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I know my previous post said Monday, but I found some time this morning to finish up everything I had to do and am proud to release my 4th application. Video Poker Assistant.

Video Poker Assistant is not a video poker game or simulator, there are plenty of those on the Android Market.  This on the other hand is a tool to help improve your video poker playing and help you win actual money at actual video poker machines!  Video Poker Assistant accomplishes this by offering 2 modes to help players, Evaluator and Practice.  You'll never have to second guess which cards to hold or redraw again!

In Evaluator, the player selects all 5 cards manually then the program will calculate all possible outcomes/payouts and then display the optimal hold/draw combination.  It is very useful to check what you should do for a specific hand.

In Practice, 5 cards are dealt at random and then the player is asked to select which they would hold/redraw.  Afterwards the program calculates the optimal play, as it does in the Evaluator, and then it's compared to the selected play.  If the selected play isn't the best play, it will display what moves should of been different.

In both modes, this program does a lot of calculations.  Please consider the fact that there are 2,598,960 possible poker hands and this program processes through all of them to see which of the 32 possible hold/draw combination gives you the most chances to win, which take a few seconds to calculate properly.  Within the "How To Use" section of the program is a detailed explanation of what calculations are done if you're curious.

I personally own a HTC Thunderbolt (1GHz Single Core, Gingerbread Android) and the calculations on my phone take at most 15 seconds.  Your mileage may vary depending on your hardware and software specs, bet you it flies on the latest Nexus phone.  However I am constantly looking for ways to improve my calculation code and trust me, this initial release code is about 3X faster then what it was a few weeks before release. 

Right now Video Poker Assistant has only been configured for "Jacks or Better" style games, where the lowest hand that wins is a pair of Jacks.  The default payouts that are set are the most common for those types of machines, however the payout table is 100% editable. Upcoming versions will include Jokers and Deuces Wild type games.  Please send your suggestions and I'll add them too.

As stated in my previous post, this will not be a free app.  Right now it is only $1 for the initial release, but it will go up to $4 before the year is over.



I've also recorded a video demoing Video Poker Assistant and have uploaded to youtube: http://youtu.be/oACXQuZm6q8 .  I'll probably do this for my other apps too figuring how easy it was!

That's it, I hope you enjoy and are able to improve your video poker playing and win some money during your next casino visit. Good Luck!!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.milone.pokerstrat

My new program, which I've been quite secretive about is ready for the market! Barring some unforeseen actions, I'll be releasing my 4th and first non-free app into the market after Thanksgiving Weekend. Now that's so close I figure I can tell you some details.

As w/ the Monopoly Trade Evaluator, it's not a game, but rather a tool to aid players and as with my other 2 games, it's based on playing cards. The game in question for this program is Video Poker and the program will be known as Video Poker Assistant

By utilizing a series of equations, this program will aid players in improving their video poker gameplay and hopefully win them some real money next time they step into a casino. It does this with 2 different modes. Evaluator and Practice. In Evaluator, the player selects all 5 cards manually then the program will calculate all possible outcomes/payouts and then display the optimal hold/draw situation. It is very useful to check what you should do for a specific hand. In Practice, 5 cards are dealt at random and then the player is asked to select which they would hold/redraw. Afterwards the program calculates the optimal play, as it does in the Evaluator, and then it's compared to the selected play. It then will display the correct play and if it doesn't match, it will also display what moves should of been different.

In both modes, this program does a lot of calculations. Please consider the fact that there are 2,598,960 possible poker hands and this program processes through all of them to see which of the 32 possible hold/draw combination gives you the most chances to win, which take a few seconds to calculate properly. Within the "How To Use" section of the program is a detailed explanation of what calculations are done if you're curious.


 I'll be initially selling the program for only $1, then will go up to normal price, which will be between $3-$5, I haven't decided yet. So get your copy early on Monday if this sounds like something that'll help you. I'll post back Sunday night/early Monday.

Just a quick note that I updated Monopoly Trade Evaluator and High Low Red Black today. The update for HLRB was to v2.8 and was just a maintenance release. New Scoreloop, AdMob and Android SDK were all used, and fixed a certain bug with tablet displays. Nothing else changed. Did the same updates for MTE, which went up to 1.5, sans Scoreloop, as well as added plenty of new features. Mainly the ability to add Mortgaged properties and Houses/Hotels to a player's total. Also implemented some code to allow users to see both player's assets in one screen (previously a tablet only feature) and the ability to calculate 10% for that income tax spot on the Monopoly board, then suggest what you should do, pay the 10% or $200 flat rate. Still working on my unreleased application. I'm trying to implement a Demo/Paid model where the Demo has a limit on some features. I'll be using Android's built in In App purchasing for it and I'm still learning how it works.