From: ch2m@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Christopher  Houston)
Subject: Re: Practice with Workware Software
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 03:21:57 GMT

From: ch2m@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Christopher  Houston)
Newsgroups: rec.gambling
Subject: Practice with Workware Software
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Distribution: world
Organization: University of Virginia
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In the past, there was always this dilemma:  I had some great literature
on seven-card stud (e.g., Sklansky/Malmuth/Zee, Caro, etc.), but all I
could do was read it at home before a trip; then, I'd get to Las Vegas
and have to implement what I'd read, right there at the tables and without
any chance to "practice."  Well, maybe someone else has successfully
read and absorbed such a large mass of information and then immediately
applied it all to a real game, but for me it was a crapshoot as to what
I'd actually remember and thus be able to use there at the tables.

The solution, of course, would have been to read the information gradually
and then practice in games at home, before heading out to Las Vegas, so
that I could better absorb it (gradually and via step-by-step lessons) by 
the time I reached McCarran.  Unfortunately, it proved impossible to 
put together any legitimate games here.  It's difficult enough to apply
the concepts in these books to a $1-$4 game, and the highest I can get
people here to go is 25 or 50 cents.  Plus, practice time should 
best be spent at seven-card stud, whereas poker nights here consist in
large part of those wacky variations such as Follow the Queen, Black Mariah,
Baseball, Threes and One-Eyed Jacks and Your Mother Wild, etc.

Well, the answer to this problem came in Workware's Seven-Card Stud program,
which I would heartily recommend to anyone and especially to those who
don't live in Nevada, who can't find a decent game in which to get 
experience, and who thus face the same dilemma I had.  The program is
much more than the always-random, zero-skill program I'd thought it might
turn out to be.  In addition to a great hand analyzer, the program allows
you to not only adjust the skill of your opponents but also to adjust 
specific elements of your opponents' skill; so, for example, you might make
one opponent more skillful by virtue of increased math skills, another by
virtue of increased hand-reading skills, and another by virtue of  
increased and better bluffing.  There are numerous other adjustments that
you can make as well, not just in the opponents but in the structure and
play of the game.  Also, the program offers certain analyses of your
play and that of your opponents.

What I did, once I learned to use the software proficiently, was to read
a chapter or two in my books on a specific subject (e.g., playing a 
starting hand of medium pair) and then to play for an hour or so, 
giving special emphasis to that topic and reviewing the books whenever I
had a question on that topic (or any other but especially the one at hand).
The difference in my play was quite noticeable, not just from the first time
I used the software to the last time, but from my March Las Vegas trip to
my July and August trips.  Now, given that I won't be able to go back to Las
Vegas for a few months, I'll go through the books again and keep 
playing via the software.  Thus, not only will I absorb even more of the
information, but the program will keep me from getting rusty between trips.
Obviously, I'd recommend the program to anyone (well, with the exception of
those I might be facing in future trips); it's not very expensive (only $50),
and if you really want to maintain and/or improve your poker, it would be
money well-spent.

(Two afterthoughts:  One is that Workware offers a program for Hold'Em and
also, I believe, for Omaha; my hunch is that they'd be just as helpful as
the seven-stud program, but would anyone out there who's used those
programs second that?  Also, a friend suggested that I get Mike Caro's
"Eleven Days to Seven-Stud Success"--title might be off but it's 
something like that--and apply it to my computer practice sessions; I 
know that the booklet is fairly expensive--I once looked it over but then
passed on it--but is there anyone who's read or used it and could
recommend (or condemn) it, especially in the context that I'd be using it?

Adios...
__________
Christopher Houston
University of Virginia
Department of Psychology
e-mail: ch2m@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.gambling