Hey guys,

I've been grinding the micro cash games for a while now, and I'm doing more multi-tabling these days. Like many before me, I finally decided to ask if there was a more efficient way of folding, calling, or betting than moving my mouse around to each table in turn. I came to 2+2 and looked around, only to find that programs like AHK, TableNinja, etc. provide such facilities - but I use a Mac, and the consensus is that there is no such program for OS X. After reading threads like this one, I decided to try and see if I could use the OS X programming skills I had laying around to write something along these lines myself.

Two days of swearing at PokerStars later, I've managed to come up with a proof-of-concept program that allows me to use a hot-key to press the fold and check/call butons. Combined with other methods, I now have the necessary knowledge to control the native Mac PokerStars client (and, by extension, the Full Tilt client as well) in a way similar to what can be done on Windows machines. Having said that, I've never used these programs, and I have only a vague idea of what features people might like in something like this. So, I turn to you guys to answer a few questions for me. They are:

1). Would you pay for a program like this? [Bonus question: how much?]
2). What features would be absolutely essential for you?
3). What features would be nice, but are not deal-breakers?
4). What version of OS X are you using?

The answers to question 1 will determine what I do with this project. Please, if you can, answer at least this question. If interest in such a product is low, I'll probably hack together something ugly that meets my own needs, and then release a copy of it for free. It will have only the features I feel like implementing - which, since I'm not that sophisticated an online player yet, will very likely not include things you might want - and will come with zero support. If it seems like there's enough demand to make it worth my time to write a professional program and release it, then I will need to charge something (since I'm a student, and money doesn't grow on trees for me. Why do you think I'm playing poker? ).

Questions 2 and 3 are where you can tell me what you want. The more overlap there is in the answers to these questions, the more likely that feature is to make it into a first release. The more descriptive you can be, the better - simply "Make it like [Program X] " isn't going to do much good, though pointing out specific features of Program X that you like might.

Question 4 helps me decide on a technical question. (For fellow Cocoa developers - damnit, I just really like garbage collection, fast enumeration, and properties, which pins me down to Leopard). If there's enough of you using Tiger, I'll bite the bullet and develop a Tiger version too.

Thanks for your time!

(tl;dr cliff notes: What would you want in a Mac AHK program, and would you pay for it?)

I would happily pay up to $100 (although I imagine your price point for getting lots of buyers would have to be lower) for a program that does everything FT shortcuts does (or most of it). But, ONLY if either HEM or PT also came out with a Mac version.

I'm similar. I use mac for everything apart from Poker. I would pay up to $40 for a program that does everything that TableNinja does for Stars and another $40 for a program that does everything that FTS does for FT.

But like last poster I would only consider switching my poker playing to mac iff HEM or PT came out with a Mac version.

Btw, I'm a programmer also. If you decide not to commercialize this you could open-source it - I would play around with it and try to contribute in that case.

+1.

Hmm. Thanks for the responses so far, guys. I'm not entirely sure what to do with this, though, since I can't control what HEM or PT does (and PT claims that they're making a Mac version, but it seems like it might come out somewhere around the time that I retire). For my own purposes, I use PT on Boot Camp, and use Poker Copilot as a HUD, but I can understand that people are attached to PT and HEM.

Anyone else out there who might be interested in this?

I dont know what AHK can do. I dont need any help with the windows beacause I only play four tables. I have some trouble when I want to bet more than pot on fulltilt. sometimes I put a number behind whats already in the textbox. I would spend 20$ on a program that let you have a key assigned for pot+2BB for instance. I am trying to use the scrollwheel while playinb now, but it doesnt seem to work everytime

This is a fantastic idea. I only check software in the hope that cross-platform or OS X-only programs are being developed so it's great to see this thread.

1. I would pay. $100 seems quite steep to me, though, I think this is one of those situations where for for half the price you would have more than double the customers. I would aim around $40 (tableninja is $35).

2. Essential: buttons for fold, check, call, bet pre-determined amount that could be specified in BB (ie always bet 4xbb+1 per limper preflop) or pot percentage (default turn bet 65% of pot). Also button to cycle between tables.

3. Nice but non totally essential: auto-sit at waitlisted tables, skip all "ok" pop-ups, auto-close donkament lobbies, automatically process buy-in window.

4. I still use Tiger but I'm quite sure I'll buy a new machine in the next 6 months so I would be up to date on OS (I have an ancient pre-Intel powerbook that is fading a bit).

If I were a programmer I'd love to help, sadly I'm not. Good luck.

Didn't mean to rain on your parade, I understand you can't do anything about those programs. I think if you do have a program completed and PT/HEM finally come through with a Mac version, you might do pretty well as Mac users generally hate using windows so we'll make the switch right away, and we'll want our AHK's! But till then, probably a tough sell.

Nah, you didn't rain on anything. :-) The point about being ready in case PT/HEM ever *do* get around to releasing their respective products for OS X is well taken, and I'll certainly think about that.

Thanks, Verstehen! I appreciate your taking the time to respond. A couple of follow-up questions, for you or anyone else reading:

Re: button to cycle through tables. What would you like this to do that Cmd-~ doesn't already? (Having trouble phrasing that in a way that doesn't sound snarky, but it's really not: I'm seriously looking for enhancements to Cmd-~ that I can make).

Re: auto-management of windows. I don't play tourneys or SNGs much, so I'm a little fuzzy on what people are looking for here. I know the buy-in pop-up you're talking about, and other such "ok" pop-ups, but I'm a little unclear as to what is meant by "auto-close donkament lobbies". Do you mean minimize / close the window when seating is assigned?

I'll echo what others have said and simply say that you should look at PokerShortcuts by nanochip.

As to the ppl saying they'd switch if HEM/PT came out with Mac versions. There is an alternative:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/45...2009-a-273001/

I can appreciate this, and I *am* looking at the other pieces of software, like TableNinja and I'll look at PokerShortcuts too. Having said that, there's a couple of reasons I asked the specific questions I did:

1). I'm not going to make this my life's work - I have a fulfilling day job. This is a side project for me, and I would much rather produce a well-supported and robust piece of software as opposed to software that includes every thing I can think of (or, apparently, steal from other programs). This means that I may have to prioritize some features over others, which is why I asked which features people can and cannot live without. Just looking at PokerShortcuts or TableNinja doesn't tell me what features people use and which they don't.

2). I'm also hoping that I can include features that other programs haven't yet come up with, if there's any out there that you guys want! :-)

Release early, release often.

Try releasing a very basic version with hotkeys for fold, check, bet and some fixed bets. See how many people actually use it and add features as requested.

When table ninja came out first it had very few features - a lot were added in over a long beta period.

Instead of hard-coding key assignments make sure each function is user-assignable to whatever key they want. Everyone has a different mouse and keyboard and notions as to what's easiest to use. I use a ShuttlePro for video editing and such on my mac and would *love* to be able to assign all those buttons to things like check, call, fold, bet 1/4 pot, bet 1/2 pot, bet 2/3 pot, bet 3/4 pot, bet pot, etc., as well as using the scroll wheel to control the bet slider.