Poki's Poker Academy - Opinions?

[popniklas]

Is this worth buying? Will it improve your game? If so, how? (I have a decent but not great win rate at microlimit/small stakes and am looking to improve. Been playing for 6 months.)

How does Poki fare compared to Turbo Texas Hold'em?

The reason I am asking is that everyone I've seen praise Poki on this forum has something like 4 posts, which makes me a little skeptical.

Thankful for your opinions.

[Wrecker]

I have 8 posts [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]. Try this link.
Thread

Regards, Wrecker

[jokerthief]

It's good for learning pot odds, implied odds, and pot equity. Another handy feature is you can have it give you a specified hand as many times in a row as you want. I played jacks like 500 times in a row when I first got it. Before I did that, I wasn't comfortable with jacks and misplayed them frequently. After playing it 500 times, I became totally comfortable with them. You can also fix your position, so you can practice playing in first position or in the blinds. The other thing is you can bang out thousands of hands of experience in no time, but it's not going to play like real real opponents so you have to be able to adjust when you get on the real tables. It's a computer and has no emotion. Reading emotion is a key part of my online game.

[Blarg]

I bought it and like it better than Turbo, but I actually rarely use either. I do think I'll probably spend some more time on Poker Academy Pro(the upgraded Poki) for heads-up practice at some point.

I think games like this are an excellent tool for learning the game and trying out the occasional concept, and are kind of fun, too. It usually takes people a while to really have the odds down so cold that they're not too much in the foreground of the decision making process, and poker software games can help you work through that. Ideally, when you play for real, you want to do it with as many technical aspects as possible already wired, so you can concentrate on the players and the table instead of getting lost fussing with numbers in your head and only stuck on the lowest levels of thinking.

So it's probably a good investment for the beginning player. I think a more advanced player might be too busy reading 2+2 books, playing, and posting hands for discussion, and commenting on others hands, to have much time for a software game. And that's probably as it should be.

[Crispy86]

[ QUOTE ]
I bought it and like it better than Turbo, but I actually rarely use either. I do think I'll probably spend some more time on Poker Academy Pro(the upgraded Poki) for heads-up practice at some point.

I think games like this are an excellent tool for learning the game and trying out the occasional concept, and are kind of fun, too. It usually takes people a while to really have the odds down so cold that they're not too much in the foreground of the decision making process, and poker software games can help you work through that. Ideally, when you play for real, you want to do it with as many technical aspects as possible already wired, so you can concentrate on the players and the table instead of getting lost fussing with numbers in your head and only stuck on the lowest levels of thinking.

So it's probably a good investment for the beginning player. I think a more advanced player might be too busy reading 2+2 books, playing, and posting hands for discussion, and commenting on others hands, to have much time for a software game. And that's probably as it should be.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a fan of the program, and am a beginner but I can't agree with your assessment all the same. I think a lot depends on what you seek of course, since Poki may be quite challenging to me, but soft competition for a seasoned pro. However, I think even a seasoned pro might have something to gain from using it. Before disregarding my opinion because of my declared playing ability, bear in mind I have many many years in game-related software (chess and backgammon) as a developer and as a trainer. It is my experience that the vast majority of players have very little idea as to how to maximize the teaching potential a program has to offer, to say no idea at all.

Even though I am only a master level chess player and decent backgammon player (rated 1900+ FIBS for what it's worth), I have trained national and international champions in both games in using their software to improve their game. Unless Poki is truly a complete dummy no matter how you prepare its settings, nor how much time you allow it to adapt its AI to your betting patterns (it takes a few hundred hands to start to do so), I'd be surprised if there was nothing to be gained. Probably its biggest strengths as a tool are its statistics, playing ability (it need only be of average ability to be very useful), and ability to customize the playing conditions. As mentioned by someone else in this thread, you can deal specific hands consistently, play a certain position constantly, and of course test out betting strategies. Suppose you wonder whether you might not have missed a chance to gain an extra bet against an opponent in a hand. It's a piece of cake to set this up in PA and then try various approaches. You can change the bot settings in case you think it is making things easy on you. If you play enough hands, you can see your winning stats according to your position and see whether you don't have any specific weaknesses. However, since you no doubt use PT far more, use its stats to get a read on your game, and then drill against PA. The obvious advantage being that it is systematic and costless. If you think it is too tight post-flop, loosen it up, etc. Or just do this to feel comfortable against different playing styles. And if you have a particular setup with particular bot settings, you can obviously save this as a custom table setting.

All in all, it's just to give some ideas and hopefully show that there's more to it than improving one's read of pot odds and the like.