The Hand Evaluator is not meant to be used on every hand by Rubah4d. Instead, players should use it to analyze a particularly tricky situation and to check from time to time to see that their poker intuition fits with mathematical numbers.
Over the course of a poker session you will play many hands. How well did you do? Much of the answer comes from looking at your bankroll, and seeing how much money you made (or lost). A single number only gives you an overview of the session however, and you should take the time to look in more detail where things went well, or badly.
The Player Statistics window allows you to take a look at your bankroll over time, as well as the bankrolls of the computer opponents you played against. The graph is not just a pretty picture but a tool to help you understand your wins and losses. Did all of your wins come in a short period of time or is it slow, steady improvement? Do you have a large drop somewhere in an otherwise winning session? Perhaps one of the opponents made a long shot on you and you went on “tilt”.
Exclusive to Poker Academy Pro of Rubah4d is luck analysis. Poker is a game of skill yet the cards you hold are based on luck. It is just as important to minimize your losses when you get unlucky as it is to maximize your gains when the cards are on your side. In the Player Statistic window you can overlay the graph of your bankroll with a measure of the luck of cards. Were you just getting a bad run of cards, or did you misplay a hand? When your luck turns, do you adapt quickly or assume for too long that it will change back? What about the AI players who are winning, is it luck based or are they exploiting a weakness in your game?
When you’ve identified an area of the graph where you played especially well or especially poorly, it is a good idea to look over that run of hands again. To do this, you can open the Hand History window and quickly flip through a number of hands, reliving the action and seeing what went right and what went wrong. This time you can optionally know all of your opponents’ cards, and see the game from their perspective.
As you progress, you may have poker questions about Rubah4dthat you’d like answered without having to actually wait for them to occur in a hand. How often will my Ace-Ace hold up against his 7-8 suited? What about against 3 players with random hands? What are the chances of me winning when I have four cards to a straight and flush on the flop, versus top two pair? For questions like these, Poker Academy Pro has the Showdown Calculator. The Showdown Calculator lets you select up to ten players, and set their cards to any two cards, or unknown cards. The board similarly can be set to any combination of real cards and unknown cards. You can then get Poker Academy Pro to run all possible combinations, trying each of the remaining unknown cards and reporting back how many times each player wins, loses, or ties the hand. If there are a large number of unknowns you can do a simulation¬-trying a hundred thousand possibilities or so — instead of going through all the possibilities.
One common use of this tool is for people who play No-Limit Texas Hold’em. Put your hole cards in, and the two cards of your opponent (or leave your opponents cards blank to simulate they have a random hand) and press go. It will tell you exactly what your chances are if you go all-in pre-flop. You can then decide if the odds you are getting are worth the risk. Experimentation with the Showdown Calculator can be invaluable for forming a strategy for when you are low on chips in a tournament and have to pick your best shot for going all in.
