Any Good Poker Software?

August 16, 2006 12:58 PM

Poker Training/Drilling software. Any recommendations?

I know there's software that's supposed to train you on different poker systems, and drill you with lots of hands, etc. James McManus describes some in his book on the World Series of Poker (I found that link using google book search while researching this ask, btw. Pretty slick). I was wondering if anyone else had some personal experience or knew of any good software to try? It seems like there would be a huge risk of getting crap that doesn't play well or something.

posted by delmoi to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Two Plus Two publishing has an excellent software forum in addition to a great catalogue of poker books. Most software discussed are accessories for active online play, but I believe some simulators are reviewed and discussed there as well.
posted by JakeWalker at 1:15 PM on August 16, 2006

I'm not sure I remember where I read it, but I read that Turbo Hold 'Em by Wilson Software is very good. They have a demo for it that you can download.
posted by bDiddy at 1:27 PM on August 16, 2006

Jim McManus quite famouly practiced with Turbo Texas Hold'Em cited by bDiddy. It doesn't really train you or drill you against a set of instructions, but provides a suite of computer opponents that you can practice your concepts against. Most of us started with books, some of which outline pretty specific strategies, especially for starting hands. I like Internet Texas Hold'Em by Matthew Hilger or Getting Started in Hold'Em by Ed Miller. Two good books by two really good guys. I think ITH is slightly better organized, but both are quite good for the newish player.

A number of websites are offering "training" in the form of video replays or software that works through examples. I don't know much about the other simulation/training software out there, but agree with JakeWalker that 2+2 is a good place to look.
posted by Lame_username at 2:12 PM on August 16, 2006

I used Poki's Poker Academy to learn poker before taking the plunge with internet poker. It is without a doubt the best poker software available.

Turbo Hold'em is really dated now and doesn't use artificial intelligence techniques for the computer opponents. Basically it just looks at a gigantic table to make decisions. It will not adapt to your style of play.

Poker Academy is the best simulator available, but it would still get destroyed against a mediocre opponent. Fortunately, computers just aren't good at playing poker (yet).

After you get comfortable using the simulator, I suggest playing against real, human opponents on the net as soon as possible. You can play nanolimit (less than $1.00 big blind) on many sites. Pokerstars has a .02c-.04c limit game running which would be perfect for someone just starting out.
posted by digitalis3 at 2:55 PM on August 16, 2006

I'm using Sklansky and Melmuth's Hold 'em Poker, the 99 edition, and I have an account on party poker. The first two days I made like $25 play no limit 2/4c tables but I don't know if it was because I started on the weekend, or went on tilt or what but I haven't been able to keep that up. I foolishly lost like $10 playing 5/10¢ tables then lost another $5 playing lower tables, I guess because I was upset. I guess I just got lucky at first and had some bad players to play against.
posted by delmoi at 3:08 PM on August 16, 2006

I agree, read the 2+2 forums, the have micro/low limit forums for both Limit and No-Limit.

As for coaching videos you could look into cardrunners where you can pay for 'training' videos. Real hands, a real (often real good) player talking you through his thought processes as he plays.

There's also pokeravi which has free videos - some at very low limits.
posted by selton at 3:26 PM on August 16, 2006

Poker Drill Master is supposed to be very good.
posted by EllenC at 5:19 PM on August 16, 2006

Are you planning on playing online? or in a real world casino?

Software training might help you in the former, but not so much the latter where one plays against the person as much as against his cards. Online it is more of a zero-sum game, where poker is played much more by the book (in theory).
posted by TheOtherGuy at 5:58 PM on August 16, 2006

Software training might help you in the former, but not so much the latter where one plays against the person as much as against his cards.

Definetly online for now.
posted by delmoi at 7:03 PM on August 16, 2006

I got poker academy and I'm very happy.
posted by delmoi at 8:12 PM on August 18, 2006

Wow man, it was quite an interesting ride with the poki bots. I played the "advanced" table in Poker Academy, and for about a hundred rounds I did pretty well, then immediately started tanking. After about 500 hands I started to stem the tied, and after a thousand I'm doing really well.

How well does defeat of the poki bots translate into actually winning on poker tables?
posted by delmoi at 7:01 AM on August 19, 2006