14 replies to this topic

[loco]

Nearly two weeks ago I started a little project to create a poker helper. For the initial setup, I am designing it to work with Zynga's holdem' poker on facebook.

It is a strict work in progress, but while I have the time to do so, I will keep developing it as far as possible. This is a well thought-out multi-stage project, and I'm posting this message here and in a few other places to see what the general interest in this kind of project is, and whether anybody would like to become a tester. The development stages are as follows:

• The user selects an area of the screen, indication the location of the total chip count. The app reads this, and presents the total chip count.
  
• The app automatically locates the total chip count based on a placemark, and proceeds to read this chip count.
  
• The app automatically re-locates the total chip count if it is lost.
  
• The app tracks the highest and lowest total count the player has reached in that session, and presents it.
  
• The app tracks the overall chip change of that session (currentChips - startingChips), and presents it.
  
• The app automatically detects the player's status, whether the player is currently in the lobby, on a table, has a seat, has a hand, and so on. ready to be implemented
  
• Following calibration with an empty table, the app detects what seats are free, and places the player in one of the available position, noting the location of the player. in progress
  
• The app automatically reads and presents the blindsize of the table the player is currently on.
  
• With use of knowledge of player's position, the app locates the player's hand.
  
• The app reads the player's hand successfully, and presents it as text.
  
• The app knows when the player wins a hand, and when the player loses a hand (could probably do if(totalGain > (blindSize*3)) and treat any gain as a win, and vice versa for lost hands.
  
• The app tracks which preflop pairs the player loses with and which the player wins with.
  
• TBA.

Future features will include:

• Reading player's cards, and keeping track which hands win & which hands lose from the preflop.
  
• Tracking player's primary actions: check, fold, raise, call, all-in.
  
• Track how many other players there are, and their actions during each round.
  
• Keeping track of the player's win/lose ratio.
  
• Reading cards currently in play, and advising player on hand strength.
  
• Reading players currently on-table chip stack, and recommending whether to rebuy or even change tables.

As you can see, there is a lot to this. As of today (9th July 2012), stage 7 is being worked on. Note that it is unlikely that I will have the time to actively develop this in the future, but express your interest nonetheless if you wish to get involved. Feedback is also greatly valued!

Note: This app does not and will not include automated collusion capabilities.

[loco]

FAQ

If you have any questions that aren't here,

ask in the thread or pop me a message.

Can I try it out?

Sure, give it a go and tell me what you think: http://www.macgameha...okerAid.app.zip

It says "can't find chips", how can I fix it?

It might need recalibrating for your system configuration. If you're computer savvy, check out the PNGs folder in Contents/Resources, and replace them with your own screenshots.

If you're lost, reply to this topic and I'll help you out.

Which poker sites will it support?

Currently only Zynga's poker on facebook. But the way it is designed, once the program is there, it is easily adaptable.

Will include a bot?

Yes, a later version might include the first pokerbot for Mac that works on Zynga's facebook poker. Stages up to 6 will need to be completed first though, so it might be a while.

[loco]

Progress reports

(in reverse order)

• 2nd July, 2012 - Stage 2 and parts of 3 & 5 have been completed.

Quote

PokerAid is now capable of locating your total chip count by itself, and I have begun implementing features allowing further interaction. The UI has featured a few changes, and a download link is now available in the FAQ.

• 29th June, 2012 - Stage 2 in progress!

Quote

PokerAid now tracks your highest and lowest total chip points, and reading accuracy has been improved.
Added some colouring for when you're making a profit (green) or making a loss (red).

• 28th June, 2012 - Stage 1 complete!

Quote

PokerAid is now allows the user to select an area of the screen where the chips are located, reads the total chip count, and tracks any changes in that session. The value reading isn't yet 100% accurate, but as only the last digit is wrong, it's good enough for now.

[KGameLover1]

that's actually really really cool!

[loco]

Why thank you!

Did some cleaning up today, and added a highest/lowest point method, added some colouring depending on whether you're winning or losing, and it is now much more accurate:

[Hrachya]

What about BlackjackAid? Like strategies such as "only hit when you have 16 or higher".

[loco]

Hrachya, on 01 July 2012 - 04:00 AM, said:

"only hit when you have 16 or higher".

16 or higher? or lower?

Seems a little pointless to be quite honest. It'd be simple enough to set up, but why would you want a program to do something so simple for you? Poker is an immensely complicated game, many of its players have no idea what odds they have with what preflop hands (for example). This should prove useful to new players, as well as experienced players.

I also have an update I'll share later today (hint: It's about stage 2).

[Hrachya]

loco, on 01 July 2012 - 11:36 AM, said:

16 or higher? or lower?

Lower.


I ment this

Wouldn't want to remember all that. Just a little program telling me what I should do and recognizing the cards would be awesome. Ofc its your choice.

[loco]

I see - given the little time I have to currently work on this, I'm going to push this project ahead as much as I can, while I can.

Once this project reaches stage 7, remind me about the blackjack idea as it would rely on some of these features.

[loco]

Update:
PokerAid is now capable of locating and reading the player's total chip stack without any involvement of the player.

I still have a lot of work to do on the app's image analysis capability, as for the moment, this app might not work on your computer straight away. You might have to take screenshots, crop them down, and replace the ones in the app's PNGs folder within the bundle.

If anyone fancies giving it a go, here is a download link. Let me know what you think!
http://loco.im/PokerAid.app.zip

[loco]

Update: I've made massive improvements to what I will use for image analysis within the app, though it has not yet been implemented into the automated part of the app, and there are still a few aspects of the method I need to work on. Follow the instructions at the end if you want to have a play around with it.

That's not all, as you'll see in the below screenshot, I have implemented a form of console log which'll let you see, in real time, what the app's currently up to or what it just did.


The next step is to clean up the code, remove any useless/outdated junk and update the chip locator to use the improved method.

Next I'll have to dig into the wonderful maths of determining which detected seat is at which position (relative to the chip locator), and using all known positions to determine where the player is sitting, and where his hand is.

Testing the new image analysis method:
click window -> debug panel.

On facebook, open up Zynga's poker, join any table with plenty of free seats, and click "locate seats" on the debug panel. It should highlight any available seats it has detected, for example:

Though this does nothing other than try to locate all available seats and draw little boxes over them, I don't recommend playing with any of the other debug features. What they do changes all the time as I occasionally need buttons to test new methods & implementations. As you can see, it's not yet perfect, and for some reason it occasionally only detects 8 of the 9 seats. It's a work in progress!

The download link is: http://loco.im/PokerAid.app.zip

Whether it works for you or not, reply to this thread or send me a message if you've tried it. All feedback will help.

[loco]

I have updated the recognition system, it should now detect all available seats without an issue, compared to the earlier bug where one or two seats were missed. The update is available via the link in the above post.

Further to my previous posts, due to the way the recognition system works, if there are any differences in screen resolution, font size, or anything else that affects the appearance of screenshots on your computer, this app will not work immediately.

Thankfully, due to how I have designed the underlying system, you can fix this in a few minutes. To do so, follow these instructions:

• Hold "ctrl" and click on the .app file. Select "Show Package Contents".
  
• Navigate through: "Contents/Resources/PNGs/".
  
• You will see a selection of images, each of these is used for comparison by the app. These will need to be replaced, but don't worry. It's dead easy!
  
• Open "http://apps.facebook.com/texas_holdem/" in your poker-playing browser, and let it load the main menu.
  
• Notice the chip on the top left of the screen, just left of your total chip count. Hold "cmd" and hit "4".
  
• Now click-drag a box over the whole of the chip. This will create a png file on your desktop, it should look like the chip.png in the PNGs folder.
  
• Replace the chip.png with your chip.png. Make sure the name matches or the app will crash.
  
• Repeat steps 5-7 for all other images. If you're stuck with any of the images, reply to the thread and I'll clarify.

Note: You do not need to replace screenShot.png. This is a temporary file which is used by the app for screenshots, but automatically replaced once a screenshot has been taken.

[loco]

I've updated the download link as I've just been made aware it's broken. You can download PokerAid from:
http://www.macgameha...okerAid.app.zip

[nopainjay]

thanks for the share i'm gonna test it out when i get sum time
i useto bot on z win app >> AutoIt  Script.

[loco]

nopainjay, on 18 April 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

thanks for the share i'm gonna test it out when i get sum time
i useto bot on z win app >> AutoIt  Script.

Awesome, that's where this idea stemmed from. It's still a young project, so it's nowhere near any of the autoit scripts, especially since all the functions that exist on autoit have to be written from scratch here, and that's going to take more time to research and build.

Let me know how it goes for you!