PioSOLVER 1.5 July 27, 2015 00:38

Today PioSOLVER gets an update to 1.5 version. This is mainly a bugfix release with some changes under the cover to make future development easier. Nevertheless there some new nice features and a lot of bug fixes.

Here is a summary of changes:

1. There are now EQ and EV graphs in Range Explorer. Those are useful to visualize how well various part of the range play. You can also choose sub-ranges or even split hand categories like A-high or top pair.
2. Number of matchups is now included in the aggregation reports. This was commonly requested feature which makes summing up EVs over many boards/cards easier. To make it easier still we are also adding a summary with a summed up stats to multi-flop aggregation report.
3. Strategy rounding - after becoming more popular than we thought - now has a convenient form in PioViewer.
4. It's now possible to insert arbitrary solver command into generated script. This is useful for power users who like to tinker with the tree before saving it.
5. An option to ignore a check for available RAM is added. On some systems the check isn't very reliable and cause scripts to stop prematurely.
6. Additional features in Range Selector: +/- buttons, range inverting and convenient text field to chose top % of the range
7. NodeID is now copy-pastable from the browser tab which makes executing arbitrary commands on selected node easier
8. Small speed improvements without functionality change. The solver is now about 5% faster.

Bug fixes & changes:

1. "Don't 3-bet" option now has higher priority than "add all-in" one so if don't 3-bet is selected an all-in won't be added.
2. Node Locking bug introduced in 1.4 version is now fixed.
3. Many formatting improvements to make displayed numbers easier to read
4. Choosing specific suits now refreshes automatically so seeing strategies for say spades or hands with a higher card being a spade is now matter of one click.
5. Calc_ev_line should now work correctly (a bug in this function - for now only available from text interface was introduced in 1.4.1)
6. A bug which caused solve_all_splits to sometimes hang with high accuracy settings is now fixed (although it still takes a lot of time if required accuracy is too good).

That's it. We are rolling this update sooner than expected because it fixes commonly reported issues. Every version should be updated till Tuesday with edge users having it already in their folders. All you need to do is to click "check for updates" in the updater.

Have fun!

PioSOLVER-free updated to 1.4 version July 16, 2015 11:52

This is a quick announcement about free version update. It got all the features from commercial 1.4 release about which you can read HERE.

Highlights:

• Significant speed improvements and better convergence for trees with many bet sizes
• More features in Range Explorer like equity realization, ability to choose ranges for specific actions or change the way weights are displayed: CLICK to see GIF
• Vertical browsing - by holding a ctrl key and using your arrows you can change river cards quickly and see how the ranges change along. Like in this GIF.

Here is a direct download link to the new free version.

Have fun!

PioSOLVER 1.4 is here! July 7, 2015 00:59

Today we are releasing PioSOLVER 1.4. This is particularly exciting release because it brings huge performance and memory efficiency improvements as well as new features to make understanding and analyzing GTO strategies easier. We are also adding a convenient updater.

Before moving on to usual feature list let's talk about performance for a while. The announcement we made 4 weeks ago is no longer relevant - the performance got way better since experimental version available at that time. We improved the algorithm itself, made it faster and added new optimization for suited/paired flops which brings on average 1.67x speed-up if you were to calculate all flops or 1.42x for a random flop. Mono suited flops are now 3x faster, suited or paired ones 1.5x faster and rainbow not paired one don't get the boost (but they are only 286 out of all 1755 or 6864 out of 22100 if you don't count isomorphisms). Overall expected speed-ups over previous version for typical cases look like this:

1. For heads-up ranges you can expect on average 2x performance improvements and 1.2x less memory usage
2. For 6max cases with wide ranges (about 50% vs 50%) it's on average about 3x faster and 2.2x smaller
3. For small ranges (like 25% vs 25%) it's about 4.5x faster and 3x smaller
4. For ranges smaller than that it's so fast it's hard to measure :)

This means many practical cases with one bet size are now solvable in 1-2 minutes to very good accuracy on run-of-the-mill CPUs. We will be posting exact benchmarks soon but for now we can say it's completely different experience and way more fun! This is especially true for computers with only 8GB of RAM - the limitations for those systems are now way less severe, especially for non-HU cases. Before the benchmarks arrive here are some typical cases: (all run on 3 years old quad, i7 3770 and to <0.25% of the pot accuracy)

1. Typical 3bet pot with heads-up wide ranges: 92 seconds to 0.23%
2. 6max BTN vs BB case with deep stacks: 166 seconds to 0.238%
3. 6max MP vs BB on a rainbow flop: 134 seconds to 0.24%

It's worth mentioning that 0.25% of the pot accuracy is a bit of an overkill for practical purposes and that all mentioned trees fit below 1.5GB of RAM. The improved algorithm is also way better at reaching near to 0 accuracy (0.1% or less) so the perfectionists among our users will have way more fun as well.

With performance like that the feedback loop for analysis is even faster and it makes analysis of tens of hands after the session very feasible.

Let's now look at other improvements we are rolling out:

1. Improved behavior for difficult trees. It used to be the case that the solver had problems with some trees and spent several iterations running in circles so to speak before finally finding the path to convergence. The situation improved a lot and it's not longer easy to find really difficult cases. This is especially important for trees with may bet sizes and overbet all-ins
2. There is now a convenient updater. All you need to do is to paste your download link there once and click a button to check for/download subsequent updates. No more manual copying and unpacking of the files. See GIF.
3. We introduced some new option to make tree-building even more customizable. Those are "force c-bet" option, "don't 3bet" option and "cap" option.
4. It's now possible to round strategies after solving. This feature was heavily requested. You can choose a "chunk" the solver uses (rounding to 0% 50% 100%, 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%, 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% etc.), a player and a street (flop only, flop + turn, flop+turn+river). Those strategies are more exploitable than unlimited solution but it may be useful in practice. SEE HOW IT WORKS.
5. Vertical browsing: using ctrl+arrows (up/down to change rank, left/right to change suits) you can now easily change turn/river cards and see how strategies change. This is very useful feature to quickly compare how for example river calling ranges change depending on what card fall. We are very excited about this feature and there will be more comprehensive available later. For now QUICK DEMONSTRATION of me looking at calling range for in-position player against a 3 barrel. Notice how the range change depending on a river card. While this ends up at 6th position on this list this a feature we are very excited about as it makes visualizing GTO patterns accross various runouts not only possible but very easy!
6. It's now possible to look at the results for combos containing specific suits. Before it was sometimes hard to grasp what the strategy is for flush draws for example or a backdoor draws. NOT ANYMORE!
7. It's now possible to execute scripts from script creator window. It's not longer necessary to save them first.
8. Limit Holdem: not only the algorithm got way faster for limit but we are also adding Cepheus preflop ranges to our range collection. You can now easily recreate Cepheus solutions (PioSOLVER has no problems getting 1mb/hand accuracy) and see all the information not shown on Alberta University's website like expected values of plays, overall frequencies, range analysis and more. It's interesting to notice that even though we use completely different algorithm the solutions match almost exactly!

We are very proud of this release. PioSOLVER is finally at the stage we hoped it would be when we first released it. It's incredibly fast and functional. It solves huge trees in minutes (and sometimes seconds). It's not only the best training tool ever created for Holdem but also very fun (and addicting) toy. The difference comparing to previous version is staggering. If you are our customer you are in for a lot of fun, if you are not make sure to check free version update which is likely to be available in about a week!

The schedule for updates is usual. Edge version users already have it. Pro version users will get it tomorrow and Basic version users should get it this Wednesday. Make sure to check your email!

Performance improvements, new viewer features and a bugfix June 11, 2015 23:34

Today's release is a small one a bit outside of our usual release schedule. It brings some very exciting news though. We are adding some new features to PioViewer to make scripts generation easier as well as making Range Explorer more powerful. We are also making experimental PioSOLVER 1.4 available to our edge customers. This solver brings huge memory and performance improvements. 

The 1.4 version will be available to our pro and basic customers once it's feature complete and the interface is stable. We expect it to be in 5-6 weeks from now.

Without future ado, here is the list of improvements:

Experimental solver 1.4:

1)Big performance improvements. As tested on 3 year old i7 quad (i7-3770) which should represent typical not too new/not too old hardware:

• For full ranges: 1.2x speed, 1.2x memory
• For 75% ranges: 1.42x speed, 1.55 memory
• For 50% ranges: 1.8x speed, 2.2x memory
• For 25% ranges: 3x speed, 3.9x memory
• For 15% ranges: 4.5x speed, 5.7x memory
• For 8% ranges: 7.2x speed, 8.5x memory

This means many real life cases now only need about 2 minutes to solve and some even below 1 minute. For example this one or this one.
The situation still isn't that rosy for huge HU cases but the improvements there are significant as well.
This is especially good news for users with 8GB of RAM as many more trees will be now possible to solve.
All the benchmarks on the website will be updated once 1.4 version is available for everyone.

New features in PioViewer

• Saving/loading scripts from the viewer in addition to script generation. Running multiple trees never has been easier.
• Equity realization is now available in Range Explorer. It's also possible to show it by category or arbitrary selected subset of hands. See GIF.
• Strategy by hand category is now shown. This should be very useful for understanding ranges better. This feature is connected with the one below. See the GIF in the next point.
• It's now possible see not only a whole range in Range Explorer but also betting/calling/folding ranges specifically. See GIF.

Bug fixes:

• some glitches in 125% screen mode fixed (useful for small laptops)
• a minor bug in range parser fixed
• error check to rebuild_tree is added - it no longer crashes on incomplete trees
• a bug in set_strategy (introduced in 1.3 but not present in 1.2) is now fixed
• scripts now stop working after first encountered error

  The release schedule is usual and starts today. You will get email notification once it's ready to download. Stay tuned!