Celebrating 15 Years of GipsyTeam Shop: Play Our $1,500 Freeroll

Long, long ago, on December 19, 2011, we launched the GipsyTeam Shop.

At first, Hold'em Manager 2 and PokerTracker 3 were available. Players could track game results from PokerTableRatings and Sharkscope, and the only ways to pay were WebMoney and Moneybookers (Skrill's name until 2011).

Our product range gradually expanded, and the store grew larger and larger each year:

2012 — ICMIZER and PokerTracker 4
2013 — CoffeeHUD for PT4
2014 — StarsHelper, card payment
2015 — Simple Postflop
2016 — Hand2Note
2018 — Simple GTO Trainer with PioSOLVER integration and GipsyTeam merch
2019 — ICMIZER3 and GipsyTeam stickers
2020 — PreflopHero and GTOBase
2021 — PreflopHero MTT
2022 — PLO MasterMind
2023 – GTO Wizard, HRC and Jurojin Poker
2024 – PLO Genius, GipsyTeam HUD, Statname, DriveHUD2, POSTFLOPIZER
2025 — PokerSnowie, new GipsyTeam merch
2026 — GTO Lab, Lobbyze

Andrey master_TAG has been running the GipsyTeam Shop since day one. We about asked how it all began.

Hi! How have you been running the store for almost 15 years?

I started out as an ordinary member of the GipsyTeam forum, playing micro and low-stakes tournaments after work. Over time I got interested in poker software. Back then the big programs were Hold'em Manager 1 and PokerTracker 3; solvers and the solvers we have today didn't exist yet. As I learned the software, I started answering other users' questions on the forum.
Soon people were messaging me privately and on Skype, and I'd help them set things up over TeamViewer for free. At one point I had almost a thousand Skype contacts: forum regulars, well-known pros, GipsyTeam staff.
Then GipsyTeam posted on the forum that it was looking for a moderator for the poker software section. I badly wanted the role but didn't put myself forward, partly out of shyness and partly because it felt like a big responsibility. By then, though, I was so active on the forum that plenty of users nominated me in the thread. Ruslan Bangert reached out and offered me the job, and there was no way I was saying no.
While I was working on some FAQs for Hold'em Manager 2, one of the founders offered me a job at the soon-to-launch GipsyTeam store.

Do you still spend a lot of time tinkering with poker software?

There's a difference between using software as a player and using it as the person responsible for the store, who has to understand the product.
I know and have worked with most of the major programs on the market: trackers, solvers, calculators and utilities. With some, it was enough to understand how they work, how they install and what problems users typically run into. With others, I had to dig deeper to work out who the product is for and how to describe it accurately.
But I won't pretend I'm constantly in every solver at the level of a strong player or coach. Our job is to understand the market, the products and how people use them. For deep expertise in the tools themselves, there are professional players and coaches.

Choosing Which Products to Offer

How do you decide which products make it into the store?

The main test is whether the product is genuinely useful to players and worthy of GipsyTeam's reputation. We don't want the store to become a catalog of everything out there.
We look at several things: who the developer is, whether the product has real users, how clear its value is, and whether it comes with proper support, regular updates, a website, documentation and a reliable licensing system. We don't want buyers stuck with something that technically exists but that nobody can explain, with no one to contact when problems come up.
We'll never stock products that promise the impossible, pitch themselves as a "magic win button," break poker room rules or raise security concerns. Poor support is another red flag. Even a good product becomes a problem if the developer ignores users, doesn't fix bugs and stops maintaining it.

How do you find out about new products?

From lots of places. We keep a constant eye on the market: what players are talking about, what developers are building, and what tools coaches, staking funds and regulars use. Some things we find ourselves; others come from users asking, "Why don't you carry this program?" Often the developers reach out to us first.
We also have an advantage. GipsyTeam has been part of the poker ecosystem for a long time, so we see beyond the storefront to real demand: what problems players face, what software they're looking for, where new formats are emerging and which programs are becoming the standard.

Changes in the Last Few Years

How has the poker software market changed over the past 3-5 years?

The biggest shift has been from desktop programs for advanced users to convenient cloud-based subscription services. Players used to buy a program, install it, configure it themselves, run the calculations themselves and wait hours for results, all while maintaining their own databases. Now many people want to open a browser and get answers immediately.
Software has also become much more user-friendly. Interfaces, visualizations, presets, ready-made reports and built-in training all matter far more now. Powerful math on its own isn't enough anymore.
The market has matured, too. Players understand better what they need, and developers compete not just on features but on speed, convenience, support and ecosystem.
One more important factor: poker rooms now pay much closer attention to third-party software. Products have to account for room rules, HUD restrictions, limits on real-time tools and other details.

What was at the top product before, and what are players loving now?

In 2012 the top sellers were PokerTracker 4, Hold'em Manager 2 and SharkScope. In 2018 it was Hand2Note 3, ICMIZER 2 and Simple Postflop. Today it's Hand2Note (versions 3 and 4), Captions, GTO Wizard, Jurojin Poker and HRC.

Tell me a little about the industry.

How much do developers of major software, like GTO Wizard, earn?

That's confidential, and nobody outside these companies knows the exact numbers. But broadly speaking, major poker software is no longer the story of one enthusiast hacking together a calculator after work.
Successful products have full teams: developers, analysts, designers, support, marketing and server infrastructure. They run on subscriptions, have thousands of users and serve both individual players and businesses. So the market leaders can bring in serious revenue.
But the costs are enormous too, especially for cloud-based tools like GTO Wizard: servers, computation, data storage, ongoing development, security, support and marketing. From the outside it's easy to think, "The subscription is expensive, so they must be raking it in." In reality, large-scale poker software is a full-fledged IT business with major expenses.

How much would it cost to develop advanced software like Flopzilla?

It depends heavily on the scope. If we're talking not about a simple calculator but a stable commercial product with an interface, licensing, updates, support and solid math under the hood, you're looking at tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And the first working version often isn't the expensive part. A prototype can be built fairly quickly. The real costs begin when you turn it into something thousands of people actually use: fixing bugs, polishing the interface, writing documentation, handling payments and security, supporting different systems, shipping updates.
Flopzilla looks simple precisely because good software often does. That simplicity comes from years of refinement and a real understanding of how players think about hands.

Why is there still no popular software for exotic but fairly popular variants like Squid or Mississippi?

Are they harder to solve?

First, the market is small. Even if a variant is popular in certain circles, its paying audience may be tiny compared to Hold'em or Omaha, and a developer needs to know the work will pay off.
Second, math and performance. The more cards, streets, action options and hidden information a game has, the harder it is to build a fast, user-friendly tool. Even if it's possible in theory, it may not make commercial sense.
Third, the training ecosystem. Hold'em has a huge market of coaches, schools, staking funds and content. Software thrives where there's an ecosystem around it, and for exotic games that ecosystem is much smaller.

Why Not Buy Direct from Developers?

Let me put myself in the shoes of a potential buyer.

Why should I buy software from GipsyTeam rather than directly from the developer?

The main advantages are support for many languages, convenient payment methods, a wide range of poker software and related products (courses, merch, accessories) in one place, a single order history, and customer support. Not everyone is comfortable navigating English-language websites, payments, licenses, support, or the details of renewals and activation.
We help at every step: choosing the right product, paying, getting or activating your key, sorting out access problems, and explaining who to contact and what to do if something goes wrong.
We can also compare programs side by side. A developer will always say their product is the best. The store sees the whole market and can give more honest advice: this program suits this task, that one suits another.

What software is most useful for someone new to poker who has never used these tools?

In short: don't start with the most complex and expensive tools.

A beginner first needs to know what they're trying to achieve. If you play cash games or online tournaments, a basic tracker can be very useful: it shows your stats, helps you find leaks and lets you analyze your hand history. If you're just learning to review hands, a simple equity calculator is a good start. It teaches you to think in ranges rather than specific hands.

Solvers and GTO tools are useful too, but a complete beginner who buys one will open something far too complex for their level, see a wall of frequencies, colors and lines, and have no idea what to do with it. They own the software, but it does them little good.

So my basic advice: start with a tracker and a simple range tool, then move on to advanced calculators and solvers once you have the fundamentals down.

If I buy a program that I don’t know how to use, will you help me?

Yes, of course. We don't just sell keys. For technical issues, we'll help with activation, installation, license renewals and upgrades, moving to a new computer, and payment or access problems. For basic usage questions, we'll help too: where to download it, where to find the instructions, how to launch it, where to click and what the first steps are.

But there's a difference between support and full training. We can help you find your way around the interface and fix common problems, but we can't replace a solver coach. If someone wants to learn complex software in depth, we'll point them to guides, courses, manuals or specialists.

We're Celebrating This Anniversary: $1,500 Freeroll

To celebrate our store's fifteenth anniversary, we'll be holding a $1,500 tournament at PokerDom.

We invite everyone who's ever visited us and purchased anything to participate. It doesn't matter how long ago it was or how much you bought: even if you bought PokerTracker in 2011, we'll contact you via private message on the website and give you a ticket.

If you're not yet a customer, it's never too late to start! The tournament will be open to new customers.

Here's how to participate:

Log in to the GipsyTeam website (or create an account if you don't have one yet)
Buy any product in GipsyTeam Shop from October 1 to October 31
Send the code word DR15 to our support service.

The tournament will be held at PokerDom:

Start Time: November 7 at 4:00 PM GMT time
Tournament Name: 15 Years Together! GipsyTeam Store Anniversary
6-max Freezeout Format
Starting Stack of 200 blinds
Levels Increase: every 6 minutes
NO Late Registration

If you don't have an account at the poker room, our support service will help you create one.