
Show HN: PokerHelper – deep learning backed poker assistant - chris140957
Https://www.pokerhelper.app?ref=ih2
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chris140957
Hi,

I've just launched the beta version of PokerHelper.app - its a deep-learning
backed poker assistant for Texas holdem that provides recommendations for the
best possible next move, given your current cards and hand situation.

Unlike other poker assistant apps that use maths to calculate hand strength,
Poker Helper's use of deep learning is capable of bluffing, and is aware that
other AIs may also bluff, too.

Poker Helper is currently completely free while in Beta, as the AI is not yet
100% production ready. It is currently capable of beating average human
players and many other AIs, and I've managed to make some money playing poker
online with this app already, but it will be refined further before the paid
version is launched.

Thanks for looking, Chris

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siddienahar
This definitely looks interesting. I'm gonna try this out next time I'm
playing poker with my friends.

A quick feedback, can you explicitly show shortcuts while selecting cards. It
will reduce a lot of cognitive load on the brain. Also give quick keyboard
shortcuts to be able to input/update the variables and evaluate.

Nonetheless, I wish you the best :)

~~~
chris140957
Thanks for the feedback, will get that added in

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djfdat
Hey!

I just signed up to check out your web app! It looks nice, and I have a couple
of feedback notes:

\- Didn't look in to this, but when I input the verification code, LastPass
popped up an alert that there was a non-secure web form submission. In this
case it is of pretty small consequence, but that's probably not great for a
first-time user to see during the registration process. The login form appears
every time I reload the page, and I'm presented with the same non-secure form
submission dialog.

Actual App Feedback:

\- On the first welcome screen, there is probably some UI/UX Room for
improvement. Remove the initial back button, colored buttons for next/close,
Escape key has weird behavior.

\- Welcome screen is fine, but I've seen some tutorial stuff that will step
through by highlighting the actual items on the page.

\- The Help button in Safari takes you to a new page, links inside take you to
new pages, which makes going back to the game a hassle. Same for support.
These are very different from Game Settings and should be visually
differentiated.

\- On the first Welcome screen, I would present the user with a quick start
button. This should automatically configure the hand and everything so that
the user could get an idea of the app without digging through settings first.

\- Player cards should be at the bottom.

\- There should be options to actually draw cards. Maybe I'm missing
something, but instead of me selecting what cards I have and what cards the
community cards have, let the app pick cards for you. Then the player can
learn while actually playing.

\- For Card Selection, have the card value as a selection, and then a dropdown
below with the suit selection. This dropdown could be always visible or
toggled by clicking the card value.

\- Get some art for card backs/fronts! Obviously not necessary at this stage.
Table Art? Get some felt!

\- Might need to iterate on the "Evaluate". This could be a button on the
table. I would treat it as a toggle, and have the information always
available. Users could select what information to keep pinned.

\- Show the other players, even if they're smaller cards. Hovering over cards
should let you see possible cards.

\- Button tooltips.

\- I can have 22 opponents?

I know a lot of this is polish work that isn't necessary at the moment, but I
wanted to call it out anyway for reference. I do think this is a great idea
and hopefully I can learn to play poker by the cards instead of looking at my
friends faces and guessing what they're thinking!

~~~
djfdat
Also, I'm not entirely sure what the AI is doing in here that could not just
be calculated... Could you explain that in more detail?

~~~
chris140957
Regarding the AI, this is a machine-trained agent. Basically you start of with
a bot with zero understanding of how to player poker - it’s presented with the
available moves (eg call, check, fold, raise etc) and initially it just picks
one at random, and records both the game state and result. So when it first
tries to play, it has absolutely no idea what it’s doing any loses badly.
However, it learns a little from each game it plays, and gradually, over the
course of literally millions more games of poker, it learns how to beat the
opposition. It has an awareness of the overall game state, rather than the
specific hand it holds and eventually learns that the opposition may fold it
it raises, regardless of the cards on the table

