Poker Copilot Hidden Features 4: Summaries

In this video, see how to view the numbers behind the statistics in the Hands summary, Players summary, Stake Level summary, and Position summary. See how to add additional statistics to the summaries.

PokerZebra now running on Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)

PokerZebra is the working name for a Texas Hold'em Poker Odds Calculator for Mac OS X. You can download PokerZebra here. Leopard or Snow Leopard required. I suspect it will only work on Intel macs, but I could be wrong.

I hoped to introduce ranges of hands this weekend. But I chose to be social and hung out with friends instead.

Here's what you need to know:

• This works on Intel Macs running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) and Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). Perhaps I'll be able to add PPC and Tiger support soon. No promises though.


• Currently ranges of hands are not supported. This will come soon.


• Send feedback and bug reports to pokerzebra@pokercopilot.com

What's the All-in Equity Value Here?

I've spent the couple of days comparing Poker Copilot equity value calculations with Hold'em Manager (HEM). When I find discrepancies, I tweaked my code to fix the problem.

Below is an unusual case, where the HEM result leaves me baffled. I was the big blind, but didn't have enough chips to fully pay it. Therefore I was forced to go all-in when posting the blind. I was holding pocket aces.

HEM says my equity was 3.4%. It says my expected value was -85 chips. I'm puzzled as to how this was calculated. Any ideas, blog readers?

Full Tilt Poker Game #17296899286: .COM 250 Play Chip Sit & Go (129805519), Table 4 - 200/400 - No Limit Hold'em - 7:22:32 ET - 2010/01/03
Seat 2: Tarheel Hugo (8,165)
Seat 3: tampaxs (11,920), is sitting out
Seat 4: Beschiii (22,415)
Seat 5: ALLA53 (11,040), is sitting out
Seat 6: Hondaddicted (17,385)
Seat 7: stevoski111 (95), is sitting out
Seat 9: mfgiovani (16,200)
Hondaddicted posts the small blind of 200
stevoski111 posts the big blind of 95, and is all in
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stevoski111 [As Ad]
mfgiovani folds
Tarheel Hugo folds
tampaxs folds
Beschiii calls 400
ALLA53 folds
Hondaddicted calls 200
*** FLOP *** [8h Ts 9c]
Hondaddicted checks
Beschiii bets 400
Hondaddicted calls 400
*** TURN *** [8h Ts 9c] [7c]
Hondaddicted has 15 seconds left to act
Hondaddicted bets 1,695
Beschiii has 15 seconds left to act
Beschiii folds
Hondaddicted shows [Jd Kh]
stevoski111 shows [As Ad]
Uncalled bet of 1,695 returned to Hondaddicted
*** RIVER *** [8h Ts 9c 7c] [6c]
Hondaddicted wins the side pot (1,410)
Hondaddicted shows a straight, Jack high
stevoski111 shows a straight, Ten high
Hondaddicted wins the main pot (285) with a straight, Jack high
stevoski111 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,695 Main pot 285. Side pot 1,410. | Rake 0
Board: [8h Ts 9c 7c 6c]
Seat 2: Tarheel Hugo didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: tampaxs didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Beschiii folded on the Turn
Seat 5: ALLA53 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Hondaddicted (small blind) showed [Jd Kh] and won (1,695) with a straight, Jack high
Seat 7: stevoski111 (big blind) showed [As Ad] and lost with a straight, Ten high
Seat 9: mfgiovani didn't bet (folded)

Genuine Praise

You know someone really likes your product when he offers to invest in it.

A great idea. Many thanks. I feel that Poker Copilot will go a long way... Are you looking for investment at all? I think the Mac poker software market has a huge gap ripe for exploitation. Feel free to hit me back and we'll get in touch if you're interested!

Why would Poker Copilot's Creator install Hold'em Manager?

The All-in Equity Value Chart is almost done. I'm now looking for unusual conditions to make sure the results are still correct. My aim is to ensure that Poker Copilot's All-in Equity Value Chart gives identical information as Hold'em Manager (HEM). That's because, as far as I can tell, HEM seems to be the gold standard in giving online poker players in the Windows world what they want.

Here's two simple charts to compare - the first is from Poker Copilot, and the second is from HEM.

These look identical to my eye. Hopefully they do to your eyes as well.

In order to create the Hold'em Manager chart I had to run Windows on my Mac using Sun VirtualBox and install Hold'em Manager. I hate to praise my competitors, but the whole HEM install process has vastly improved since last I looked at the Windows poker tracking software.

Whenever I run Windows on my Mac, I feel a little dirty afterwards, as if I had been doing something that I really shouldn't be doing. I think I need to have a shower now to wash the dirt away!

Request for Ongame Network Players

I posted this on 2+2 today:

If you play poker on the Mac, and play on the Ongame Network, you've probably noticed that none of the Mac OS X hand tracking software gives you a HUD. This is due to strange things happening when one tries to programmatically find out an Ongame poker table window name. If you'd like to see this fixed...

Read the whole post on 2+2.

The Poker Copilot Email Series

I've been trying to dedicate Monday to marketing. "Monday Marketing" is a time to improve the contents of my website, create new tutorial videos, research new methods of online marketing, and implement them.

Today being Monday, I added the Poker Copilot Tips email series to the website. This is intended for first-time downloaders of Poker Copilot. The sign-up form is on the "Thank You" page you see after downloading Poker Copilot:

(This image is non-clickable: you can sign up here.)

The purposes are as follows:

• give potential customers who are new to poker analysis software immediate access to helpful information.
• letting people store in their inbox links to our discussion forum, our documentation, the blog, and the Get Satisfaction site.
• to 'remind' people who are on their 30-day trial that time is running down.
• to let people who didn't buy Poker Copilot during their trial that they can contact us with requests and complaints.

The emails are light, each only a few sentences. These sentences are teasers with links to full information back on the Poker Copilot website. Hopefully while reading the information, they also are tempted with the seductive website to click on "Buy Now", get out their credit card, and become a proud owner of Poker Copilot.

Everything is user-respectful. Signing up is optional. A confirmation link is sent via email to ensure people really want to sign up. A single click at the bottom of each email unsubscribes. A prominent link on the signup form states our privacy policy in clear, simple terms. I'm using a third-party service called AWeber to handle the whole service, taking advantage of their expertise to do things right by email subscribers.

Poker Copilot Hidden Features 3: Players

In this video, see how to view and replay all the hands played against one specific player. See what hands the player takes to showdown.

Talented Writer Addicted to Video Games and Cocaine

Tom Bissell pulls himself away from video games long enough to write of his three-year video games addiction:

I also knew that Vice City's violent subject matter was said to have inspired crime sprees by a few of the game's least stable fans. Other such sprees would horribly follow. Eight years later, Rockstar has spent more time in court than a playground-abutting pesticide manufactory.

I lost most of my free time in 2007 to World of Warcraft. I played in German, and convinced myself that it was a good way to improve my German language skills. Then suddenly one day, I found it totally uninteresting. Dull. Boring, even. And like that, I stopped playing, never to start it up again. I'm grateful that I don't seem to get addicted to things.

PokerZebra Ready for Download

You can download PokerZebra 0.2 here. Snow Leopard required. PokerZebra is the working name for a Texas Hold'em Poker Odds Calculator for Mac OS X.

It was great weather today. Too good a day to spend indoors. So I didn't do much work on PokerZebra. Basically just packaging what I've already done.

Here's what you need to know:

• This only runs on Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). I'll change things soon so that this works on Leopard. Maybe next weekend. I blame Xcode for leading me by default down the Snow Leopard-only path. Only in testing did I discover that it automatically added Snow Leopard dependencies to my project.
• Currently ranges of hands are not supported. This will also come soon. As loyal Poker Copilot customer Joram pointed out, without ranges PokerZebra is not too useful.
• Send feedback and bug reports to pokerzebra@pokercopilot.com

Now the weekend is over, I'll be switching back to normal Poker Copilot development. Hopefully next weekend I'll pick PokerZebra up again to finish it off.

BlazingStars Reaches 1.0 Milestone

BlazingStars is the auto-hotkey program for Mac OS X online poker players. Recently, BlazingStars officially released version 1.0.

Steven Hamblin, the man behind BlazingStars, tells me that upcoming plans include support for Full Tilt Poker.

PokerZebra 0.2 Demo

Here's a second prototype of PokerZebra, the Poker Odds Calculator for Mac OS X, this time fully working:



The video turned out a little bit squashed. However I'm too busy programming to fix it.

Adding the validation for all the input fields took far too long. But that's programming: the basic functionality comes quickly, but making it reliable, usable, and presentable eats up far more time.

I've now used up half the weekend. Let's see what I can get done before the weekend is over.

Poker Odds Calculator for Mac: First Prototype

I spent an hour this morning with Balsamiq Mockups toying with various UI for Mac OS X poker odds calculator.

I then spent an hour getting used to Xcode and Interface Builder again. Thank you Aaron Hillegass.

Another hour disappeared into working out why using Cocoa's NSTask to run a command line process made all subsequent logging statements disappear. (The solution is here, by the way).

Finally after getting that stuff out of the way, I made some progress. Here's a screenshot of PokerZebra, a working, simple poker odds calculator for Mac OS X:

It's not PokerStove yet, as it currently doesn't work with ranges of hands, nor does it colour-code the equity values. But it is a good proof of concept.

Why the name PokerZebra? It's a working title. My secondary computer was in screen saver mode, showing photos I made while travelling. I told myself, the next photo will inspire the name. And this photo appeared:

PokerStove for Mac: Coming this Weekend?

I'm home early from a Friday night live poker tournament. The villain went all-in on the river. I followed. My pocket kings (KK) were beaten by his A6.

Now I'm home and I'd like to put KK vs A6 into PokerStove, so I can find out the percentages at each street in the hand. Except there's a problem: PokerStove runs only on Windows.

So this weekend I'm going to rectify the situation. My aim is, by Monday, to create something like PokerStove for Mac OS X.

The Architecture

The calculations will be done by a command-line utility back-end. There will be a lightweight GUI front-end for input and output.

The back-end

At the moment I'm trying to integrate poker-eval into Poker Copilot for the upcoming All-in Equity Value chart. poker-eval is quite similar to PokerStove but runs from the command line. It's an open source library for evaluating poker hands. It's written in C. Hard-core C. I can't follow the code. But I managed to compile it - although the compiled version only runs on the computer I compiled it on.

On Sunday I'm meeting a friend who is proficient in C, Xcode, and poker-eval. He's going to help me get poker-eval building within Xcode. We'll get it compiling and building a distributable command-line tool.

The front-end

This will resemble PokerStove. It will be created in Interface Builder using Cocoa and Objective-C.

Thoughts

Will I succeed? Do I have enough time? I hope so. The hardest part has already been done in the poker-eval library. I have no plans for Saturday except going for a swim.

Will this be free? open-source? added to Poker Copilot? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The poker-eval library is licensed under the GNU General Purpose License V3 (GNU GPL). My understanding of the GNU GPL is this: if I modify the source, I have to distribute the modifications for free. But the architecture I'm using means poker-eval will not be linked (in compiler terms) to the front end. So I can keep the front end closed-source and/or commercial. That doesn't mean I have to keep it closed source.

What will I call this thing? Poker Odds Calculator for Mac OS X is not catchy but it leaves no mystery as to what the app does. Poker Copilot Copilot is just silly. PokerOven? BadBeat? iOdds?

Hold'em Manager Inspired by Poker Copilot UI?

I'm surprised this didn't catch my attention early. Hold'em Manager abandoned the cluttered tab-within-tabs nightmare that plagues poker tracking software. Instead they now have something similar to Poker Copilot's "Source List", or side-menu. Of course Poker Copilot borrowed the idea from Finder and iTunes.

I find myself wondering if the Hold'em Manager team were inspired at all by Poker Copilot's appearance. If so, then I don't feel so bad about using Hold'em Manager as a reference point for some Poker Copilot features and formulas.

For those who don't know Hold'em Manager, they are one of Poker Copilot's competitors. Whereas Poker Copilot is poker tracking and analysis software for Mac OS X, Hold'em Manager is for Windows. They have no Mac OS X version.

All-in Equity Value Chart in Progress

Here's a screenshot of the work in progress:

As you can see progress is good. Except the All-in Equity Value line on the chart is completely wrong. I mean, not even close to reality. I've create a dummy function to create the equity value. Which brings me to my point: everything is done and working except the hardest bit: the function/method called calculateEquityValue() which takes as input a hand and turns as output the equity value in cents...

Unfortunately I can't find a canonical way of calculating all-in equity value. There are so many variables one could take into account. I figure the best I can do is to make the charts generated by Poker Copilot show the same data as those generated by Hold 'em Manager. Unfortunately I'm unable to find much about this chart in Hold 'em Manager's documentation. I suspect Hold 'em Manager uses poker-eval from poker source.

Can any of my readers guide me to a good formula/function/algorithm for calculating all-in equity value? What are some of the issues you would like me to consider when calculating equity value?

Tournaments and UltimateBet

Loyal Poker Copilot customer Jeff writes,

Thanks for updating Poker Copilot to work with UltimateBet. Will it also now record and analyse tournament hand history (like it does for Poker Stars)?

The Germans have this great word, Jein. It is a combination of Ja (yes) and Nein (no). And Jeff, that's my answer: Jein, yes and no.

Yes, Poker Copilot records and analyses tournament hand history for UltimateBet. No, it doesn't record the tournament results. As far as I can tell, UltimateBet doesn't record the tournament results (how much the buy-in is, what position you placed, how much you won) to your computer. I'd love for someone to prove me wrong!

Poker Copilot Update for Absolute Poker/UltimateBet Available

I've fixed Poker Copilot so that the Head-up Display (HUD) works again with Absolute Poker and UltimateBet.

Additionally, the HUD now works with tournaments in both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet.

I was also hoping to add support for "preferred seating" in these two poker rooms. But I'm reluctant to make so many changes so quickly. So I've shelved this idea for now.

Update Instructions:

1. Download version 2.35 here.
2. Open the downloaded file.
3. Drag the Poker Copilot icon to the Applications icon.
4. If prompted to replace an existing version, confirm that you do want to replace.

Now you're done and ready to hit the tables.

Rational to Use Poor Passwords?

So claims a Microsoft research paper:

It’s hard to blame users for not being interested in SSL and certificates when (as far as we can determine) 100% of all certificate errors seen by users are false positives.

The premise of the paper is that using strong passwords, checking that URLs are not phoney, and reading SSL certificate warnings cost the average user far more in time than what they are, on average, likely to lose. Furthermore, most password attacks are through phishing and key logging, in which strong passwords provide no protection.

Interesting throughout.

Problems with UltimateBet/Absolute Poker

Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are not showing the HUD currently in Poker Copilot. That's because according to Poker Copilot they seem to be incorrectly logging the time of the hands.

I just played a hand on UltimateBet and this is the game time, according to the hand history file:
2010-03-17 07:37:33 (ET)

But when I asked Google the time in the USA's ET (Eastern Time) timezone, the result is:
2010-03-17 08:40:00 (GMT - 4:00)

A possibility is that daylight saving seems to have started, but UltimateBet/Absolute Poker are still using winter time.

This confuses Poker Copilot, because it looks for a hand played in the last ten minutes to make sure the info is timely.

I'll try forcing Poker Copilot to always assume UB/AP work on winter time.

Poker Copilot Review in Italian

Here's the latest Poker Copilot review, this time in Italian.

Should He make an iPhone App?

A friend of mine wants to make an iPhone app for people in his field. He's not a software developer so he needs some help. He works with the top people world-wide in his lucrative field, so he is in a good position to really find out what people want.

He asked me,

Have you had any experience with iphone apps? Do you think there is money to be made? Or is it a waste of time?

Here's my answer:

Everything below is my opinion - ask another software guy and you'll get another answer. However I am also a business guy...

Developing an iPhone app is a crap shoot. A few people hit it big. A few more earn enough for a good income. Some more people would have earned just as much money if they had spent their time waiting on tables instead of working on an iPhone app. And most people? If they account for their time they end up well behind. It's like wanting to become a musician or an actor. A few people do exceedingly well, but chances are you'll get very little income from it.

You need a good idea that fills a need in the market, you need to execute it well, you need to promote it well, and you need buckets of luck! Actually this applies to software in general.

Keeping the idea secret is a mistake. The idea itself is nothing. Anything you create for the iPhone can be easily copied by others. Whether they do that a few weeks after you release or in advance is immaterial.

The important thing is how you execute (keyword: iterate, key phrase: release early, release often) and how you market. In my opinion you should bounce this idea off anyone in your field who will listen. Then you can gauge the level of interest, get suggestions, make improvements on the idea. With your contacts and experience in your field, you have the opportunity to get killer feedback from your colleagues. Once you've got a unreleased beta version done, you can give it for free to everyone you know with an iPhone in your field to try it out and give you more feedback.

If you want to get started working on some ideas, I recommend using Balsamiq Mockups to sketch out how you might want the user interface to look and work. You can use it for free on the web (with nag screens that appear once every few minutes), and it has some good iPhone templates to work with. Work on some mockups, rework them, and then rework them a few times. Then after taking a break do some more rework.

My friend asked me not to disclose his idea, so I can't tell you the field he works in.

Do any of you reading this have experience creating and selling iPhone apps? If so, do you have anything to add?

Bonsoir Poker Copilot French Speakers

Could one of my French-speaking Poker Copilot users please answer Adrien's post?

Merci beaucoup.

Poker Copilot Hidden Features 2: Tournaments

In this video, see how to view and replay all the hands for one specific tournament.

Cyberduck FTP and me

It seems I inadvertently contributed some source code to Cyberduck FTP browser for Mac OS X. I've never used it, but as my name is in the Cyberduck acknowledgements, I feel obliged through vanity to give it a plug. So try it. Tell me if it is good. It is open source and free.

I currently use Transmit for FTP, a product with which I am very happy. It is made by the excellent Mac software house, Panic. Unrelated: Did you see Panic's blog article about the über-cool, totally stylish Panic status board?

Thanks, Joel

After 10 years of blogging, Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software fame has announced that his blogging days are, as of March 18th, over.

I learnt a great deal about software development and the software business from Joel's blogging. I've also loved watching from the sidelines as Joel's company, Fog Creek Software went from bootstrapped, faltering start-up to outstanding software development house. Thanks Joel, and good luck with whatever you do next.

Back when I ran an IT consulting firm in Melbourne, Australia, Joel's book, User Interface Design for Programmers, was required reading. Although I suspect hardly anyone actually read it, and mostly the staff just mocked me behind my back for making them read books. But hey, that's life as a boss in Australia, right?

Poker Copilot 2.34 Available

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Some people were reporting that the HUD wasn't updating properly on Poker Copilot 2.33, released yesterday.

I haughtily assumed that it was due to something unique to their combination of Mac, poker room, and version of OS X. Actually it was because of an error on my part. I didn't catch it because I took shortcuts when running through my pre-release test procedure. My apologies.

Version 2.34 contains a bug fix which makes the HUD work properly again.

Update Instructions:

1. Download version 2.34 here.
2. Open the downloaded file.
3. Drag the Poker Copilot icon to the Applications icon.
4. If prompted to replace an existing version, confirm that you do want to replace.

Now you're done and ready to hit the tables.

Is Poker Copilot's Bankroll Chart Accurate?

Loyal Poker Copilot customer Jon noticed that his bankroll chart showed his winnings to be a couple of dollars less than they are, until he zoomed in.

Here's my explanation:

The problem is caused by trying to plot, say, 100,000 data points (the number of hands played) onto a screen with a resolution of roughly 1000 horizontal pixels. Each actually charted point must represent roughly 100 data points (assuming no sub-pixel rendering). So the chart is plotted by sampling the data. Unfortunately this results in a loss of accuracy.

This is not just a problem for Poker Copilot, but for any charting software that must show more data points than the screen's resolution can handle. The more volatility in the data, the greater the visual errors, until you zoom in. All the chart can do is show the general trend. In sampling, outlying points sometimes don't get handled well.

As you continue to get more hands, you'll find at certain times, the outliers will be shown, and at other times they won't.

Knowing that many of my most supportive customers are also damn good at mathematics and statistics, I thought I would post this explanation publicly, in case there are any glaring errors in this explanation.

Poker Copilot 2.33 Available

Poker Copilot 2.33 is now available to download.

This release adds the ability to export your data and includes some bug fixes. It is not a critical update - so if you don't want to update, you don't need to!

What's changed:

• Added "Export..." to the File menu. This allows you to export your data either as hand history files or as tabular data in CSV format.
• Added support for French-only Ongame Network tables.
• Added support for PokerStars.it (Poker Stars Italian version) step tournaments.
• Made tournament buyin filter default to all, rather than unknown. This should prevent some support headaches!

What's fixed:

• Poker Copilot now correctly imports Full Tilt hand history files that are obtained by request from Full Tilt beta.
• In the "Recent Hands" view, right-clicking and selecting "View Hand History Text" was sometimes bringing up the wrong hand history.

Update Instructions:

1. Download version 2.33 here.
2. Open the downloaded file.
3. Drag the Poker Copilot icon to the Applications icon.
4. If prompted to replace an existing version, confirm that you do want to replace.

Now you're done and ready to hit the tables.

What's next?

As I promised in early February, I'm currently working on an All-in EV chart. All things going well, it should be included in the next update.

The Poker Copilot full documentation is nearing completion (right, Derk? :-) ). There is some good stuff in it, including an excellent starting guide to using the HUD for improving your pre-flop and post-flop play.

Poker Copilot 25% Off for 1 Week

The friendly people at MacUpdate promo talked me into keeping Poker Copilot 2 on special for a week. If you missed the 50% discount yesterday, you can still buy Poker Copilot 2 at 25% off. That's USD$44.96.

The offer is valid until the end of next Saturday (20th March, 2010). If you've been wanting to get some good poker tracking software for Mac but you are reluctant to pay full price, this is your chance.

Poker Copilot Special Today Only

Thinking of buying Poker Copilot? Then you might want to take a look here:
http://www.mupromo.com/

Poker Copilot is today's special offer on MacUpdate Promo. 50% off for today only.

Feel-Good Email of the Day

Loyal Poker Copilot customer Thomas writes:

I wanted to write you (while on break from some sng's) about your excellent customer service! I have had your product for a couple years now, and am extremely satisfied with the service you provide. You have always been extremely helpful whenever I have had a problem or question, and I want to thank you for that.

On a side note, your product is quickly becoming top notch! I love the new improvements, and hope to keep seeing them in the future!

In the corporate world, where I used to work as an IT gun-for-hire, I don't think I ever earned such nice praise as this. Emails like these make my job enjoyable. Well, the money I earn helps too.

To be honest, I think in recent weeks, my service has not been as good as I like it to be. And my development work has temporarily been at snail-pace. But I can fairly blame that on external events.

Steve Jobs' Favourite Adjectives

iPad Keynote in less than 180 Seconds: Incredible, Beautiful, Amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA

User-Contributed Replayer Design

Loyal Poker Copilot customer Eric sent me this snazzy reworking of how the Poker Copilot hand replayer could look:

It's a huge improvement on how the hand replayer currently appears. Notice how Eric snuck in the highly-requested "Pot Odds" feature?

Email of the Day

From a potential Poker Copilot customer:

Poker Copilot has confirmed two things I've suspected about my game. I'm addicted to 87s like a bad girlfriend (it does nothing but screw me and cost me money, but I love it anyway) and I lose money on AA because I don't know how to get away from it.