This is the support thread for Combonator, a equity and combination study tool for Texas Hold'em games.

Just so its clear, Combonator is not new software -- its actually been around for about 18 months. The old (now locked) support thread is on 2+2: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/16...holdem-910215/. I'm starting a new support thread as a major new version has just been released, with the permission of the software mods.

hey,

im running Combonator v1.5.0 (unregistered)

After selecting a hand range and grouping it, selecting flop cards, inputting hero hole cards there is a box that is supposed to give the total equity values which does not seem to work. "Hero equity vs..."

im wondering how i can get those equities to pop up for me.

thanks in advance

All equity calculations are for registered (Pro) versions of Combonator only. I should probably remove these boxes or indicate why they don't update with the free version.

When you're using the registered version, this will update automatically showing hero's equity vs all combinations and grouped combinations (it first shows almost instantly the equity).

Along with these handy tools, you get the breakdown of equity per group in the output tab. This is updated in real time as you assign combos in to different groups. Equities can also be used as auto-selection criteria, either selection top/bottom parts of range ranked by equity, or selecting all combos within certain equities bounds.

Any chance an iPad version is coming?

Which

I've never done iOS development, but I think it would be a complete rewrite in to another language (Objective C) so I don't think it's really on the cards, sorry!

Hey, ever since the 1.5 update combonator doesn't automatically click 'Evaluate' when exporting a hand to pokerstove.

If I remember right, this was actually disabled on purpose. I had various reports from people that it wasn't very stable with the clicking and hung some machines, so i stopped the automatic clicking.

Hey Hood,

Is there a way I can paste in a hand range like "33+, A2s+, K2s+, Q6s+, J7s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, A2o+, K7o+, Q9o+, J9o+" and have the corresponding squares selected?

is there a way i can use combonator to find the hands i should be continuing with after the flop in a HU match?

for instance

villain opens 75% or hands from the button

i call the with all hands that have 50% equity against this villains range so somewhere around 35%.

flop comes down say kh 8c 4s

i villains always pots the flop giving me 2-1 to continue so i do with any hand that has better than 33% equity against villains range

is there anyway to find out this range with combonator?

No not yet, i'm looking at adding that to v1.6 shouldn't be too hard.

Right now preflop range vs range selection isn't available, but i have something working locally that i hope to have in the next version.

No range vs range selection isn't possible. It's something i'm looking in its tough to do this and keep calculations running fast.

You can do hand vs range calculation (i.e. you can give villain a token hand, like a weak made hand, and select hands with x%+ equity vs that hand.)

can i benefit as a tourney player using combonator? can i input a structure for a given tourney and then start breaking down a hand to?

Yes, no and yes, respectively.

Combonator is a range analysis-cum-flop texture analysis-cum-combination counter-cum-equity calculator. It's not an ICM calculator. But is it still a useful tool to analyse postflop play in a tournament? For sure. But it's not going to help your push-fold game.

Well my main concern is post flop. Is there a free trial or a good tutorial that shows me all the features?

Sure, the software is free with no time restriction. There is a 'pro' version with many more features for $45.

As for tutorial, there's a video manual on youtube.

All the info is available on the website.

Just to mention that two of the requests above are in combonator v1.6 expected out this week. This includes preflop range vs range calcs, and doing 'select all combos with 50% equity vs this range'), and also pasting in a preflop range. Although no postflop range vs range yet, i made a big step in improving speed of calcs (porting a bunch of code to C through cython) that it's a good step towards that goal.

More info on the blog (blog dot combonator dot com) and beta testing for pro users in the next day or two.

any update on version 1.6?

Bit behind schedule given the news in the last few days keeping me occupied. The beta went great, i'm coding a new licensing system that i'll be rolling out soon, then i can launch it proper.

If you'd like to beta test, shoot me an email nick at pokerfuse.com

I'm wondering about the differences in some of the common EV-Calc tools.

I'm thinking Pokerstove, Equilab, Holdemviewer, CardrunnersEv Calc are all very similar.
Could You outline what makes Combonator unique or different?

Also it might not be appropriate to ask in this Thread but if you could also point out the main difference to the OddsOracle?

Good question.

First I would say in your list, some of the software is quite distinct, but with lots of overlap. I would classify them as:

PokerStove + Equilab: These are equity calculators. There's no real reason to use pokerstove over equilab - equilab it does everything pokerstove does + a lot more. They are both straight equity calculators, with equilab adding in some analysis tools like the next street analysis, flop texture analysis etc.

Flopzilla: board texture analysis. See how well a range hits a board. I think it now also has turn and river support as well.

Holdem Viewer: this is a different beast, and it's real job is constructing preflop ranges.

Stox/Cardrunners EV: this is a unique tool that is an open-ended scenario calculator, where you can construct branching decision trees and run simulations over it. It's a very special product.

OddsOracle: I will preface this by saying i haven't really used this much in my normal study flow since it's been released, but it looks like a very strong equity calculator product. It's does everything a normal equity calculator can do, with the addition of supporting non-holdem games, and it's own custom range description language and query language. You can also set up combinatorial 'questions' (how often will this range make a flush etc) which was a bit fiddly when i tried, but the open-endedness is pretty powerful, and it's toolset is unique for non-holdem games.

Combonator: So now we get to combonator. Firstly, Combonator presents itself in a very different paradigm than any of the tools above: Everything is centered around the hand grid, where you can assign hand combinations into multiple groups. As you update the hand-grid combination counts and equity calculations update instantly. Combinations can be removed from the grid as you proceed through the streets of the hand. This way of working is quite different to any other program, and feels to me much more intuitive. I believe its the only tool that has a full undo/redo history as well, which is very useful to rollback changes and try different things.

It's combinatorial support is fairly unique, allowing you to do stuff like construct balanced flop checkraise ranges, see the bottom x% of your range, see how a turn card effects a range of hands etc, is rather unique to Combonator - i'm sure it can be replicated in tools like Odds Oracle, but in Combonator these things are literally a click or two away. I would recommend watching the intro video on combonator.com which shows how Combonator can keep up with your thought process

But ultimately, there is a lot of overlap with other tools to the actual answers you get - you might just find Combonator a lot faster and more intuitive to get the results. With combonator v1.6 you can:

- Do preflop range vs range calculators (HU only), with equities processed instantly as you manipulate the hand grid. Combonator has many advanced preflop range selection tools like custom rankings, fast grid selection, saved ranges, suit selection etc. It does not yet have preflop hand weighting.
- Do range construction preflop like Hold'em Viewer (the graphs of HV cannot be done in combonator yet, but otherwise i believe Combonator replicates the features of HV.
- Do postflop hand vs range calculations (HU only) like equity calculators, but in combonator these work on the fly as you manipulate a range, and equities are shown for all grouped hands, vs entire range, and for individual groups all at the same time.
- Do board texture analysis like flopzilla, with teh ability to instantly assign groups into ranges.

Thanks a lot for the thorough reply.

I've watched the intro vid and i'll definitely look in to it in the Future.

Is combonator able to display the equity of each hand vs the range like HV?

Well you can click on a single hand and the equities vs range will display instantly. But there's no "list all hands in this range in a table, ordered by their equity vs a range, showing the equity of each hand."

Def. something easy I could add in. What's the use-case for output like this?

FWIW, a key feature missing in all advanced equity calculators is displaying postflop equities of each hand from a range vs another range on a known board like HV does preflop under each hand in its hand grid. Is that very difficult to implement? Currently this is doable only with STOXEV, but it should be available to simpler tools as well.

Combonator doesn't do postflop range vs range calculations right now. Only hand vs range postflop, range vs range preflop.