Poker Academy Blog

Sometimes, playing poker can be such a chore. Click, move mouse, click. Wait. Wait. Wait. Move Mouse Click.

Luckily, Poker Academy Pro has a very nice little feature of hot keys.  Using these can make the game much easier to control from the couch or leaning way back with your feet up on your desks.  These are customizable to be anything that is most convenient for you.

To get to the customization screen:
From any table window go to the

Options menu, and select Edit Hot Keys.

Sam :: Apr.17.2008 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »

The subject of hand history logging, or more specifically the ability to toggle it off and on, came up in our forums this week so I’ll address it here for all.

Hand history logging stores every hand you play on Poker Academy or Poker Academy Online to your hard drive.  These logs can then be reviewed, analyzed and exported through the "Player Statistics" window.  By default your hand histories are automatically recorded.  If, for whatever reason, you would like to turn this feature off, select "Dealer Options" from the "Dealer" menu while seated at a table.  As shown in the screenshot below, an overlay will be displayed with a checkbox along the right side to toggle hand history logging on and off.

Click to View Full Image

Graham :: Feb.01.2008 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »

The ability to create and tweak the Poker Academy Pro bots is an excellent feature to help strengthen your game. With the options available a bot can be created that will act any way that is needed to learn from.

The flash video below will highlight how to create a custom limit bot and seat him at a table.

Sam :: Nov.20.2007 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: 2 Comments »

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 »

Click to view full image.

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 »

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.

Click for full size.

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 »

Click to see full size image

Sometimes finishing an offline tournament is not possible in one sitting. With the ability to start at 6000+ players, it could take a few days to get down to the final table.

Poker Academy Pro automatically saves your progress so you can take a break, practice some drills or play some online poker. From the main Poker Academy Lobby screen, select Tournament. You will see in the left hand window a new option called Unfinished. All tournaments that you have not busted out on or shut the program off while in progress will be listed there.

Sam :: Sep.27.2007 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »

Click to view full image.

Poker can be all about changing gears by varying your playing style.  Poker Academy ships with a set of advisor profiles, all of which play different styles.  To change your advisor single-click on the rightward facing arrow in advisor box as shown in the image.  Your advisor box will now switch to a profile selector.  The two drop down boxes represent the selected advisor for Fixed Limit (FL) and No Limit (NL).  Use the drop down box(es) to choose a different advisor and start experimenting with different styles or select an advisor that matches up best with your desired style.

Additionally, you can use the "Edit" buttons to view the advisor profile in the opponent manager to get a better feel for how the advisor is designed.

Graham :: Sep.20.2007 :: Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »

The friends list feature in Poker Academy Online is a great way to keep track of favorite players or most hated opponent. You can easily see if they are online and where they are playing.

Right Clicking a Player

Adding from a Table

• Right click on the players name
• Select ‘Show in Players Tab’
• The lobby screen will now change to the players tab
• The drop down menu ‘Select Action’ allows you to add as friend

A matching player is found.

Adding from the Players Tab

• Search for the player by name (Partial searches work)
• Select the player from the search results.
• The drop down menu ‘Select Action’ allows you to add as friend
• Note: Searching for as much of the username as you know. This will ensure you are getting the correct player.

Friends Lists

Players are now available in the bottom of the Players Tab screen. You can add different groups and manage your friends list.

Pro users have the ability to create as many groups as they want. Standard users are limited to 1 group of friends.

Sam :: Sep.20.2007 :: Poker Academy Online, Poker Academy Pro Tips :: No Comments »