players left. With our 690 tokens, we are second. However, only one spot will be paid for $100 so there will be no merit in trying to finish the tournament in second or third place
In the hand in question, the CO (Cutoff) is a very aggressive player who takes advantage of the bubble (he opens all his hands in position). On the CO position, it pushes all in (again). The button and the small armor lie down. The question is to know with which range we can call profitably
Once the hand information is entered, press "Next" to see the call range
Once this is done, you will have your analysis appear
Here is the optimal push range of the cutoff:
In this situation, CO will have a range of 100%. This means that it can grow all in profitably with all its range
On our side, we can call with a range of 78.6% which is detailed as follows:
To return to our starting hand (AQo), the hand is strong enough to call for recovery since our equity will be far greater than CO equity in the long run. In this hand, since there will only be one paid seat, we will have to play much more aggressively than if there were 2 or 3 paid seats
The hand analyzed here was built from memory, without hand history. It's ideal for your hands played in casinos, at friends' homes or in poker rooms. You will also have the option to import hands played in online poker rooms for analysis
Here's where to find the place to import your played hands:
File and then Import. You will have the option to import a complete poker hand file. You will see that importing is very fast and hassle-free
The big strength of Hold'em Resources is that you can set up a multitude of details in your hand (all the bad guys' mats, their bounty, paid seats, blinds, antes, ranges, etc.)
One of the achievements that the majority of gamblers will make by working with HRC is that they do not gamble aggressively enough when approaching paid seats. When using HRC, unless you already have very aggressive gambling, you will probably identify several situations where you should play your hands more aggressively
The advantages and disadvantages of Hold'em Resources Calculator
Advantages:
- HRC includes several tools in one (with HRC, you will be able to calculate the equity of several hands in addition to calculating the profitability of one hand based on the classic ChipEV ICM model in BB or according to the Malmuth-Harville ICM or use the equity model from \Future Game Simulation\; the possibilities are vast)
- HRC is an extremely customizable tool (you can configure the range, stack, antes etc. of each player in great detail)
- No other tool on the market is as complete as HRC
- HRC offers frequent updates of the software to constantly improve it. These updates are free for subscribers
- HRC offers very fast hand analysis (some software takes several minutes to analyze hands while HRC will only take a few seconds). Obviously, the results will vary depending on the power of your computer
- It is very easy to import poker hands that have already been played in a multitude of poker rooms
- HRC includes Future Game Simulation (a high-performance equity estimation engine)
- HRC is available at a low monthly cost
Disadvantages:
- Hold'em Resources can be a daunting tool for a beginner player (it is on the one hand very comprehensive, but on the other hand, its many possibilities can be daunting for a novice)
- There is a learning curve to master the software (you will probably need to take some time at the beginning to fully understand all the features of HRC)
- There is no way to buy the software since it is only available by monthly payment, which may bother some people
- The calculation of ICM is convenient, but it is not flawless and some criticisms have already been made of it (we will not review all the criticisms made of ICM, but let's just say that the calculation of ICM does not take into account the skill of each player in its calculation, which can bias the results)
Price and subscription to Hold'em Resources
After using the trial version of Hold'em Resources, if you want to continue using the software, you can subscribe on a monthly basis. Here are the available subscription options:
Each subscription is valid for one person. You will be able to activate the software on two devices. The longer you take a subscription, the more affordable you'll be. The subscription is paid in one go and not per month. For example, if you take a 6 month subscription at $7.99 per month, you will be charged the total amount of $47.90 at once. Your subscription will be renewed automatically after 6 months (unless you cancel your subscription before then)
Verdict?
Hold'em Resources is an essential tool for all tournament players, sit'n'gos, spin'n'gos and other types of tournament poker. It is a great equity calculator as well as a very useful tool for managing ICM issues. Even if you are a very experienced player, you will not be immune to ICM errors. For this reason, when you have doubts about a particular hand, you can always analyze those hands with HRC
Just correcting 1 or 2 bad habits you had in the past with HRC will save you a lot more than $10 a month. Hold'em Resources Caculator is an essential tool for all serious tournament players