Best Poker Training Apps - Train Your Game on the Go

Technology has advanced considerably in the recent years, and as always we would like to take advantage of the latest innovations to help us improve our game. Many of us have smart-phones in today’s world. Many of us also find that day to day living can be hectic, so being able to make strategic improvements to our game while on the go can be a huge advantage.

There are 3 different types of app that can help us, so let's go over the best poker training apps:

Ok, this might seem a little surprising at first. Aren’t we here to talk about poker apps? Well, we are, but an app doesn’t necessarily need to be specifically for poker in order to help us work on our game.

Note Taking App – For example Evernote and One-note. These are note taking apps which allow us to sync notes across various internet capable devices.

One way we can use this is to make note of strategic concepts on our computer which we can review later on our mobile phone when not home. It is even possible to copy and paste screenshots of various ranges, or links to hand histories for later viewing. 

Video Player – It should be somewhat obvious that even a generic video player app which will often come included with our phone will allow us to watch training videos that we have downloaded previously. In most cases it will also be possible to stream such videos straight from the internet without need for a download. Naturally it will save on data costs if we pre-download however.

.pdf Reader – Again seems really obvious, but there is a wealth of information out there stored in poker books. Getting our favourite books in .pdf format can be great for long journeys or other time-wasting events.

So here we are referring specifically to apps that are offered by the poker sites themselves. Most of the big poker sites now have a mobile version of their poker client which allows users to play poker hands while on the move.

One of the best ways to improve our poker game is simply to play poker. The following are some of the networks which offer poker apps for android, iphones, and others.

The list is by no means exhaustive, but having a mobile app is becoming a must-have feature of many online poker sites.It’s worth keeping in mind that multi-tabling via a mobile app is difficult at best, and not even supported in many cases. We will also lose access to certain additional features such as being able to see HUD stats on our opponents. Having said that, if it’s a case of doing nothing on a long train journey or being able to single table fast-format poker without a HUD, we’d probably choose to play anyway.

It's difficult to talk about specific apps because the available apps will naturally depend on which operating system we have on our phone. Here are a few that were in the google play store for Android devices.

Pokerstove – If we don’t know what pokerstove does then we have probably had our head under a rock for the last ten years. Pokerstove was the original equity calculator for poker players before newer more complex equity calculators were released.

In truth, while pokerstove was the original app, it doesn’t mean it’s currently the best. The mobile app is lacking compared to the original piece of software. The availability of equity calculators as mobile apps has exploded in recent times, and a quick search of the google play store for an equity calculator will yield many results to choose from.

The best thing is to check the ratings and try out each app that seems to be rated highly. A higher rated and seemingly better equity calculator is named “Equity App Free (Poker Odds)”.

Equity Battle – There are now an increasing number of apps that act as a poker coach. One of these appsis known as “equity battle” and is essentially an equity calculator turned into a game. Players proceed through levels estimating the equity of various holdings. Great for killing time and improving our equity estimates in the process.

Insta Poker Coach – Some apps take it a step further and attempt to give us a more thorough coaching experience. With creation assisted by professional players Insta Poker Coach allows us to play simulated hands where we are awarded points for the quality of our decisions. We will then be given advice on what is the best play and why. In some ways it’s like reading a strategy book on poker except the experience is much more interactive.

At this stage most other apps will be variations of the above. We have yet to see a very strong equity calculator with the current capabilities of computer software such as power-equilab or flopzilla, but more than likely it will only be a matter of time.If we don’t like the idea of playing for real money on our mobile, it’s also possible to find a number of play-money apps, either against human players or against bots. One of the largest play-money poker networks is known as Zynga poker, and it has a mobile app.

Also remember that avenues such as posting on forums and chatting on skype are still available even from a mobile phone. So while we don’t get the full range of software that is available to us on a desktop or laptop, using our smartphone to help us train is a great idea for those times when we are on the move.

The possibilities are vast even at these early stages of mobile phone development. So it's completely up to us what we do with it. We know as poker players that one of the most important things we strive for is to maximise our efficiency. So if it's the difference between a long car journey where we do nothing, and a long car journey where we pick up several new poker concepts, then the latter has to be the smarter thing to do if we are serious about our game - and that includes using the best poker training apps available!