Software allowing user inputs...novice

[Vigorish]

Greetings,

I have been investigating several products and find it nearly impossible to discriminate between vendors with a legitimate product and snake oil salesmen. Of course, it's easy to run away from a site promising you outrageous results. I don't want to waste my money on a useless product or worse - give my personal information to a criminal.

The product I am most interested at this point is Jeff Platt's Jcapper. However, the price is a bit hefty (understandably so) and it might be overkill given my needs. I have considered his silver plan, which would cost me roughly $100 plus another $90/mo.

Currently, I use several different products and feel that a lot of my handicapping could be automated. It sometimes takes me several hours to handicap one race! I have to check the weather, track bias, trainer/jockey percentages, pedigree, speed and pace figures, etc. Next, I have to mentally amalgamate this data. I would like to rely less on my intuition and more on a reliable means of assessing value.

If anybody has any software recommendations or advice, please feel free to offer me feedback. My budget is $100 or less for the product and up to $100/mo for hand histories.

Thank you,

Jeffrey

[DeltaLover]

My budget is $100 or less for the product and up to $100/mo for hand histories.


this aint poker

[Vigorish]

Fair enough Delta Lover,

I may have unreasonable expectations in terms of price. Your comment resonated with me as I used to buy data-mined hand histories for Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Of course, they were relatively inexpensive. Horse racing is obviously much more nuanced.

Given my proposed undertaking, I suppose I am willing to move upwards in terms of price. I used Jcapper's Silver Plan as a baseline, which isn't necessarily a good starting point because the HH's are heavily discounted. It seems 'painful' for me to invest extra in hand histories since I get them for free through one of the ADW's I use. Anyway, if any vendors or users have any feedback, please respond.

[JustRalph]

Fair enough Delta Lover,

I may have unreasonable expectations in terms of price. Your comment resonated with me as I used to buy data-mined hand histories for Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Of course, they were relatively inexpensive. Horse racing is obviously much more nuanced.

Given my proposed undertaking, I suppose I am willing to move upwards in terms of price. I used Jcapper's Silver Plan as a baseline, which isn't necessarily a good starting point because the HH's are heavily discounted. It seems 'painful' for me to invest extra in hand histories since I get them for free through one of the ADW's I use. Anyway, if any vendors or users have any feedback, please respond.

Remember what kind of game you're playing. Pari-mutuel means you are playing against the crowd. You're only as good as the tools you use. If You are sitting next to a jcapper (full platinum user at the OTB) which program would you rather have? For that matter there are 3-4 other programs you are competing with. In a gun fight I don't want to be outgunned. Same rules apply. To extend the metaphor a bit, the ammo is the amount of work you want to put in, no matter what program you use.

You do know that you can use BRIS 1 dollar single track files and .50 cent result files with jcapper? The data is of less quality than HDW, but if you don't play enough to justify the monthly plan, it's a good option.

[Delta Cone]

I am confused as to what you mean by "hand histories" in the context of horse racing. Do you mean past performances of the horses?

[Vigorish]

I am confused as to what you mean by "hand histories" in the context of horse racing. Do you mean past performances of the horses?

Greetings,

I spent too much time in the poker world and as a result I inadvertently used the two terms interchangeably. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that I accidentally called a past performance a 'hand history.'

[Vigorish]

Greetings Just Ralph,

Thank you sharing your perspective and offering some helpful feedback. You make an especially valid point about tools used by the opposition. A cursory examination of the horse racing boards reveals the myriad challenges: whether fighting against absurd takeouts, computer batch bettors, or savvy Pace Advantage users, this game is extremely hard. If it wasn't for the death of online poker and the availability of rebates (and other freebies like PP's), I never would have returned.

Reading your post inspired me to really think about the opportunity cost of taking the plunge and investing about $500-$1500. A cold rational analysis leads me to towards purchasing high quality software such as JCapper Platinum. This product seems attractive for several reasons, including the fact that I have a lot of respect for its creator. I was not aware that I could use the product with my $1 Bris single format files. This is another advantage.

Thanks again for your input!

[raybo]

My response to these kinds of posts is always the same. If you have the ability, either in programming language, or in Excel, or database software, then create your own program. There are sources all over the internet that can help you along the way.

I can recommend 2 free Excel workbooks that might interest you, they both accept either Brisnet $1 or $3 card files and $0.25 Exotic results data files, or JCapper/HDW Silver or Platinum cards and results files. Check the Software section for "AllData free". There is also another software there that is free, created by Handi and Headhawg, which also accepts the Brisnet files and runs in Windows as an executable file, not within any existing application.

Note that the free Excel workbooks can be modified by the user any way they wish. Handi's software's code is available also and can be modified if you have the knowledge to do so, it is open source.

By the way, "hand history" is a record of your plays in poker. A likeness in horse racing would be "record keeping" activities for all your plays. It is very easy to create your own record keeping application in Excel, and the learning curve is extremely low, when compared to traditional programming languages.

Bottom line, there are many, cost efficient, options out there. You just need to decide which is best, for you, but starting with free stuff is not a bad beginning.

[headhawg]

A cold rational analysis leads me to towards purchasing high quality software such as JCapper Platinum. This product seems attractive for several reasons, including the fact that I have a lot of respect for its creator. I was not aware that I could use the product with my $1 Bris single format files. This is another advantage. I'm not a Jcapper user so I may have this wrong but using Bris files may not be the best option. To use Jcapper effectively you would need a database which would include the data AND results files. That's $1.25 per track per (race) day. A track that runs 20 times per month would cost $25/month if my math is right. If you choose to keep data on five tracks your cost is already over the $120/month the HDW version would cost -- for ALL tracks. The advantage of Bris would be cross-compatibility with other software. I'm assuming that the HDW files could only be used with Jcapper.

You could also look at HTR. No Bris version, but the program is free and I believe that includes all updates. I think that the cost is the same -- $120/month for all track files.

And raybo also has made some suggestions for free alternatives, although a program like Handifast isn't really in the same league as top drawer software like Jcapper, HSH, HTR, or RDSS. And learning how to write programs yourself? See the HHXv3 thread for a reality check. :)

[JustRalph]

if you can find 5 tracks running at a time that are worth playing......... :bang:

[raybo]

I'm not a Jcapper user so I may have this wrong but using Bris files may not be the best option. To use Jcapper effectively you would need a database which would include the data AND results files. That's $1.25 per track per (race) day. A track that runs 20 times per month would cost $25/month if my math is right. If you choose to keep data on five tracks your cost is already over the $120/month the HDW version would cost -- for ALL tracks. The advantage of Bris would be cross-compatibility with other software. I'm assuming that the HDW files could only be used with Jcapper.

You could also look at HTR. No Bris version, but the program is free and I believe that includes all updates. I think that the cost is the same -- $120/month for all track files.

And raybo also has made some suggestions for free alternatives, although a program like Handifast isn't really in the same league as top drawer software like Jcapper, HSH, HTR, or RDSS. And learning how to write programs yourself? See the HHXv3 thread for a reality check. :)

JCapper files are compatible with other programs running Brisnet files. Jeff contacted me with the idea of making his JCapper data files formatted to work in the free AllData workbooks and mapped those JCapper files several years ago to match the format of the Bris 1435 field files. The .xrd file format is also mapped the same as Brisnet's Exotic Results file, .xrd file.