Weird, wild stuff that make me scratch my head

[leviathan74]

My default database's size is 32GB; data start on Jan. 1 2015. It's running on a 4770k with 32GB of RAM and an EV0 840 500GB SSD. Since I was concerned that the database had been corrupted, I created a new database from scratch using the exact same data set.

These are issues I have noticed for a long time, although lately i feel that with the database reaching the size of my memory, it's slowed down. So, without further ado.

Issue #1

Filters have strange effects on how fast the database presents data.

Let's say I am looking at the advanced stats tab. If I filter by month, I get data after 5 seconds. If I filter by since date 2/1/2019, I get data after 2 seconds.

If I filter by year, data shows up after 6 seconds. I filter by since date 1/1/2019, data shows up after 2.5 seconds.

WTF? But there's more.

If I filter by all dates, data shows up in 4 seconds. If I filter by since date 1/1/2015 which is when the dataset starts, it takes 1 minute 30 seconds.

All of this is somewhat baffling, no? What is happening.

Issue #2

Filters work in mysterious ways

Since January 2017, I have played 12136 tournaments.

Let's say I filter by Spin and Gos defined as Tournament Description: STT (3 Max) Hyper-Turbo SNG Lottery.

I get 1087 tournaments.

Let's say I want to filter those spin and gos out of my overall sample. I go to filters and choose the NOT Selected options.

Now the overall number of tournaments is 8558. But if the number I started of with was 12136 and I filtered out 1087, I should be getting 11049 Tournaments. Why are more tournaments filtered out?

The way I overcome this problem is by defining tournaments according to their buy-ins which are fairly unique, but still, this is baffling.

Issue #3

Pokertracker is faulty as an Accounting tool.

The Hud is great. Stats about your play are great, even though they take a long time to load. But as an instrument of accounting, as a way to accurately track your wins and losses in tournaments, not only it isn't accurate, it's inconsistent.

Let me give you an example. On my results since 1/1/2018, there's a discrepancy of around $2,000 between the numbers I get in my default database and the database I created from scratch.

You may say, this maybe due to the fact that you were using different PT4 versions when you were importing the data originally, whereas you used the latest PT4 version when you created your new database.

But that's not the case. I did the following experiment. I took the last day I played, this past Sunday 2/10/2019 and I imported it on the new database. There's a $20 discrepancy.

So, then I thought maybe the discrepancy is due to the way data is imported. In one use case, pokertracker imports hand histories in real time, whereas in the latter case pokertracker imports hand histories from the disc, so maybe it's doing it in a different way.

So, what I did is create a new third database. I then copy/pasted the hand history to my default Pokerstars hand history folder. Then I clicked Get Hands When Playing in order to replicate live history conditions. And yet, the third database gave me the same results as the third database.

You may say this is only a $20 difference, but these small mistakes add up. Besides, I don't know which database does it correctly, although I think the original import was more correct rather than not.

This is a bit of an issue for me, because besides my database, I have a full history database in which I import hand histories after the fact. If the results aren't accurate, my only option is to go day by day switching between databases to correct the discrepancies and that's just a major pain and requires ton of tedious work and I just give up.

I understand that with all the tournaments out there and the new formats coming out virtually every other day is tough to keep the program up to speed, but I think this is an area you should focus on. Maybe getting 100% accuracy is a tall order. But having the various import options delivering consistent results without discrepancies is a reasonable ask I think.

All in all, this feedback is offered in a constructive spirit and I hope you will find a way to address these issues sooner than later.

PS. Speaking of new formats, 888 introduced PKO tournaments. Even though I have asked them to, they do not add the money you won in bounties in their tournament summaries; PT4 doesn't track them either, so if you could fix that, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Flag_Hippo]

1. That's quite a complicated topic and it depends on a few factors including the specific database query and whether the database cache can be used or not.

If I filter by all dates, data shows up in 4 seconds. If I filter by since date 1/1/2015 which is when the dataset starts, it takes 1 minute 30 seconds.

Using 'All Dates' isn't actually applying a filter but when you add a filter like 'Since Date' ('Date' text in sidebar changes to blue) the database has to be queried based on that so it will naturally take longer. If you want to follow up further on any of this then send a log file to us with the queries in a Support Ticket.

2. Send us the information detailing this in a Support Ticket with your log file so we can see what's going on:

Tutorial: Reporting A Problem

3. Data is parsed the same when auto importing or manual importing however the auto-importer isn't designed for large imports and it will ignore older files for performance reasons. If you have an issue with your results then include all relevant information detailing the problem (calculations, screenshot(s)) in a Support Ticket and attach your sample of original hand history/tournament summary files for these tournaments.

PS. If 888 add bounty information to their hand history/summary files please send them to us.