Poker Academy Pro 2.0 is out

[Crispy86]

Poker Academy Pro 2.0 came out a few days ago, and it is a significant expansion and improvement over PA Pro 1.5.

There are a lot of improvements large and small, and it is a finer tool for them. The largest and most visible ones are the multi-tournament support, the online play, and the revamped stats.

The multi-tournament tables are completely customizable, and one can find a number of presets to simulate up to a full WSOP behemoth event. The sidebar will include a new panel on tournament standings, though the panels can all be minimized and maximized according to one's desires.

There are a number of new presets as well for those who play sit and gos at Party Poker and co. so that you can simulate an event with the same prize structure, rake structure, and starting chip counts. Thanks to the new stats, you will be able to also see how you do specifically at these events, compared to others.

Ring games have a few more presets as well, such as a specific low-limit table with bots set to simulate the play of micro-limit and small stakes play, as well as random table settings. Furthermore, in honor of Miller's book SSH, there is a bot set to play according to his opening hand advice. Finally, as was much requested, not only have rakes been added, but one can select the rake according to the place one wishes to emulate, from an online site such as Party Poker, Poker Stars, or Ultimate Bet, to the Mirage in Las Vegas.

As before, one can create one's own tables with types of play, players, custom name and save them, but now one can also export and import settings to share with other users.

The online play is NOT a new gambling source, unless it is done via a private agreement. Instead it is to allow PA2 users to meet online, either to play against others, or only with friends. You can set any number of options to the room, and after creating the room, I saw the options for all cards face up, and other usual ones (for PAPro) available, so I presume one can use them. When playing one always has the option to show either card or both before mucking. Missing items, to be added soon enough in the future, are password control of private rooms, and the option to add bots to fill up tables.

The stats underwent a complete overhaul and are amazingly detailed with numerous graphs. I hesitate to try to describe this, as I'm not even sure where to start. You can see your results per

- type of play (limit, no-limit, ring, tournaments),
- specific setting (party poker SNG, short-handed 6 max, etc)
- session

All respectively broken down according to dollars won, SB/hand, showdown%, etc. Not to mention with graphs per position, per types of hands (any ace, pairs, suited connectors, etc.). There is also a funny curiosity due to a new perk. The perk shows the winning % in a showdown, so that under the players' hands one can see the chance to win accoridng to the cards and flop, changing as each card appears. The curiosity is when one opts to use the playback for a session. When you play a session or tournament, you do not know what your opponents had nor their genuine winning chances if all the cards had been face up. Now, you can play a tournament, run the playback option, and see all the hands played, card-by-card (one can fast-forward, pause, etc), with all the cards face-up and all the respective winning chances under each player's cards according to each fold and card that appears on the board. Not only will you see who played what and the bluffs, but what your chances really were at each moment of the game.

There are a number of small perks that make training sessions that much more interesting and productive. Of course, there was the usual 'Zip' button to immediately accelerate play to the next deal, after one had folded, but now there is the auto-zip so that this is a default choice.

The training options continue to be rich though I really mostly make use of the detailed setup options. For example, you can have it deal only the the top 25% tier of hands, or more specific choices such as always dealing a jack and random card or a pair of specific hole cards. Naturally one can make similar choices for the board cards. In one exercise for example, I tested a couple of strategies when dealt pocket kings but a dreaded ace came out on the flop. If you do such drils or exercises, I'd suggest creating a separte profile so as to not create odd stats mixed up with your other playing stats.

There's a demo on the site, though I haven't tested it and cannot say what it shows, but can attest that the final product is easily worth the investment.

[william kidd]

Albert,
Great and informative post!
A question or two, if i may.
I came on here looking for comments on pro 2.0 and had to wade through all the pokersherlocks and pokerace threads.
Do you think it would be more wize to purchase the pro 2.0 and practice on that, or use the poker tracker and poker ace or sherlock and try live games to get better?
also, you said pro 2.0 was worth the money. have you made more money in live or internet games since you have started using pro 2.0?
I have heard of a game coming out called "stacked" that has daniel N. involved, it is said to have great AI. IS this going to compete with Pro 2.0 or is it only for entertainment and not teaching like pro 2.0?
Also...sorry...last question
I read where pokerprobot beat poki-x in heads up tourney in vegas...does this mean this indiana guys software(pokerprobot) is better than what poker academy is using for the pro 2.0 (poki-x)?

thank you for your time albert
wm k kidd

[Crispy86]

[ QUOTE ]
Albert,
Great and informative post!
A question or two, if i may.
I came on here looking for comments on pro 2.0 and had to wade through all the pokersherlocks and pokerace threads.
Do you think it would be more wize to purchase the pro 2.0 and practice on that, or use the poker tracker and poker ace or sherlock and try live games to get better?
also, you said pro 2.0 was worth the money. have you made more money in live or internet games since you have started using pro 2.0?
I have heard of a game coming out called "stacked" that has daniel N. involved, it is said to have great AI. IS this going to compete with Pro 2.0 or is it only for entertainment and not teaching like pro 2.0?
Also...sorry...last question
I read where pokerprobot beat poki-x in heads up tourney in vegas...does this mean this indiana guys software(pokerprobot) is better than what poker academy is using for the pro 2.0 (poki-x)?

thank you for your time albert
wm k kidd

[/ QUOTE ]

Note that the software you mentioned is completely different from Poker Academy, and though they may help your game, will do so differently.

Poker Tracker is an indispensable tool for any online player IMHO. It gathers your games, allows you to review played hands, and provides a colossal amount of information on your play, from financial details to every move you and your opponents make.

Poker Ace is an overlay program that uses Poker Tracker to provide live data such as VP$IP (voluntarily put money in pot) to other details under the name of each player at your table, whether from past sessions you've played against them, or just the current one. It may help your live play, if you are able to use this data to your advantage, but won't teach you a thing per se.

Poker Academy is a poker playing/training tool. It comes with a number of AIs, not just the well-known Poki (which is the AI licensed to Stacked BTW), to provide a variety of playing styles, including 2 AIs specifically designed for heads-up play, and adaptive AI according to the table. Poki will play differently in short-handed play, as it has been specifically trained for this. There are a number of preset tables to mimic low-limit play to tough and tricky play for higher limits, from 6-Max to full ring games. You'll get a ton of stats on your play, including your luck, and even you can get a lot of playing experience without losing a cent.

Aside from just playing experience, you can train specific situations, and have it deal them to your heart's content. For example, you could train hands with a Jack, from any position or just one position, or you could ask it to deal hands within the top 25% of hands, or you could ask it to deal only pocket queens against a flop with an ace in it, and test out different approaches, etc. You could do this in conjunction with Poker Tracker data mind you. Suppose you noticed that AQo was doing much worse than expected in your games. You could train this until you eliminated this problem area from your game.

As to whether or not I have earned more money with it, is a more complex question. The reason is that I'm not a vastly experienced player, and since I've always used software to help improve my games (chess, backgammon), I bought Poker Academy Pro 1.51, the previous version, within the first month of play. I'm sure it has helped me, but I don't have any Before/After data to provide.

Albert

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think it would be more wize to purchase the pro 2.0 and practice on that, or use the poker tracker and poker ace or sherlock and try live games to get better?


[/ QUOTE ]

These two options are not mutually exclusive... why not do both!

[ QUOTE ]
I have heard of a game coming out called "stacked" that has daniel N. involved, it is said to have great AI. IS this going to compete with Pro 2.0 or is it only for entertainment and not teaching like pro 2.0?

[/ QUOTE ]

Stacked is using the Poki AI engine.

For more info: http://www.consolegold.com/GameInfo/game/3047.html

Official Stacked Site: http://www.stackedpro.com/

[ QUOTE ]
I read where pokerprobot beat poki-x in heads up tourney in vegas...

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is the link to the World Poker Robot Championship: http://www.poker-academy.com/wprc/

[ QUOTE ]
does this mean this indiana guys software(pokerprobot) is better than what poker academy is using for the pro 2.0 (poki-x)?

[/ QUOTE ]

It means that pokerprobot beat poki-x in a heads up match.

When you start with a great AI engine and tweak it, you will have a better AI. This has been continuously demostrated by the numerous players that have tweaked the parameters of chessmaster with every AI version and are able to soundly defeat the released version. This invariably leads to a stronger AI in the next version of the software, and the cycle continues. This is one of the likely reasons why the Poki AI creators started this contest. The more heads working on optimizing the AI, the better it will become.