Coming in the next update: HUD in the PokerStars Hand Replayer

Loyal Poker Copilot customer Jon pointed out something I had never realised: until a recent update of Poker Copilot, it was adding HUD stats to the PokerStars hand replayer.

This accidental feature has now been reinstated as an official feature.
Screen shot 2011-01-24 at 3.22.01 PM.png

This feature relies on an observation that the hand replayer always has an aspect ratio of nearly 1.45:1, once you remove the window title bar from the calculations. If this doesn’t hold for all table themes, or is changed in the future by PokerStars, then the feature will break. Such is the nature of hooking into third-party applications on an ad-hoc, informal basis. They change; your software breaks.

Facebook, Tunisia, and Online Security

The Atlantic has an article about how the Tunisian state allegedly tried to steal an entire country’s worth of Facebook passwords:

Though [Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Joe] Sullivan is the unflappable type, the Tunisian situation seemed to force him into a bit of reflection. “When you step back and think about how Internet traffic is routed around the world, an astonishing amount is susceptible to government access,” he noted.

Like most popular journalism on such themes, the technical details are inaccurate (an ISP ‘keylogging’, and being defeated by HTTPS?). But close enough. A disturbing issue for me is the claim that Facebook, which contains so many personal details for many of us, allows – and defaults to – logging in on a non-HTTPS webpage. Can that really be true? Surely this is another inaccurate technical detail. Surely?

Poker Copilot, PokerZebra, and the Mac App Store

The big news in recent weeks for Mac OS X software developers is the release of the App Store for Mac OS X applications. It’s modelled on the iPhone/iPad app store. Developers are asking themselves, should I move my software to the App Store? Is it worth giving Apple a 30% cut (the non-negotiable terms set by Apple) of each sale? Will my app pass Apple’s rigorous review process?

Poker Copilot is built on Java. The App Store guidelines explicitly prohibits software built on Java, so there is an easy answer to the question, “shall I move Poker Copilot to the App Store?” Apple, however, over time may change their policy so I may still have to pose this question in the future.

To get a feel for the App Store from a software developer’s perspective, I’m moving PokerZebra to the App Store. I’m also making it a paid application for US$4.99/ EUR3.99/GBP2.99/AUD5.99. (The connection between these prices is set by Apple – I merely choose a pricing “Tier”). So far the process has been smooth, although I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for Apple to review PokerZebra, a necessary step to making it available.

I’m learning for a customer’s perspective how frustrating it is to not have any information while waiting. I’d love to know how far I am in the queue of waiting applications. Waiting is easier, I think, if one has a sense of moving forward in the waiting queue.

Coming in the next update: PokerStars Home Game support

Thanks to loyal Poker Copilot customer Sylvain I was able to test whether the HUD is now working with PokerStars home games. Which it is. Well it was for me, because I have the not-yet-released next version. Poor Sylvain had to play without a HUD. 🙂

Help! Play a PokerStars Home Game…

…so I can get the Poker Copilot HUD working with PokerStars home games.

If, right now, roughly 11am GMT on Saturday 22nd January, 2011, you can join in a play money PokerStars home game, then here’s the info you need:

You are invited to join my private poker club for Home Games online.

– If you don’t already have it, download the free PokerStars software from www.pokerstars.com
– Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
– Click the ‘Join a Poker Club’ button
– Enter my Club ID number: 109376
– Enter my Invitation Code: Let me in the Copilot Club

That’s it! Once I’ve approved your membership request, we’ll be ready to start playing Home Games online together.

If you want to find out more, visit www.pokerstars.com/homegames

From the comments

Pierre-Luc writes:

Thanks for these definitions, very helpful. I’ve been thinking – how can we use our own icon to become a better player? E.g. if I’m a book, what should I do to become an Eagle? Do you have the exact calculations for each somewhere?

Pierre-Luc, here are the exact calculations:
Screen shot 2011-01-22 at 12.28.05 PM.png

I could tell Pierre-Luc simply, if you are a book, get more aggressive post-flop and add a little more pre-flop 3-betting to your game. But that is a unsatisfying answer. What advice do you offer?

Coming in the next update: Carbon Poker support

A friend visited me here in Beirut, Lebanon for the last week. We went to ancient cities, Roman ruins, biblical cities, got lost in the snow-covered mountains due to bad GPS data, and visited a Palestinian refugee neighbourhood.

All that sightseeing and travelling meant that I didn’t have much time for Poker Copilot. Now, however, I’m back in action. Which is why I’ve now added Carbon Poker support. Carbon Poker is part of the Merge Network. Merge Network has good, native Mac OS X software so there is some demand for Merge Network support in Poker Copilot.

carbonpokerwithpokercopilot.png

Poker Copilot already supports Lock Poker, another Merge Network member.

Poker Copilot 2.79 Now Available

Poker Copilot 2.79 is now available to download.

This is a minor update, mostly fixing some bugs and improving the console logging.

What’s changed:

  • The French, German, Spanish (Spain), and Spanish (Latin America) translations have been updated
  • Most of the performance preferences are gone – they were a relic of earlier times and they were confusing, often interpreted exactly opposite as intended

What’s fixed:

  • Fixed bug where Merge Network Omaha hands were crashing Poker Copilot
  • Full Tilt Poker tournaments in Italian now once more have a working HUD
  • An obscure bug with customised rules for the player icons was crashing Poker Copilot. I haven’t tracked down the bug properly but I’ve added more safeguards in the code to hopefully stop the crash.

Update Instructions:

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

Now you are done and ready to hit the tables.

New Full Tilt Update fixes Tournament Summary Problem

The good news: today’s Full Tilt update seems to have fixed the problem where tournament summaries mostly weren’t showing where you placed.

The bad news: it is not a retroactive fix. Any tournaments you played between, roughly, between January 12th and January 19th 2011 will most likely not show where you placed or, sometimes, what you won.

There are two possible solutions:

  • ask Full Tilt support to send you correct tournament summary files for all tournaments you played in that period; or
  • manually fix the files yourself

If you choose to manually fix the files yourself, it is quite straightforward:

  1. Open a faulty tournament summary in TextEdit
  2. Go to the end of the document
  3. Add a line that says [your FTP account nickname] finished in [xth] place, inserting the relevant data
  4. Save the file. Poker Copilot will detect that the file has been changed, and will update its data accordingly.

For example, I have this file:


Full Tilt Poker Tournament Summary Satellite to Daily Dollar (211614636) Hold'em No Limit
Buy-In: $0.25 + $0.05
Buy-In Chips: 1500
9 Entries
Total Prize Pool: $2.25
Top 999 finishers receive entry to Tournament 210082858
Tournament started: 2011/01/13 11:01:22 UTC [2011/01/13 06:01:22 ET]
Tournament is still in progress

Still Playing - senaya177
Still Playing - lena177
Still Playing - iskamace
Still Playing - vitbar
Still Playing - Devilboy79
Still Playing - KABANOSSI
Still Playing - liliAA
8: stevoski111
9: guizmospain

I changed it by adding an extra line at the end:


Full Tilt Poker Tournament Summary Satellite to Daily Dollar (211614636) Hold'em No Limit
Buy-In: $0.25 + $0.05
Buy-In Chips: 1500
9 Entries
Total Prize Pool: $2.25
Top 999 finishers receive entry to Tournament 210082858
Tournament started: 2011/01/13 11:01:22 UTC [2011/01/13 06:01:22 ET]
Tournament is still in progress

Still Playing - senaya177
Still Playing - lena177
Still Playing - iskamace
Still Playing - vitbar
Still Playing - Devilboy79
Still Playing - KABANOSSI
Still Playing - liliAA
8: stevoski111
9: guizmospain
stevoski111 finished in 8th place