PokerSnowie, first step to become a Training Platform

PokerSnowie is an educational software, which works well for players of every level. It contains complicated stuff, like exploring hand ranges in various situations and displaying GTO-like suggestions. But it also lets you play against the AI, which is a great way to learn even more while having fun.

Until now we have been focused on more technical aspects of PokerSnowie, while the Challenges feature has been left unchanged for quite a while. In the meantime, we have received a lot of feedback and feature requests from the thousands of users who have been using, and still use, PokerSnowie every day.

We realized that “just playing vs. the AI” could be fun, but at the same time we’re missing a big opportunity to help out the learning process of the user in a more practical way. Some customers found the playing speed too slow, others found that always displaying the Live Advice was not a great way to teach. Some were missing tournament/sit&go-like features, and others would have loved to train from certain specific spots, like for example facing a 3-bet on the preflop.

Well…

We have been working on it, and we’ve decided to take this first important step towards creating a more training focused experience. So what’s changed?

The first piece of software we have updated is our PokerSnowie Desktop client (for Windows), to which this article refers. But be prepared, a few important updates to our mobile apps are in progress, and the Live Advice feature is one of them!

Goodbye Challenges!

We’ve renamed the playing and training area to TRAINING, because we don’t think CHALLENGES really describes it properly anymore. You are not just going to “challenge” PokerSnowie, you are actually going to train using PokerSnowie. That means you get to decide how much the training should be specific and how much it should be just fun.

Tournaments

PokerSnowie is designed and optimized for Cash Games (ring-games). Nevertheless it could also be very useful for Tournament players (like in this video). So now you can better simulate tournaments (for now it’s a 1-table freezeout type, like a Sit&Go) by deciding not only the number of players involved, but also the starting chips and the tournament speed, i.e. how often the blinds increase, as well as having antes in the blinds structure.

Customized spots

This is another great addition. If you believe that you have some weaknesses when playing in certain positions, for example in BB position you notice that you are losing much more than you should, you might decide to start a specific training session with PokerSnowie where you are dealt each hand in the same position, so that you can try over and over to improve and you can then analyze your hands afterwards, since PokerSnowie will automatically import your hands on the server for analysis.

, We’ve had several questions from users who would also like to train in certain specific poker situations, and we promise we will work on it. For now, the first simple situation we have defined is the open raise, i.e. when you are the first to open on each hand. More situations will come, also based on your feedback, like for example the ability for you to build the ranges you would like to train with.

Live Advice logic review

You will no longer see the Live Advice on a separate popup showing you what is the right play in PokerSnowie’s opinion. Now you will need to think about the right play before you do it as PokerSnowie will only tell you the right play when you actually do something wrong. You can also set to receive such suggestions only when PokerSnowie thinks you made a big error (blunder), so that you won’t be bothered by it too often if you are still learning or if you are experimenting with new strategies.

Fast fold

Finally, several users have been unhappy about how slow PokerSnowie could sometimes be, in the sense that often you are dealt cards which you know you are going to fold, regardless of your opponent’s moves, but you still have to wait your turn to fold. Now, with the new fast fold button, you can just give up the hand and start a new one right away(in this case the Live Advice feature will also be disabled, but only for the hand you’ve fast-folded). This will save you a lot of time and will help you to focus on the hands that really count.

We really hope you will appreciate and enjoy all these changes. And be prepared for the new ones that are on the way!

Thank you and good luck at the tables.

The PokerSnowie Team