This is great news for Mac owners. You no longer need to pay for OS X updates, starting today with Mavericks (OS X 10.9).
This is also great news for people like me, running small software companies, as customers of our software will be much more likely to keep up-to-date with the latest OS X. That means less support, and more time for improving our software.
Poker Copilot works with Mavericks, although you’ll need to agree to OS X’s ominous-sounding request to let Poker Copilot “control your computer”. This, in the context of Poker Copilot, means, “keep track of where online poker room windows are on the screen”.
Okay, I’m off to install Mavericks on my MacBook Pro.
Last year I created a prototype for a product called SeeingStars. It shows your odds of winning the current hand on any PokerStars poker table. For personal reasons I shelved the prototype at the time. Now I’m publicly committing to launching by mid-November. It is a companion product for Poker Copilot; it is also an alternative for people who are poker hobbyists and don’t care for the comprehensive statistics and HUD of Poker Copilot.
SharkScope is a web-based tool for giving online tournament players every bit of information possible about other tournament players. It currently also has a HUD for Windows but nothing for Mac. But that could change with the help of Poker Copilot.
SharkScope recently released an API (Application Programming Interface) which allows other selected software to automatically connect to and share data with SharkScope. The SharkScope team has made the API available to Poker Copilot. I spent some time in the last couple days investigating what could be possible, and so far the results are promising.
I went to a software conference on the weekend, aimed at small software companies that operate without outside investors. At the conference many people asked what Poker Copilot is. I explained it many times, then realised that the information I kept relating should be written and available on the web. Here it is:
What is Poker Copilot?
Poker Copilot is software that helps online poker players improve their game.
How does Poker Copilot work?
After each hand of poker you play at an online poker room such as PokerStars, the poker room writes a bet-by-bet record of the hand into a text file on your computer. Poker Copilot locates these historical records, reads the contents, extracts key information, and stores the results as statistics about the hand in its own internal database.
When you use Poker Copilot to look at your playing history, Poker Copilot presents the aggregated data to you in a form that you can easily understand, filter, and investigate in more detail.
The important thing to note is this: Poker Copilot only uses data from hands in which you have actually played.
Poker Copilot shows the aggregated data in the form of specialised statistics in real-time, as an overlay on the online poker tables. This is Poker Copilot’s “Head-up Display”, often shortened to the “HUD”.
How does Poker Copilot help?
In many ways. The first, and most important, for new users is this:
Poker Copilot uses accumulated data to find the mathematical errors in your game so that you can eliminate the persistent errors in your playing style.
Better still, it helps your find the mathematical errors in your opponents’ games so that you can exploit the persistent errors in your opponents’ playing styles.
Here’s a concrete example. When you start playing poker you soon learn that you need to be more aggressive with your pre-flop betting, the closer you are to dealer button. This is called position awareness. Poker players know this, and try to be more aggressive as they get closer to the button. But are they actually doing this as they think? Poker Copilot uses your historical data to find this you. A simple chart gathered from all your hundreds or thousands of past hands can tell you whether you need to be more aggressive or less aggressive in certain positions. Fixing up such a problem almost certainly leads to an improvement for your bankroll.
Does Poker Copilot Use card counting?
No. Card counting is a strategy for blackjack, not for poker. The deck of cards is started anew after each hand of poker, so there are no cards to count.
If I use Poker Copilot, am I cheating?
Not even close. Poker Copilot only uses data from hands you have played. The data it presents is data you have on your computer, whether you use Poker Copilot or not. It is data that you could record and collate manually after each hand with pen and paper, if you have much patience. You could do the same thing as Poker Copilot in an Excel spreadsheet. But it sure would be cumbersome.
Do PokerStars and other online poker rooms allow Poker Copilot?
Yes. The security teams at PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker have explicitly verified that our software works within their guidelines and added us to their list of permitted software. Winamax, a major French online poker room, sells licenses for our software in their online shop for spending frequent player points. Smaller online poker rooms often ask us to add support for their poker room to our software.
Support for PartyPoker’s new preferred seat setting.
Experimental Omaha support.
About Omaha support:
Currently working for Omaha High in PokerStars.
Activate Omaha support in Poker Copilot’s preferences.
This is free for all existing customers until December 1st, 2013. After that you’ll need to purchase an Omaha add-on license. More information will be available soon about this.
To add Omaha hands from the past, use “File” -> “Reload Hand Histories”.
If you are wondering what “Mavericks”-ready means, you might be thinking “Poker Copilot will work withTop Gun”. Actually there is going to be a brand new OS X version released very soon. It is OS X 10.9 and its nickname is Mavericks.
We’ve been working in the Poker Copilot laboratory with the Mavericks developer previews for some months. Poker Copilot is ready to work with Mavericks. With tested and changed things so that you can boldly update to Mavericks and not be concerned that your HUD will have problems.
I’ve prepared an unofficial, not-scheduled-for-full-release update of Poker Copilot that adds Omaha support. It goes by the name version number 4.12 and you can download it here.
Things to note:
You need to turn on Omaha support by going to Poker Copilot’s Preferences -> General -> Enable Omaha support and making sure it is checked.
Omaha support only currently works with PokerStars.
Omaha High is supported; Omaha Hi-Lo is not supported yet.
You can use Omaha in Poker Copilot for free until the end of November. After that you’ll need to make a purchase to continue to have Omaha support.
The next update of Poker Copilot will no longer have the “Day” Summary. The reason for this, as pointed out by long-time Poker Copilot user Jean-Paul, is that the new “Hands by Date” and “Tournaments by Date” Summaries show the same data but with more options, more power, and a corresponding chart.
In the spirit of “keep things as clean, clear, and simple as possible,” I’ve removed the obsolete summary.
I completed an Omaha hand evaluator today. This is a crucial part for adding Omaha support to Poker Copilot. In coming weeks it will ready for you to try out.
