A software idea I'm working on... advice required

[Guest]

Hi all, I'm working on some software that will alert you to good poker hands to alleviate the boredom whilst playing online. The history behind this is simple... if I am patient and wait for premium hands and play them aggresively I progress alot further in STT / MTT tournies. So I am working on a program similar to say Texas Calculatem which will monitor your hole cards & position and alert you when preset hands come up. How it works: 1. You set your minimum hand requirements... examples... a: AA,AKs,AKo early position b: A10, 1010 button c: Ax,Kx button 2. You connect to the "window" of the game and click on your playing position. 3. You click post and fold button and then hover your mouse over the "I'm Back" button 4. When the software detects and hand >= to your required hands it sends a mouse click message to the window and hey-presto you are back in the game. It could also play a sound alert to awake you from your slumber :) I am at the mid-way stage in development but before going any further I thought I'd test the market and ask if anyone would be interested in such a product. I also have some other ideas for more complex poker products and if anyone is interested in chatting please feel free to PM me. Regards Mike

[cains]

Re: A software idea I'm working on... advice required Sounds like an okay idea... But what if you have 78s and you are in BB.. And UTG raises standard raise.. And everyone calls that.. Then you have more than correct odds to call as well.. Do you just fold then ??? I like the idea, even though i dont think i will use it. Couse then you could just make a computer play all your poker games, and you will then in long run loose.. But looking forward to hear of the other ideas you got...

[Guest]

Re: A software idea I'm working on... advice required

But what if you have 78s and you are in BB.. And UTG raises standard raise.. And everyone calls that.. Then you have more than correct odds to call as well.. Do you just fold then

I think you may have missed the point slightly. You could set 78s in BB as an "I'm back" hand and the software would bring you back into play without folding. If you are talking about what combining cards / position / previous raises then it's out of the scope of this product. Keep the replies coming though it all helps.. even if you think it's a crap idea.. let me know :) Mike

[libi71]

Re: A software idea I'm working on... advice required Are you sure you can push "I am back" once card are dealt out? I thought that would not work everywhere, but I might be wrong. From technical point of view, this seems sound. Problems are probably how to detect values from the screen, clicking "I am back" should not be too difficult (although you might have to harden this to make sure it really hits the button, no matter what you did with your screen in the meantime). The other technical problem is how complex do you want to make the rules and how are you going to store them or better, make them configurable. From a poker point of view though, I am not sure how valid this is (I am a regular online player, but by no way an expert). What advantage would you get? Play several tables at the same time? Do other things in between? Though it is obviously generally good to play only strong starting hands from the book, this might not be enough to really come out winning regularly. Furthermore, if you are not watching your opponents play in the hands where you are not involved, how would you then have a clue about then when you have strong starting hands? So yes, it might be boring to watch all these rounds online where you are not involved, but it might be necessary. But again, I am not a poker pro.

[philossify]

Re: A software idea I'm working on... advice required Hi Mike, very similar to an idea of my own and its a good one. When I retire (hope to soon :D, but the fools keep paying my wages) and have more time (and someone else doesn't own the rights to any software I produce) then maybe I'll start producing some poker tools. IMHO (As libi71 also points out I think) the weakest part of your idea is relying on "I'm back" and mouse positioning. If it was me I'd have the session permanently alive and devise a mechanism to virtually push the fold button for the hands that I wasn't gonna play (obviously when you are SB or BB the rules change slightly) and put screen to front for hands that might be playable - of course if you got really clever then you'd have dual screen support :-). Would I buy such a tool off someone else? Possibly, but I'd probably want to try it for a week first - so you need a mechanism to produce a time/function limited version that works without a full license. If you make it work and want to make some money from it, then you don't want ripped versions proliferating around the world. Also it has to have a user interface that wll be superior to the freeware/shareware tools that are available (or will be available). If you need beta testers then theres lots of candidates here. Good luck. :cheers Phil

[philossify]

Re: A software idea I'm working on... advice required Hi Mike, been thinking some more, one problem with the idea (and probably why I mightn't buy such a tool unless this problem was overcome) is that the periods of boredom in a game, or at least in my games, are often where I make the most profit. Strange as it seems, in the hands I'm not playing in, then (if my concentration us up 4 it) I observe and take notes on the style/betting of the other players. It most useful when the hand comes to a showdown. Knowing that player x stays for the BB more often than they should or that player y an aggressive or non-aggressive better often gives a big advantage in later decisions. There are tools around which automatically collect and show this info, but have you ever tried using more than 1 tool besides the session itself .... generally you end up with too much info to cope with? Scope there for playing "tag-team poker" - one guy playing the hands the other just watching the other players and feeding advice to the player.