Poki to be commercially released!

[AcesFull]

Spike,

Please post back here after you USED the Poki for awhile to see if you got your $70 worth. As a professional player, I laugh silently to myself when "serious" recreational players complain about spending $30 or $45 for what they know is a good poker book.

Or they are "shocked" to find out that Sklansky charges a few hundred per hour for private lessons. But if you are indeed a semi-pro or pro, there really is no cost to these purchases. Because, you will given a very reasonable amount of time (few weeks to few months) recover that cost in your new increased EV per hour and the rest of your life, it's all free extra money earned per hour.

I know it's annoying that the software enforces purchasers to one machine per purchase. I just read the thread below that they increased it to two machines per purchase now. Which is great since most people have a laptop and a desktop.

But when I bought mine, I knew it required activation via internet to one machine to prevent piracy. I think Pokertracker software does the same and Pokerstat enforces anti-piracy via requiring your Paradise handle to burn the software copy with your handle so no one else can use it.

[vandar]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to clarify a common misconception....

If you played Poki heads-up on the UofA poker server, you are justified in saying that it sucks. The "Poki Heads-up" Bot was just a full-ring poki stuffed into a heads-up channel. Poki was never designed or tuned to play Heads-up poker, and consequently it is a terrible heads-up player.

However, we have recently developed two strong heads-up players (Sparbot & Vexbot) and they both understand bluffing *extremely* well :-) (Sparbot is a game-theoretic solution to an approximation of Hold'em, of which bluffing is a critical component).

The commercial product (of which I am the lead programmer) incorporates 5 completely different AI Engines developed by our UofA research program, not just the original full-ring 'Poki'.

Cheers,
Aaron


[/ QUOTE ]

Hi,
Can you correct me if i'm wrong on the follow:
Poki employs using basic odds/strategy without adaptation.

Sparbot uses Poki's features plus it adds is a game-theoretic optimal approximation.. Does this mean Sparbot is PsOpti?
Does Vexbot uses all of the above, plus opponent modeling and adaptation?

Is the bot hierarchy Vexbot (best), followed by Sparbot, followed by Poki?
Does the poki software feature all bot types?
....

Sorry I'm a bit confused by all the bot versions and what features/algorithms they employ.

------

[vandar]

i have more questions about the poki software. I downloaded the demo for Turbo Texas holdem (by wilson software), and the demo for Poki's Academy. I noticed that Poki's academy does not have an "Advice" feature. This seems like a pretty crucial feature to have.
Will this be added in the future?

[Redleg7]

Thanks for the info.

Do you know (or can anyone comment) if there will be a Tournament version, or a NL version?

Thanks.

[DOTTT]

I believe that they are working on a tournament version, but it wont be released for some time.

[midas]

AF:

Are you getting a cut of the Poki profits? Your review is posted on their web page.

If you are biased - please disclose.

BTW - serious players should buy all the programs available - if you can't afford the $$$ - poker may not be the game for you.

[AcesFull]

Hi Midas;

No, I'm not getting a cut of the profit from Poki. I have nothing to do with the site. Just a customer. I paid full price $70 with my AMEX and downloaded the software on my dial-up. I'm just genuinely excited whenever a excellent software product comes out that helps me become a better player.

I'm also a strong supporter of pokerstat, pokertracker, statking, pokerstove, etc. which are ALL excellent poker tools.

But having a Poki-based software tool is one of the most enjoyable and beneficial poker products that I can imagine owning. I just wanted to share my intial experience with the software since there was a thread here asking about it. And since it just recently came out, I was pretty sure not many people had yet tried the software.

[bmedwar]

If I learn to beat Poki's PPA main table at a .05 sb/h rate for 5000+ hands, but have never played online poker for money before, what limit game should I start out with assuming that I have a big enough bankroll to not go bust after a few bad hands. Would the style of play I perfect on PPA be suboptimal against $1-$2 opponents; would playing those games take me a step back? On the other hand, if I started at 30-60 games, would I be able to handle it psychologically if I lost big early on (questioning my style even if it is correct).

[DOTTT]

I downloaded Poki last week and have played just over 12000 hands on it. I found the main table to be way to easy, and was hoping for something more challenging. Poki does allow you to change the personalities of the players on the table to fit your desired level of play so that's a plus, and once I made the changes I found it more to my liking. I would rate the main table as being a $3-$6 or a $5-$10 table at Party.

If you currently play lower limits such as $1-$2 or $2-$4 then the 'Wild Gamblers' table is definitely helpful. The play is almost exactly what you can expect at these lower limits.

The best feature of Poki, and the main reason why I purchased it is its heads up bots. These are really difficult to go up against and after playing 6000 hands I'm currently down .3 BB per hand. If you’re a beginner Poki gives you a great crash course; an opportunity to learn full table, short handed, and heads up play. If you’re an expert looking to improve your heads up play then Poki is a must buy.

[Eldon]

Bought Poki Academy and find it much tougher than Wilson. I consider it an excellent investment.