Poker Academy Blog

A world of opponents to choose from.

Setting up a table of opponents in Poker Academy Pro is an easy way to simulate different opponent styles that you may encounter online or at a live table. Poker Academy Pro has many different styles of Ring Game bots available for the seats.

To find out the different styles that each bot plays before choosing, go into the Opponent Manager. This is from the window under Dealer Options. Choosing a table with many types of opponents will create an excellent practise environment.

Creating a new Table with Specific Opponents

• Select the icon with a plus sign. This creates a new ring game table.
• You can select a style of player and randomizing the small changes in them. Choose the bot you want and select Random.
• It is also possible to select a specific bot type by going throw and selecting the name of the opponent you wish to face.

The bot play styles are configurable in the Opponent Manager.
Stay tuned next week as we delve into the world of the Opponent Manager and how to tweak the bots to play a certain style.

Poker Academy has the ability to create and mimic nearly any kind of player.

Sam :: Oct.30.2007 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »

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Whether you’re playing your weekly home game against your intoxicated buddies or playing the sharks at Ceasars Palace, you’ll encounter many different playing styles. With each tournament comes a vast array of players ranging from weak to solid to over aggressive to totally unpredictable.  To simulate these different fields Poker Academy Pro allows you to pre-define the starting lineup of any tourney. As shown in the image, you can select which percentage of player are of each bot profile. Perhaps you want 80% Xenbots, which play a solid tournament strategy, 10% unpredictable Oddbots, 5% the over-aggressive Jambots and 5% random from any bot engine.

In the offline tournament editor, switch over to the "Players" tab and select the Bot Engine, Bot Name and the Percentage of each bot you would like to face and simulate your upcoming tournament field.

Graham :: Oct.23.2007 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »

The Man-Machine Poker Championship 2007 took place in Vancouver, BC, Canada on July 23 - 24, 2007.

The University of Alberta challenged Phil Laak and his partner Ali Eslami to a heads up match against their newest "sick" bot Polaris. The humans ended up winning, but not without a super challenge by the U of A team and its bots. Poker Academy was proud to sponsor and power the event.

The Poker Group at the U of A has put together some highlight reels of the matches and made them available.

My favorite is Session 2 from Phil Laak, he is on the ball and really puts on a great show for the audience. There are a lot of great quotes and some pretty amazing calls by Phil Laak.

Watching the caliber of play that both these Pros were able to maintain, really put a sense of awe into the crowd.

The patience, strategy and brilliance displayed proved that not anyone can be this good. It takes a lot of practice and some great math skills.

Polaris is available for play for owners of Poker Academy, just sign into Poker Academy Online and check out the rooms. There are 8 different rooms with varying stakes and the 2 bots that played against Phil and Ali.

The other videos are available here with more sessions yet to be added.

Sam :: Oct.15.2007 :: Poker Academy Online, Poker Academy :: No Comments »

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The more and more you play online, the more your Prospector database is going to grow. There maybe sessions that you do not want to include in your analysis because someone else played them, you’re trying a new strategy, or you were just playing "badly" for the fun of it.  Whatever the reasons may be, database management can be a very effective tool for maintaining an easy to work with environment.

Sam :: Oct.12.2007 :: Prospector Tips :: No Comments »

If you are anything like me, whenever you see pocket kings in the hole you don’t cheer. Whenever I get these 2 cards I fear the Ace on the board.

With Poker Academy Pro you can easily stack the deck to set up a drill of playing pocket kings with an ace on the board over and over. By stacking the deck, you can set up your hole cards and the board cards to any combination you need practise on.

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Stacking the Deck

• When seated at a table, go to Dealer in the menu bar.
• Go to Dealer Options
• This will open the Dealer Options screen that will allow you to stack the deck. Select your hole card and your fixed board cards.

Sam :: Oct.08.2007 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: 1 Comment »

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By going to the reports section in Prospector and selecting the magnifying glass next to the suited connectors, the detailed player stats for those types of hands are loaded. Loading up the hand types tab, and customizing the graph to display Raised Percentage and Hands Played Percentage can you give you an insight into whether or not there is a tendency to play low or mid suited connectors much to often.

Guidelines for Playing Suited Low and Mid Suited Connectors

1. Suited low and mid connectors should be played only when it is cheap or free. Playing in the blinds (or the button if the blinds are known to not raise) with limpers is advised.
2. Raise with middle ones occasionally for deception. Keep everyone on your toes. The ability to read suited connectors is key to a good strategy.
3. On the other hand, do not raise every time. Remain unpredictable.
4. Suited connectors are best played while in position. Only raise when you are on the button.
5. Watch the flops for 2 or 3 way potential. The more outs, the bigger you can make the pot.
6. Be very wary of being out-kickered.
7. Know your enemy. Play the suited connectors sparingly against the better players. Read your opponents well.
8. Know when to Hold ‘Em. Don’t be afraid to be outdrawn.
9. Know when to Fold ‘Em. Know how to get out of your hand gracefully.
10. Know when to go All-In. Don’t be afraid to drive the action by betting the best hand.

Sam :: Oct.02.2007 :: Prospector Tips :: No Comments »