Developing Software like PT - Any suggestions?

PSUinDC · #1 01-28-2005, 06:52 PM

Hi all... while I sit at my mundane job, awaiting a government security clearance, I found myself wanting to work on my programming skills. I started to read about Poker Tracker and was very interested in making something like this.

After a few weeks of writing and testing code, I have a preliminary version of such a product that works for UB, and soon Party Poker. I really wanted to know what kind of statistics everyone is looking for in a software package.

I am pretty much using all of the statistics (for individuals, and by starting hand) that PT uses, and am starting features for finding stats on flopping OES-draws and Flush draws, and other fancy stuff.

Also, the database that stores the information is a central mySQL server, which makes this quite a powerful tool if multiple people are inputting hands into it.

What would you all like to see in a poker hand history stats software?

Yads · #2 01-28-2005, 07:35 PM

I'd like to know how often a player sees the flop, not just VPIP.

I also have another comment for you. Does MySQL now support foreign keys and sub searches, because at one point I know they didn't. Would that not make development a bit of a hassle?

capybara · #3 01-28-2005, 09:23 PM

This isn't really about statistics, but if you make something that works for Omaha/8 on Party you'll have an instantly viable product, even if only rudimentary features are available.

The MySQL-backed approach seems desirable, especially if you can thereby avoid the 100,000 hand limit of PokerTracker.

Rudbaeck · #4 01-28-2005, 09:30 PM

That it stores stats for non-HE games. Stud, stud/8, omaha, omaha/8 would be awesome. I don't need all the depth of PT, just the basic stats.

AAmaz0n · #5 01-28-2005, 09:54 PM

I haven't seen anything like PT in a Palm or other handheld format. I'd love to have something that I could create hand histories and stats with when I play live. Even if I could just record the hands when I'm playing and then download them into a desktop application for further review would be great.

Shauna

bigmac366 · #6 01-28-2005, 10:19 PM

something that kept track of basic stats for stud or omaha would be great. even if it only kept track of wins/losses, and rake paid it would still be great. if you can accomplish something like that you could make a pretty penny...

bisonbison · #7 01-28-2005, 10:45 PM

PT fills a big niche and it fills it very well. I don't see the point in replicating the huge amount of work that Pat has done.

But the suggestion of supporting Stud or Omaha is a great one. You will get a huge response if you supported these, and it would definitely make the games more popular here.

PSUinDC · #8 01-29-2005, 12:49 AM

I'm really not out to be competition... my original intentions were to just work on my own programming. I haven't played a lot of stud and Omaha... I would have to check on the rules for those games to get the right statistics, but I wouldnt see how it'd be hard to set up.

PSUinDC · #9 01-29-2005, 12:51 AM

I don't know about foreign keys, but sub searches are available. For what I've done so far, a lot of the super complex SQL statements aren't totally necessary... I've been doing a lot of the statistics from PHP code, using loops and arrays... all of the stats will be dynamically created.

bisonbison · #10 01-29-2005, 01:29 AM

Well, I'm not saying that you're out for competition, but a niche is a niche, and it would take an incredible amount of work to offer a product as useful for Hold'em as PT is. And it would take most people several months to equal PT + a basic knowledge of excel.

However, if you were to work on games that PT doesn't support, you'd get immediate positive feedback, possible monetary support and a real novel product.

I recommend not replicating PT for the same reason I recommend not replicating MS Word. Why bother? There are clearly needs that people will hail you for.