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The old wisdom for becoming a good poker player says that there's no
substitution for experience. For many people, just learning to read the
board well enough to stay out of traps takes many thousands of hands that
can end up being very costly. Even if you're good enough to catch on more
quickly than that, chances are you'll drop a good bit of money before
becoming profitable. In the old days of poker there was no alternative to
this method of gaining experience at the tables, but today's computer
technology has changed the situation in many respects. Playing online for
low stakes or play money is the preferred method of learning the ropes, but
simulation programs are available as well. Among these programs, Poker
Academy Pro 2.0 is one of the most recent - and also one of the best.
Three separate playing environments are available in PAP 2.0. The first, the
ring games, is very simple - any number of opponents from one to ten can sit
at the table, and each opponent can either be hand-picked by the user or
randomly selected by the computer. This ability to customize makes
simulating different table situations very easy. Do you want to play against
a table full of loose-aggressive maniacs? No problem! Would you rather learn
how to tighten up by filling the table with rocks? Also not a problem. Maybe
fine-tuning your heads-up play is more your style? You can do that, too. One
of the nicer little touches is that the user can specify whether he wants
the pots raked, and if so what house rake to use, making the transition from
pure simulation to real games easier to prepare for. Available options for
the rake include the Mirage Las Vegas and almost every major online site. In
addition, every hand played is recorded in a hand history database that the
user can look over at any time, leaving a sort of paper trail that can be
used to analyze holes in your game.
The next playing environment is the tournament simulator. Again, limit and
no-limit hold'em formats are available, and the user can select from any of
a number of tournament structures. Many of these are based on real
structures at online sites, and structures from the World Series and Bay 101
WPT tournaments are also available. There are even separate structures
available for 6-max tournaments, in both single- and multi-table formats, so
that fans of short-handed poker can polish up their tournament skills. While
the tournament options are fantastic, one small problem is that the user
can't easily create his own structures to simulate, say, his local card
room's weekly tournament. This is a minor issue that will most likely be
addressed in future updates of the product, though, and it doesn't mar the
program's usefulness.
Finally, the newest playing environment is Poker Academy Online. In my time
with the program I haven't seen very many games going in the lobby, but I
mostly play poker late at night. Also, at the time of writing this article
the ring games are experiencing some difficulty and only tournaments are
available. I can't fairly say what the action is like in the network play.
However, I do know that the software developers play every weekday at 3:30
MST in the BioTools SnG.
While having these different playing options is wonderful, they'd be nothing
without the statistical analysis tools that round out the PAP 2.0 package.
The hand evaluator is extremely useful for players whose instincts for
reading opponents aren't yet fully developed, providing a full rundown of
information on any hand's chances of hitting a draw and the likelihood of
opponents holding various poker hands in any given situation. Then there's
the showdown calculator, another handy tool that will simulate a showdown
between any two sets of starting cards, with any board, and provide a
breakdown of each hand's chances of winning. Knowing the numbers in these
sorts of situations is a key skill that any successful poker player must
master, so the spending time with the calculator is definitely worthwhile.
The final tool in PAP 2.0's box is the player statistics database, which
records every hand played by every human and bot in any ring game or
tournament. Users can look at any session they've ever played in PAP 2.0 and
break it down in any imaginable way. Particularly useful are the graphs that
track progress over any number of hands, showing variations in the player's
bankroll and the amount of luck involved in the player's results. The
database is so full of information that it's easy for a dedicated player to
lose a few hours dissecting different aspects of his game.
Poker Academy Pro 2.0 is about as good a poker simulation training tool as
there is on the market today. The only real downside to the package is the
lack of a full manual, which steepens the learning curve a bit, but there is
a decent-sized community of users active in the free forums on the web site
who can help with any big problems. In addition, the programmers are very
receptive to suggestions for improving the program and respond quickly to
user requests. The price may seems steep to some, but it's worth noting that
Doyle Brunson's Super System was around the same price when he first
published it two decades ago. With Poker Academy Pro 2.0, much like Super
System, you'll definitely get your money's worth.
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