Software that will teach me how to play poker?

Well, that very much depends on a few things, but let's explore this case a bit more:

- To give it an clear example, I used the following for my hand: 6s 6c. And this for the board: 7s Qh 9d Ad. This matches your case.

- Against one opponent (heads up), my equity is about 49%, and the opponent about 51%.

- We can test this in other poker calculators. I used Poker Stove, and got exactly the same results. Of course, throughout the development of PDM, we tested and compared our results to many products across a wide range of hands and situations. PDM is not lying to you! The math/method of the equiity is very basic and standard.

- With two opponents, my chance of winning goes down to 24.28%, with the two other unknown opponents having 37.86%

- three opponents: 13.01%/29.00%

So, we can see that while a low pair is barely passable heads up (and actually still worse than average), we really start losing with the hand as more people are in. This is expected, and normal.

I understand that your instincts would make you conclude first that the program in in err, rather than assume you're wrong in your judgement. But this just goes to show how much people need a tool like PDM to quickly test themselves, and develop their intuitive judgement of pot odds and equity. I know for myself, I'm usually 'surprised' by about 1 hand in 20 now, and it was higher at first.

Dan Pronovost
www.PokerDrillMaster.com
dan@deepnettech.com

[ddubois]

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The math/method of the equiity is very basic and standard

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From what I'm seeing in this thread, one might say too basic. 49% equity against a random hand is nothing like 49% equity when 'he's betting into you'. Ignore bayesian analysis at your own peril.

I have poker academy Pro 2.0 and I think it plays no limit horribly. I guess it's got some tools in it that should teach you how to play. I don't use any other software, but I don't really think academy is what yoiu're looking for. I think the sparbot plays limit heads up pretty well, but the computer seems to ignore a lot of signs that it's in trouble and it's not aggressive a lot of the time. From what I can tell of using it, it's definetly a limit machine and probably best to be a heads-up limit machine. even the creators say that the poki bots play a little better than the average (bad) low-limit player. I'm not very good (i'm a 'good' low-limit player) and I can beat it consistently so I don't think it's much of a sparring partner.

Academy learns from your play so you have to play with it a lot for it to learn, so maybe sparbot will beat me up in a while, but I doubt it. (the creators call their computer opponents "pokibots" and sparbot is their heads-up champion).

And I think the hand evaluator sucks. It tells you % of making 2 pair but not a split 2-pair (e.g. AK with AQQ board counts the same as an AK7 board although I don't think you'd feel quite the same about each hand).

IF you want to practice heads-up no-limit against a computer for $130. then buy academy. Otherwise, just by Sklansky's theory of poker and suck it up. It's a pretty easy read. But there might be good software teachers I don't know about.

[OrianasDaad]

Instructional videos are probably the way to go. There's only a few ways to get new information into your head:

1. Read it. (unwanted)
2. Rediscover it. (unlikely)
3. Have someone tell you.

As far as reading, there's only two things you need to know to play mathematically correct poker. The Fundamental Theory of Poker, and how to do basic EV calculations. The rest comes with experience.