PioSOLVER 1.8 February 19, 2016 19:31

After a long wait we are pleased to announce another upgrade for PioSOLVER - 1.8 version. This release is quite a big one with many often requested features, PioViewer redesign as well as significant performance improvements.

Without further ado, here is a condensed list of new things:

1)Rake
It is now possible to set rake for both preflop and postflop trees. The interface allows for specifying a % charged as well as a cap. For example the most common structure on modern poker sites would be 5% rake and 3$ cap. The speed isn't affected much and you can even change the rake after the calculations are done and see how a solution calculated assuming one rake structure would fare with a different structure.

2)Runout EV comparison
This is often requested feature often referred to as "hotness". It lets you see EVs for a chosen player across all turn or river cards in a handy table so you can see which cards are good and bad for a given range at one glance.

3)Performance improvements
-post-flop solver now uses 35% to 40% less memory (depending on a tree); this makes memory requirements way less strict; it is equivalent of getting 65% extra RAM for free; for example full limit HU tree with a CAP of 4 and HU Cepheus ranges now fits under 16GB (it's 13.2GB before, it was 21GB before).
-speed improvements for big machines: the solver used to not scale very well on 16+ core machines; this is now fixed and the solver scales nearly linearly; this brings about 40% improvements on those 16+ core machines and significant one on 10-14 core ones;
-optimized preflop solving for small ranges: preflop cases where both ranges are smaller than 100% are now very significantly faster and smaller; this is useful for things like BTN open vs SB 3bet in 6max
-preflop saves are now way faster as they don't require unloading the tree (which was very slow); the saves are now basically instant (not counting time to calculate results) and the full tree is still in memory even after making a small save (so you can make a small save, a micro save and still have the whole tree to experiment with)

4)Preflop tree estimation
It is now possible to get a size estimation for a preflop tree before building it. This is available under "Estimate" button.

5)Improved layout of tree-building related tabs
Buttons with common functionality are now always visible, the tabs are grouped more logically. This clears up the interface significantly.

6)Notifications when the tree is done
You can use a system beep, a sound file or even a youtube link to play once the solver reaches required accuracy or worked for desired time.

7)More tree-building betting options:
-spread limit: you use c suffix (for example 50c) to add bets using specific amount; the same goes for raises;
-"don't 3bet" as well as "force c-bet" checkboxes for limit Holdem

8)It's now possible to browse all the post-flop play resulting from pre-flop trees.
There is a new interface allowing for flop selection even among many hundred flops. The bugs which occurred in previous version when re-calculating forgotten turns/rivers are now fixed as well.

9)A new interface for choosing saves in the same folder.
A new flop selector makes it easy to quickly select the save you want without looking through hundreds of file names.

10)It's now possible to express desired accuracy as bb/100 in addition to traditional % of the starting pot.
This is mainly useful for pre-flop cases but can also be used for post-flop ones.

11)It's now possible to select a suit to exclude when showing the results.
For example you can show all the hands without a heart or without a heart as a higher card. This is useful to see results for hands which don't make a flush draw for example.

12)Combo-locking
This feature was only available using the text interface in the previous version. It is now supported from PioViewer. You can choose specific combos to be locked and let the rest of the range to be calculated by the solver.

13)All/any options in Range Explorer
When choosing categories in Range Explorer from different groups (draws and made hands) it's not possible to either OR them or AND them.

14)Key shortcuts for common actions. They include:
-ctrl+b for arbitrary solver command
-ctrl+n for node-locking
-ctr+r for Range Explorer
-ctrl+g for Range Selector
-ctrl+h for EV comparison by card (hotness)

15)Views opened in a new window can now be configured to follow tree browsing.
This way you can open windows with various views (strategy, strategy+ev, eq etc.) and have them all on display and refreshing when browsing the tree.

16)It's now possible to add per-combo stats to aggregation reports.
This often requested feature is finally available. Be careful, it makes the reports very significantly bigger.

17)Rounding preflop
Rounding feature now works for preflop trees as well. The interface is the same as before with one more street to choose.

I go over those feature in the video below:

Notable bug fixes include:
1)Trees without all-in them were impossible to build either preflop or postflop. This is now fixed.
2)Postflop browsing was buggy (the solver often collapsed trying to re-calculate missing streets on small saves). This now fixed and should work smoothly even on saves created by older versions.
3)Various bugs connected to using spaces in file names are now all fixed. We adopted Windows convention for paths including spaces (you need to enclose the path in " " if it contains a space). This is handled by the Viewer automatically.
4)Seemingly random crashes when loading trees were caused by incorrect recognition of .txt config files. This is now fixed.
5)Preflop charts no longer crash when you open several of them.
6)"Force cbet" checkboxes now work in preflop tree configurations (they only worked for postflop trees before).

There are a few changes in UPI (mainly for programmers):

-the preflop tree building interface is re-designed to allow tree estimation; the old one is now deprecated and will be removed in the next release;
-the solver can now emit some debug information; every debug line starts with # and is ignored by the viewer and should be ignored by other programs as well
-more changes will be described in the updated UPI documentation

To get the update, as usual use our updater with your personal link. Edge version is already shipped. Pro and basic ones are going to be available in coming 2 days.
Have fun!

Videos! October 27, 2015 21:19

Hello,

We are happy to say more and more people use PioSOLVER and it's becoming a primary tool for a professional poker player. With more users come more feature requests and more demand for tutorials/learning material. Today we are catching up a bit on this front.

First, make sure to check out our quick start video which goes over major functionality of the solver and should be enough to get you started:

 Today we also added a first video made by Aze Gallo. This is a bit more advanced analysis where the author tries to get a bit deeper into reasons of why optimal play is the way it is. Check it out:

 For people not yet up to speed with new things in 1.6 version, there is a feature overview video:

Node locking functionality attracts a lot of attention but the interface maybe is not the simplest one to get used to. Here is a tutorial with a simple example:

Some frequently asked questions are answered in another video. We're hoping this format is a bit easier to follow than a written FAQ (make sure to check the video description for quick links to questions):

There is also more PioSOLVER related material popping out on the net, often without any input from us. It's always interesting to see how the program is used, we can say a lot of common usage patterns weren't predicted by the authors.
Make sure to check the discussion on Run It Once, specifically videos by Tyler Forrester and Steve Paul.

We are hoping those makes getting started with the program as well as using a bit more advanced features easier. Let us know what you think and what kind of material you would like to see in the future!

A small bugfix release and first video about PioSOLVER March 24, 2015 23:16

One of our users made a video introducing PioSOLVER and its basic functionality. I think it's a very nice resource and probably easier to follow than our quick start guide. Check it out here:

Thank you ibavly for putting this together. To all the rest: check it out! I hope we can have more material up in coming weeks.

There is also a small bugfix release of the PioViewer. It's already in your download folder and you can just copy it to your PioSOLVER folder (as usual). The small changes are:

• The saves from tree configuration were not working in the newest update - it is fixed now.
• The new copy-paste feature for EV didn't scale the EV the way the viewer does (so fold could have negative EV if it came after investing something in the pot before). It is fixed now and the numbers reported by the Viewer and the one possible to copy paste are the same.
• Display of colors and the way the gradient is constructed is now improved thanks to our user Karganeth's suggestion (on twoplustwo forum).

This is just quick bugfix. We are preparing for big solver/viewer update with a lot of new functionality. That still needs a lot of testing though. Stay tuned!

A hidden feature in PioViewer March 13, 2015 11:26

We didn't intend to hide it but a lot of our customers act surprised when we show it to them. Universal reaction is "whoa, I didn't know I can do that!". Here is a quick description:

At a decision point you often want to see not only the current range of a player having a decision to make but also specific sub-ranges for every possible decision. For example in response to a continuation bet you may want to see a raising range, a calling range and a folding range. To do that it's not necessary to navigate to those decisions. It as easy as one click.

Here is an example: it's a 3-bet pot. The board is As 4d 4c, OOP player just made a continuation bet and we want to see what raising/calling/folding ranges are in response to that:

That's it. You can then right-click the 13x13 grid to copy chosen range and paste it into our range selector to take a closer look (available in Tools->Select Range)