Background
----------

It's hard to believe, but propokertools.com has been on the web for
over five years now. The website has been a personal project of mine
that I've gradually improved as free time has presented itself. In the
past few years, my free time has been gradually evaporating. Not being
able to work on my favorite project has been driving me slowly crazy.
I've mentioned on more than one occasion on various online forums how
many things I could accomplish with ProPokerTools if only I were fired
or quit my day job.

I quit my day job.

Introducing the Downloadable ProPokerTools Odds Oracle!!!
---------------------------------------------------------

The ProPokerTools Odds Oracle is a downloadable program for
Windows/Mac/Linux that answers poker probability questions. The link
with all the details is here: http://propokertools.com/odds_oracle.

Points of Note
--------------

- This is the first open beta release. Many, _many_ more features and
conveniences are on the way in the next few weeks and months,
depending on what kind of encouragement (and $$$) I get in developing this
product.
- Supports Hold'em, Omaha, and Omaha-Hi. For now.
- Does all the basic equity stuff you are used to on propokertools.com.
- Multi-core enabled.
- Unique 'Ask the Oracle' feature allows you to construct a query
using pulldown menus. For instance "How often does player 1 have the
nut lo on the turn?" "How often do at least 2 players have at least 25%
equity on the flop?" etc. etc.
- "Common Questions" option for computing all of the most typical
queries such as equity graphs, all in equity, hand types, etc. etc.
- Fully functional PQL interpreter
- (Very) rudimentary graphical range-of-hands pickers.
- The program has free and premium (paid) features. There is a free
trial license on the download page which is good until March 31, 2011.
I am offering a deal to folks who want to pay now rather than later
for a license key - $30 for a permanent license (all upgrades free).
Given how much more effort I plan to put into this product, you're not
likely to see a $30 price point for very long.

Cheers,
bachfan

As always, your comments are most welcome

Thanks for your hard work! I love this downloadable simulator and have been recommending it to my poker peers. I look forward to the progress on this. Good luck, Yojimgari

Thanks again for your nice comments. I've been very pleased with the reception so far. Coming up on 1,000 downloads...

Amazing software, but I wouldn't expect anything else from propokertools. The price is a steal and beats the prices of inferior products.

thanks for all the hard work, i find PQL an amazing "feature"

Wow, thank you for that.

- bachfan

P.S. I take it that check from my mom cleared...

Hey thanks. PQL has worked out better than I expected - almost everything in the Odds Oracle is powered by it.

- bachfan

P.S. For all you who have bought a license during the beta, I thought I'd let you know that the range of hands syntax overhaul (eg One Range of Hands Syntax to Rule Them All) is winning the most votes for "implement me next, please", followed closely by stud support.

Thanks a lot for quitting your job and doing this. Hell, it was about time.

I've just downloaded it and I will pay the $30 before I even install it... that's how much money PPT had helped me earn.

You are probably capable of adding a lot of useful features but please take the time to carefully explain them in full detail in the documentation page so that we can all learn how to benefit from them, just a suggestion.

Thanks for the note - you are too kind.

You are absolutely right about the need for documentation - it will be essential for the success of this project. I am also considering writing a very extensive walkthrough of all the features, perhaps bundled with the paid license key. It will probably be a month or two before I start on that side of the project, as things are changing very quickly as I churn out new features - I want to wait until things stabilize a bit before I go too far down the documentation path.

- bachfan

P.S. I have also considered writing a more general book on using computerized tools to help with the study of poker - I think that book should exist, especially for those who are not particularly technical. There are probably lots of other folks who could do a better job at writing such a book, however.

How can use the count feature available online? Can I use it in PQL?

On propokertools.com/simulations, the "Count" button just counts the number of hands in a range. In the downloadable Odds Oracle you can achieve the same results with the "Range Explorer" under the "Tools" menu.

On propokertools.com/pql (and the Odds Oracle PQL Interpreter tab), "count" is a selector that takes a boolean argument and counts how often it is true (this is covered in the pql docs).For example:

"select count(true) from ..." will always return 100%.

"select count(handtype(hero, flop) >= trips) from game='holdem', hero='88'" will return how often '88' has three of a kind or better on the flop.

Hope this helps,
bachfan @ ProPokerTools

ProPokerTools Odds Oracle 0.91 out today!
This is the second beta release.
Download/details are here:

http://propokertools.com/odds_oracle

Major changes:
- new generic syntax - expressive, concise, powerful. Details here:

http://propokertools.com/simulations/generic_syntax

Selected minor changes:
- allow selection of specific hand in range pickers
- allow count hands, show hands, and rank hands in range explorer
- window size and divider locations preserved between runs
- make main ui a little bit leaner
- fixed popup window positions

As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
bachfan

ProPokerTools Odds Oracle 0.92 out today!
This is the third beta release.
Download/details are here:

http://propokertools.com/odds_oracle

Major changes:
- added stud and stud-8 support

Cheers,
bachfan

Love the pql.

Question thought,

select count(handtype(hero, flop) = trips and handtype(villain,flop) = trips)
from game="holdem", hero="55", villain="AA-22"
where equity(hero, flop) < equity(villain,flop)

Returns 6562/600000

Is the query just computing hands where I have 55 and villain can have 22-AA OR does it deal cards counting only those where I have 55 and villain has AA-22. My thinking is that it simulates a subset of poker with starting conditions specified in the from clause. In SQL from is the source dataset right?

You are correct - the from clause (and optional where clause) specifies the situation.

To translate your query into English:

"Given that hero has pocket fives, villain has a pocket pair, and hero is an underdog on the flop, how often do both villain and hero have trips on the flop?"

- bachfan

ProPokerTools 1.0 (with razz support) is out - please post all questions/comments on the new thread:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/45...1-0-a-1011075/

Cheers,
bachfan