Poker software (simulators) suggestions

[Galois]

I know that Poker Academy is the most popular poker software, but T.J. Cloutier has his own software now (which is considerably cheaper), and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to which one I should choose (if any), or if you know where I might be able to find some objective analysis of the two. Any response is very much appreciated. Thank You.

[bwadbwoy]

Join an online site and use the money you would otherwise have spent on a poker simulation, to play real poker.

[Dromar]

Looks like it's a stranger convention here...

I don't own any poker simulation programs, but I've looked at Poker Academy Pro, and it looks pretty good.

bwadbwoy's suggestion actually has some merit though. And in fact, if you know where to look, you can get these poker simulation programs FREE just for signing up for a poker site and playing there. There's quite a few of these types of sites, and they advertise in CardPlayer magazine and/or Bluff magazine.

For example, my brother got a free poker table, and an eBay gift card, and I got the HoH books for signing up to a new poker room.

As for price, Poker Academy:Texas Hold'em is only $30. I don't know how much TJ's program costs, but it couldn't be THAT much lower than $30. Poker Academy Pro is $130 though.

[Pauwl]

You can download Pokerstove for free here: http://www.pokerstove.com/

err, try tomorrow, it won't load right now

[odyssey]

When I first started playing poker I was reluctant to just jump onto a poker site and start playing, so I bought "Turbo Texas Hold'em" from Wilson Software. It worked for me to get down the basics and to acquire the confidence I needed to start playing online. To me it was worth the price in what I didn't throw away in trying to figure out what I was doing. If you are beyond this then nothing works better than actually playing.

I have not used any of the other software that has been mentioned. Turbo Texas is expensive, around $90, however they have demos you can download and try before buying. http://wilsonsoftware.com/

I hope this helps you with your decision [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] and not confuse matters. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Galois]

I do play online, however I can't always see the cards that everyone has mucked. This is why I would like to use one of these software packages. Thank you to all respondents.

[Shandrax]

Simulations are supposed to answer questions by doing test runs. Unfortunately you cannot do that with Poker Academy. All you can do with it is to play against the pretty decent engines and analyze your statistics. It is not possible to let the computer play out 1 million hands under a specific setting and check the results the other day.

Wilson TTH on the other hand is a great tool for simulations. The downside is that it is very complicated to create profiles and run simulations.

In terms of playing strength it is tough to tell. TTH is supposed to be much weaker than PA, but there is another aspect. If you run a simulation with 1000000 test runs and there is a leak or weakness, it gets magnified by the factor 1000000. So if the outcome of the simulation looks bizarre and unrealistic it is a very good indicator that something is wrong with the engine. As far as I know, TTH is capable of producing reasonable results even on large test runs, so it looks like the engine isn't that bad after all. The problem I have with TTH the user-interface is as good as it looks and it looks like a DOS program....

The main conceptional difference between PA and TTH is that PA tries to avoid human input in the decision process while TTH has a rule based approach using human "wisdom". Now one could argue that every algorithm is based on rules....

[IDN101]

Poker Academy's main advantage to me is the ability to play many more hands per hour than online. I do realise that there is learning to be had from watching the hands you are not in, and I do this online. But in a lunchtime, I can get through 300 hands on PA. I am trying to strike a balance of quality V Quantity.

Regards,
Ian

[poker_n00b]

I read somewhere that Izmet Fekali, some poker genius, used to light up a sigaret, sit back and run the WILSON TTH software simulations. If he uses it, I guess it has merrit.

[Splossy]

I have Poker Academy Pro. I think it's great to learn on.

Say you are trying to memorise your starting hands. You can play lots of hands with the advisor set to Sklansky rules. This will tell you whether your starting decisions are by the book. After a while you find you are making the same decisions as the advisor 95% of the time inferring you have attained a reasonable grip on which hands to play.

The limit play on PA is pretty good as far as I can tell. I'm only a beginner but it makes it pretty hard for me to make money. The no-limit play seems a lot weaker and I've managed to bully the blinds out of it too consistently. Having said that I've not tried all the bots and their settings. It's very easy to make up tables with certain types of opponents.

You can analyse your play and see which hands you tend to lose on. You can compare your success with the Luckometer to see if your winnings are skill or luck.

It's nice to be able to peek mucked hands when you are starting out like me, if only drum into your head how many decent starting hands are out there in a full 10 person game.

One thing I like as a learner is that there are no time limits. So you can see the flop, get your books out and study what might be the best play. You can then play the same hand over and over using different plays to see how it pans out. It has demonstrated to me the value of raising to diminish the field and ruin pot odds for the opponants.

It certainly seems a lot better than play money games which 8+ people see the flop every single hand and re-raise with 7-2 etc.