Poki to be commercially released!

[spike]

Of course, having felt duped already (as described above) I decided to read the license agreement in full. How many of you ever do that?

The poki-poker web site asserts that this software is only available for download via the Internet.

The license agreement guarantees that "the media on which the Software is furnished under normal use will be free from defects;"

Are BioTools guaranteeing that the Internet is defect free?

Spike.

[Gnug315]

Aces, as you might be aware, while Snowie has helped no less than 99% of all professional BG players improve dramatically, it's also the game's eventual downfall, gambling-wise: the % of players reaching a world-class level of skill is becoming so big, each one is suffering seperately. Meanwhile, it educates the general mob in terms such as "equity" and other critical game dynamics, something that really cuts down on their willingness to play against pros.

Naturally, the nature of the game poker makes it much less vulnerable to such programs. Also, the sheer amount of popularity it enjoys, atleast hundredfold of bg, means there will always be huge amounts of ppl passing in and out of the enviroment, ensuring endless infusions of fresh blood.

However, what I'm trying to say is that the last thing you want is an awesome all-round program that slaughters 99% of all players, because IF it becomes the New Wonder inside the poker world, world famous etc, it will heavily cut into your profits. The thought might amuse you now, but when your yearly winnings drop from, say, 6 figures to nothing, you won't be so amused.

What you DO want is precision tools for analyzing specifis aspects of the game - something too complicated or specific for the average Joe to draw any use of, but of great value to you. I, for example, would love to know a specific hand's preflop allin % chance of winning vs a random hand, or even several.

Anyhoo, just my 2 cents.

I'll be the first in line for this software, naturally [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[DOTTT]

I would be very intreasted in a tournament version of Poki. Anyone know if they are planning on developing one?

[bmedwar]

I've played the TTHv5 demo for 10 minutes and 750 Poki hands (mostly 10 player table; some heads-up). The main thing that stands out is that Poki has a much nicer interface. It looks kind of like Paradise poker. The menu's and dialog boxes are easy to access and don't get in the way. And it is FAST. I was blazing through hands. I think this is important, b/c it helps you baseline different strategies quickly.

I am a novice poker player (have read some books, play weekly neighborhood game, on my last trip to Vegas I "survived" the 4-8 games at Binion's and Billigio).

Compared to free games on Paradise and Yahoo!, Poki is a much better learning tool, because it is faster, and the opponents are much better. I definitely noticed that the opponents maximized their winnings when they had the best hand while minimizing my winnings when I had the best hand. Now I've just got to figure out how to reverse that. You can't learn to slow play pocket Aces on Yahoo!; the other players are too wild.

[bmedwar]

[ QUOTE ]
I, for example, would love to know a specific hand's preflop allin % chance of winning vs a random hand, or even several.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've calculated this using the free version of Poki available at http://spaz.ca/aaron/poker/src/.

My data is at http://chrissyandbrian.com/holeprob.txt. I only did it for S&M playable hands (groups 1 thru 8). The raw numbers are for a single opponent, but there is an algorithm at the top for computing the probability vs. multiple opponents. These are exact calculations, not simulations. So 23s has 36% chance of winning vs. a single opponent if you are both all-in from the get go. I'm not too sure how useful this info is, for making poker decisions.

[Analyst]

[Aaron Davidson]

Spike,

We have changed our policy to allow up to two activations of the same key. We were already allowing people to do this if they asked us directly, but we will now allow it automatically. We've also made efforts to word the policy more clearly on our ordering page.

Cheers,
Aaron

[Gnug315]

I'm hopeless at math, so can't use it for multiple hands.

I think it's quite useful for things like stealing blinds in late stage NL tourney play, and ofcourse 1v1 NL tourneys.

[AcesFull]

Hi Redleg7,

Before this commercial version of Poki came out, I was always a big supporter of Turbo Texas Holdem. Since it (TT) WAS the best holdem software available on the market. I purchased and used TT from the early days using the DOS version. And of course, paid the small charge to get the upgrades to the different Windows version that came out.

I used to use TT to setup scenarios and run some simulations. I also played against the different profiles for some "fun" practice, but they were too easy to beat for me. And then when online poker for real money became available, I pretty much stopped using TT because I rather make lots of real money instead of pounding away at a fairly easy computer opponent.

In fact, as I have upgraded my computers (desktop and laptop) over the years, I didn't even bother to reinstall TT onto my newer machines. I basically did not want to be tempted to waste my time playing dumb bots for nothing instead of dumb humans for real bucks in a online cardroom. When I wanted to run simulations of hand strengths, I used PokerWiz or Prock's PokerStove.

The ability to setup holdem hand scenarios was very useful and powerful on TT. But unfortunately, it was limited to the TT profile strength which was not that strong.

Currently the Poki-poker software does not offer any capability to setup hand scenarios. However, in my recent email to their support department, they assured me that this capability was at the top of their To-do-list.

Basically with the release of this Poki, I can't imagine how Turbo Texas Holdem can stay in business. The Poki people definitely need to get the setup scenario options and some other additional features (hand history replayer, Data exporting capability, etc.) quickly implemented to bring the product into a more complete software package. But Poki actually cost a little less than TT and it's "brain", the Poki engine completely blows away TT's playing ability.

[AcesFull]

Gnug315,

YOU said: >> The thought might amuse you now, but when your yearly winnings drop from, say, 6 figures to nothing, you won't be so amused. <<

There's nothing in your post that is a revelation for me. Basically, I totally agree with everything you posted. My initial post was just a review for a very exciting new product for the poker community. I never claimed there was no downside ultimately to the professionals bottom-line. I'm very intimately aware of the impact of Jellyfish and Snowie upon the professional backgammon players bottom-line.

Many former backgammon pros and semi-pros like myself have turned to poker due to increased sophistication of the "average" recreational player due to software like Snowie and excellent backgammon literature. Erik Seidel, Tom McEvoy, Paul Magriel, Gus Hansen, etc.. were all former backgammon pros.

But like you said, there's a much bigger ocean of fish in the poker pond than in the backgammon pond. So, there should be enough fishing available for some time to come. And poker is at a all time peak due to the WPT, online poker and the Moneymaker success story.