As for TTHE v4.0 I can tell you this:


I am a novice player and have found it a great learning tool. Yes, it takes # of players and many other things into account.


Two serious shortcomings:

1) Not too hard to beat; I set it to the most difficult settings and beat "Challenge Mike the Advisor" regularly. Have only lost once out of about 10 times so far. This seems due to #2...


2) The profiles do not seem to take into account "what does the other player have and can I best him" as far as I can tell. Thus, the will play into you when they're "clearly" beat. Furthermore, the profiles (opponents) play is decided by complex tables and formulae, and I can tell by their play more or less what they hold. That is to say, I watch how the advisor tells me to play specific hands, and I can spot similar play in my computer opponents. OK, I have studied A LOT of HE books and musings but I'm still no expert. I have also only played perhaps 2500 hands on TTHE and I can beat it now.


Is it worthless, then? Absolutely not. Should I follow its advice to a tee? No again. The deal is that while I generally agree that the advice is good perhaps 95% of the time, when the advisor tells me to do something that seems inherently wrong I question it, debate and usually play it a second time (repeat hand) using the advisor's advice instead of mine. That's a great tool to learn with, and it helps me constantly question my judgement.


If I could change anything, it would be to make the profiles a little more randomized and less predictable.


Still, I think it's great and has taught me rather quickly some fundamental shortcomings in my game which were easy to rectify. My current favorite was to play is set it to pretty difficult and have it rotate opponents periodically while hiding their names so I cannot predict them as easily. I also usually set it to deal only hands worthy of a call or raise pre-flop to get the most out of my study time as I more or less know what pocket cards to avoid playing at all given the current table.


Maybe I'll buy Ace Spade's HE program and write a comparison review some day. Anyone want to donate for a worthy cause?