Heads Up: Hold'em version 2.1

Here are some updates about what will be happening in the immediate future for version 2.1.
It will be late May or early June so we can catch any other bugs and things that come up in the next week or two.
(This will not have any of the Bluetooth or WiFi stuff mentioned before. This will be bug fixes and smaller things.)

Switch between each type of game without ending/losing another one.
This is already done. Each of the three types of games will save their progress separately. So switching from a 1-player to 2-player to cards-only and back again will not effect your other games.
The menu screens will work a bit differently to accommodate this. The options to "Resume, Increase Blinds, or Start a New Game" will be a pop-up window when you select your game type from the main screen.

Top player card-protector color problem.
Fixed.

Deck isn't drawn for 1st in-progress hand after closing the app and returning.
Fixed. (Or soon to be fixed.)

New AI personalities. (Names TBD)
In Progress.
Math or Statistical player who will play by game theory (as best we can) and very strict bet-sizing rules. (3x preflop, 3/4 pot postflop with minimal deviation.)
Super-Maniac who bets big and bets often. (Watching Durrr on High Stakes Poker for inspiration.)
Chameleon who will switch between personalities (change gears) during the game.

AI improvements
In Progress.
Some changes won't necessarily be improvements from a game play standpoint, but will allow some personalities to play more 'emotionally' like going on tilt, etc.
We're keeping most of this info secret. :-)

Yesterday morning (5/12/09) we were #80 in "Paid Card Games" and #68 in "Paid Casino Games." This morning (5/13/09) we were #31 in Cards and #26 in Casino! NICE!

Heads Up: Hold'em version 2 IS AVAILABLE!!

Version 2 of Heads Up: Hold'em is in the AppStore now!
GET IT (iTunes link)

I really hope everyone enjoys it.
If you do like it, please write us a review on iTunes. Version 1 got panned a bit for not having chips and the 1-player game. We've 'fixed' those things now, but people rarely go back to re-review...

What's next:

• More (and better) AI personalities.
• Hopefully bluetooth (and WiFi) support when OS-3 is out to allow play on 2 iPhones.
  
• Maybe some kind of online leader board. (?)
• More ideas that we're keeping to ourselves for now. :-)
  

I also hope everyone following this blog for poker software updates enjoyed my tourist pictures from England...
For what it's worth, I won £175 playing £1-£1 at the Grosvenor Victoria (Old Vic) Casino.
On my very first hand of poker in England, I was dealt A-A. The flop came A-K-7, and was bet into enough to put me all-in. The turn was another king to give me A-A-A-K-K. Welcome to the country! (Sadly, I'd only bought-in for the minimum in order to get a feel for the table. I could have won a lot more on this hand...)
I also sold a copy of iCatchall to one of my friends there. Does that make it a business trip?

PS: The picture is from the plane home. A nice "REALLY??? I flop a full-house and then THIS happens" moment.

London Tourist, continued...

Facebook has a much better picture-upload system than Blogger does.... So look at more pictures there.

LONDON, & ENGLAND GALLERY ON FACEBOOK

London Tourist, Days 1 & 2

These pictures are not in order. But I'm on vacation, so this is close enough..

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. View from the London Eye. Our personal Egg.

Us in our personal egg. Did I mention we got a personal egg. That's unusual, apparently. Normally they cram 30 people in these things. But we got it all to ourselves.
Me and my hill. This is near St. Paul's. We stopped in to St. Paul's but the gallery and crypt was close, so we are going back either tomorrow.

Alice wearing St. Paul's as a hat. This is on the Millennium Bridge.

Cool walkway balconies. This is in the newly-gentrified Southwark (pronounced suthuk if you know what you're saying and South-whark if you don't.)

The Tower Bridge. (NOT London Bridge). We walked across Tower Bridge to Southwark.

(did you pronounce it right?) In the Tower of London.

Henry VIII thought well of himself. At one of the exhibits, I overheard a young kid say (strong British accent here) "Look, 'e 'had an enormous cock." Why yes, yes he did.

Alice & Dahn at Traitors Gate, Tower of London.

Tower Bridge from Tower of London. Those old-timey Brits liked their towers.

Me in a guard house.

The Tower of London. Trebuchet. (Probably spelled wrong.)

Cricket. In Wimbledon.

John Innes park in Wimbledon. We took a long walk through the park to fight jet lag on the first day.

Alice & Dahn.

More pictures soon.

As I'm typing this, I'm enjoying a gin & tonic at John & Dahn's house. We're watching trashy British Tele, which far surpasses trashy American TV. We'll likely pop off to a pub for a pint (and dinner) soon.

Yesterday, the plane landed at about 10:30 am, and Alice and I set a goal to stay awake until 9:00pm. We succeeded with only a few minor dozes-off between. Which did a great job of kicking the jet lag, but then we slept for about 12 hours (9 to 9) and then we set out for all the central-London sightseeing shown above.

More soon.

Heads Up: Hold'em version 2 (very close...)

So very close...

The AI player is playing quite well. Well enough, in fact, that we will need to add some personality options to dumb it down a bit if people want that.

A lot of our testing is done with the cards exposed and I sometimes laugh when it seems to make an exceptionally good play.
One hand that comes to mind, the AI flopped Aces-up and just checked it to me. I checked behind with my Queen high. The turn was a blank and the AI checked again. I decided that in a 'real' game I would take a stab here, so I did expecting the AI to check-raise me so I could fold (I tried to play as if I would without seeing his cards). Nope, he just called. The river was a queen and the AI threw out about a 2/3 pot sized bet. Wow, it let me catch up enough that I would pay off the bet in a real game. NICE!
I've also seen it bluff-raise me with nothing on scary scary boards. It will look foolish when it fails, but will work a high percentage of the time. Nice!

The current To do list is:

• AI Personalities. (Pro, Amateur, & Tourist will likely be the ones in this next version. But unconfirmed...)
  
• Add different blind levels and starting stack size options.
• Add (optional) blind increases
• Save the game when exiting the program.
• Fix a few bugs. (Fewer and fewer of these...)

Heads Up: Hold'em version 2

Let's start calling this thing "Version 2" instead of Version 1.1. There are some big (VERY BIG) changes here.

The game you know (and hopefully love) from version 1 is still intact. Essentially unchanged. No worries there.

COOL NEW THING #1: CHIPS

The 'with chips' version of the game is looking fabulous. This is pictured here. The elegance of the original is maintained. The only item added which looks more like a UI feature from software instead of just the cards and chips is the 'spinner' which is used to set bet amounts. I even made this look like a poker chip a little bit to keep the theme.
While this should be clear from the picture, set the bet amount with the spinner and then push the stack of chips into the betting circle to commit it. Simple, nice, as close to a real game as we could simulate.

The "stack" graphics (shown in the draft picture on my previous post) were cut for simplicity and screen size limitations. It also means that every chip shown on screen is currently 'in play.' And it matches the online poker clients which don't try to show a player's chips graphically and just give a number.

COOL NEW THING #2: PLAY VS. THE IPHONE

Remember when I said there would not be a computer player?
I believe it went something like

There have also been requests for a single-player version. I don't think this will happen.
...
Seriously, people: POKER IS A GAME TO BE PLAYED AGAINST OTHER PEOPLE NOT AGAINST A COMPUTER!

He he he... Oh, those were good times...

Well, I was wrong. there WILL BE a computer player that you can play against. We are currently working on the AI to make it play some reasonably decent poker. It's close.

Finished:

• 2-player game with chips.
• mechanics of single-player game vs. iPhone or iPod.
• Pretty good AI player.
  

Current development:

• Tweak and refine AI player.
  

To-do:

• Configuration for blind levels and starting stacks.
• Increasing blinds for tournaments. Blinds will increase per number of hands rather than on a timer. 10-100 hands per level (in increments of 10) will be configurable.
  (note: There will also be a 'manual' blind change setting if using a timer.)
• Possibly add configuration or several defined 'personalities' for the AI.
  

And there you have it!

Heads Up: Hold'em version 1.1(a)

The concept progresses...

We changed from a Slider (like on PokerStars, Full Tilt, & all online poker sites) to a "Spinner" which we think will work better on the iPhone. It allows for both fast swipes to throw in lots of chips and also a lot of precision even with very deep stacks.

When the spinner stops for some TBD fraction of a second; the chips between the 'bet pile' and the 'stack' will adjust themselves. Then you push the bet pile in to place the bet.

Dealing in this version of the game will happen automatically when the last bet is called or when it is checked through.

The dealer button may get cut (or cropped off the side of the screen), because there isn't a lot of room for everything. The deck itself can indicate the dealer--as in the current version.

NOTE: This will essentially become two games in one. The current version (without chips--to be used with real-world betting) will remain pretty much as-is. With this being basically a 2nd game that looks similar.

Current development (3/26/09):

• The spinner is in place, but not tied in to betting yet.
• Rudimentary betting (using the old slider) is working to a point; but needs refining and is now just numbers with no chips attached.
• Turns and automatic dealing works, but not for preflop peculiarities yet.