Into Zynga Poker? Want a bit o’ artificial intelligence to tweak-up your game play? Then meet your new buddy, PokerBuddy Pro that is.
The PokerBuddy team spent nearly two years perfecting algorithmic and statistical analysis for no-limit Texas-Hold’em. The result is a Windows-only software client that provides players advice, in real-time, throughout their game play. In case you’re wondering, no it’s not limited to Zynga Poker, this is just the first implementation.
Using PokerBuddy Pro is quite simple, all you need to do is keep it open alongside your Zynga Poker window, and just follow its advice. It will keep it coming as it continuously updates its hand-play recommendations based on assessment of hole cards (your hand), the flop cards (top facing cards on the table), the number of cards dealt, and pot size.
How does it gather this data? Good question. All I was able to get out of CEO Alex Frenkel is that evidently it’s not all that difficult to do using deep level of communication protocols.
He went on to say:
You need to understand that this wasn’t the major challenge as there are many ways to integrate, this includes reading the chat, scraping from the screen and more. Legally we don’t see any problem as well because it is not a bot , it won’t play for you!
Here’s where PokerBuddy’s truly compelling features come into play.
The application provides players with two situation indicators:
- Hand Rank – After a player is dealt the first two hole cards, PokerBuddy rates the hand against the overall deck, and provides a percentage indicator of how many possible hands the player’s current cards gives them an advantage over. For example: An Ace of Clubs with a 7 of clubs is statistically better than 88.1% of all other possible hands.
Once top facing cards are dealt (the “flop”), the Hand Rank lets you know exactly what your highest current hand combinations are (two pair, Flush, etc.).
- Your Stack – This is the number of Big Blinds (potential bets against the current high bid) that you have left so you can plan your betting strategy accordingly.
After the flop, this indicator switches to let you know how many cards left in the deck can improve your hand, also known as ‘Outs’.
Note: I am more of a cock fighting man, so all this Texas Hold’em lingo had to be explained slowly to me :)
To make things even easier for players, PokerBuddy deftly integrated game play aggressiveness levels in the form of characters who act as ‘advisors’. These range from the more conservative ‘Edward Bailey’ (The Hold’em Professor), to the mid-road ‘Karen Brown’ (Brown Sugar), to the most aggressive advisor ‘James Ford’ (Young-Gun Ford).
When it’s time to act, the advisers’ backgrounds will change to yellow, allowing the player to click on any one of them in order to get their advice on the current hand in play.
Interestingly, the PokerBuddy team has limited real-time advice at five hands per game. Their logic behind this decision was not to hurt the game or give unfair advantage to any of the players. Also, the team noted that they will gladly adjust this should Zynga ask them to. Post action feedback (after the player made a move) is unlimited because the decision was made and the feedback has no effect on the results of the hand.
There’s one additional part to PokerBuddy Pro and that is its website. The site acts as a sort of social data locker where players can track their results and performance. For players that take their Zynga Poker more seriously, this is a big deal because Zynga Poker doesn’t provide game logs, so the only alternative is to video record a game session.
A social envelope on top of the data allows players to discuss game play with others. All-in-all a great way to learn and improve your game play.
How does PokerBuddy aim to make money? Quite simple really… They plan on selling credits for real-time advice. At the moment advice is free to all, but the company plans on turning on for-pay advice in the coming months.
There are several Poker Manager software applications out there, so this is not the most forward thinking application. I would be concerned as to how many variations of advice the software can throw out and whether after a reasonable amount of play their advice would be null/void because it is only one of a database of “pre made” answers.
speakign from experience, poker does not work in such an algorithmic way and therefore monetising this by charging for “pre determined” advice is not necessarily an effective learning tool.
yes, unfortunately i do play Poker a lot.
Hi John, I wanted to thank you for your comment. We’re always glad to receive feedback. I’d like to use your comments as an opportunity to clarify some points about PokerBuddy.
Firstly, it is true that there are several Poker Manager Software applications. Some of them are even quite good. However, we think PokerBuddy is unique for several reasons, the most noteworthy of these is that it is powered by an Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is the result of over two years of research by mathematicians and professional poker players. We are familiar with only one other similar endeavor and that is the amazing research carried out by the team at Alberta University in building Polaris. However, Polaris was made for limit-hold`em and its main strength is at Heads-Up play (one human vs the computer). In our research we believe we have gone a step further by focusing on no-limit and full tables.
The other important point is that PokerBuddy’s AI doesn’t use a database of “pre made” answers. It uses real-time equity calculations based on Nash equilibrium modeling for the hand ranges of the other players at the table. The AI takes into account advanced poker concepts like Fold Equity, hand ranges, stack sizes, positions and all the actions of the other players at the table.
I don’t mean to load you with jargon but the important thing to understand is that many complex factors go into PokerBuddy’s calculations, resulting in a very dynamic game style – something very different from the odds calculators out there that essentially work with a big static table and show the pre-defined odds for each set of cards.
Lame, no one cares, if you want something interesting look at tools used for real online poker. Waste of time.
Thanks for the comment but our main goal in developing PokerBuddy was to enrich the game experience and help more people enjoy the beauty and complexity of poker. If making money from poker is your primary interest, then PokerBuddy can certainly assist you in becoming a better poker player.
I have 23 million chips on Zynga Poker thanks to poker buddy :)
*And no life.
Capitalism in action, first get people addicted some poker game on Facebook. Then get them addicted to something that plays that poker game for them. Then charge them.
The Beta stage is totally free and we pledge to always maintain a similar free version. In the future we may give those interested the option to purchase more advanced training packages
Guys, there are many of these “spy” programs used for real poker games. There’s about 20-30 of them, and they help me make real money in real betting arenas online.
I think this is novel for Zynga — come on. There’s dozens of client-based, over-the-shoulder poker spy programs out there that help people make real cash.
Doing this on Zynga is some kind of stunt.
Thanks, Rashard, for the comment. My response would be similar to the one I gave John above, except I would add this. Unlike other “spy” programs PokerBuddy makes the discussion of hands and situations much easier. Instead of going through endless hand history files, converting them at 3rd party hand convertors and then publishing them at a forum for discussion, with PokerBuddy you can share interesting situations from the table itself directly to your friends. They in turn can then provide feedback and help you improve.
PokerBuddy also provides a user friendly alternative to data base programs like Hold’Em Manager and PokerTracker (both good programs but lacking PokerBuddy’s user friendliness and sharing features). When playing with PokerBuddy all information is saved at the user’s private account on our website so that he can track his results, stats and progress from any computer.
This is not exactly new. Also, the features are somewhat lacking when compared to the likes of pokeroffice or pokertracker. These software suites log and make assessments about other players, aswell as telling you about the strength of your own hands.
Thanks for your comment Finbarr. Although we believe PokerBuddy has features that neither PokerOffice nor PokerTracker have, it is important to point out that the current version of PokerBuddy is by no means in its final incarnation. We will continue to develop and improve it and the feedback we get helps us in this regard.
Just downloaded it and tried it, looks really cool.
Can’t understand though the difference between the 3 advisers…
Very nice, especially the feedback on the moves I make.
Definitely must have for zynga poker players like myself.
Great, Richard, we are glad you like it, but look out for even more improvements as we continue to develop it. It is still beta stage for us.
Then what’s the fun in that? Won’t it be like playing with the computer?
Kel, we believe the better you know how to play, the more fun you will have. And the point of PokerBuddy is not only to enrich the poker experience but make you a better player at the same time.
As every other poster has mentioned, this is old news – there are many similar services available and for real money poker sites much bigger than Zygna.
Or is this yet another “I’ll do my buds a favor by pimping their business on Techcrunch” post? ‘Cause there is no news here and 5 minutes worth of research would have figured that out.
Johhny, thanks for your comment.
Honestly, I don’t know of any other service that provides users with immediate feedback for every move they make at the table, nor do I know of any program that lets you immediately share interesting hands with your friends on Facebook.
I’d like to share some interesting links with you:
- a funny YouTube clip about some other poker tools:
http://bit.ly/b09Fxl
- poker as a skill game, from the Economist with interesting comments from Kasparov about poker AI:
http://bit.ly/bc5KaW
I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.
I had way too many spyware and virus problems with pokerstars so I no longer play online poker. I’d rather go down to the casino in Detroit/Windsor to play
Unfortunately this kind of program is banned from poker sites that let you play with real money.
Not sure how many people that play with fake money will be willing to buy this kind of program.
Wow, very neat looking game and I will have to download it. Is it difficult to play?
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best, matt
Brilliant article – I am playing Zynga with PokerBuddy Pro for few weeks now and can say it is “more than an advisor”. I learn from the advices how to play poker with it. I can’t wait to see further development!!