previous page 1 next page

Introduction

Knowing your hand's chance of winning against an opponent's possible hand or range of hands in a certain situation is an essential prerequisite for a profitable and mathematical strategic approach at the poker table.

In this spirit, Equilator provides the user with the following functions for the Poker variant Texas Hold'em:

  • Calculating the probability of winning as well as calculating the equity for specific hands in a direct confrontation while considering the community cards and the mucked cards.
  • Identification of a hand range which has the minimum equity against a specific opposing hand range.

The software enables the user to determine the chance of winning (equity) for any game situation and constellation of cards and helps also to determine the range of hands which has the minimum equity against a specific opposing hand range. On the basis of a foresighted analysis, a simulation or by just reviewing your played hands, you can optimise your strategy and also might be able to spot leaks in your play.

The main window





main menu:
  • File (1)
    • New Deletes the current settings and starts a new simulation.
    • Open simulation Opens a saved setting for a simulation. The file has the ending *.pef.
    • Save simulation Stores settings like hand ranges and equity for the current simulation in a file.
    • Save simulation as Stores the settings of the current simulation under a different file name.
    • Export results Stores the results of a simulation in a text file which you then can easily post in a forum or discuss with friends.
    • Quit Closes the program.
  • Extras (2)
    • Check for updates Checks online for a new version for Equilator and installs it as the case may be.
    • Automatically check for updates If this option is activated, the program checks regularly for new versions of Equilator.
    • Language Here you can choose your preferred language, if available.
  • Help (3)
    • Show help Opens the online help.
    • About... Shows further information about the program and the current version.
  • Tool bar (4)
    • New Deletes the current settings and starts a new simulation.
    • Help Opens the online help.
    • About... Shows further information about the program and the current version.
Equity calculation window (5)

This area is the core of the program. Here you can enter the hands or hand ranges of the players.

  • Player positions (6) This column specifies the seat of the corresponding player of a hand. It's for the purpose of clarity and it also simplifies the import of real hands into the program.
  • Card or hand-range selection (7) Via the button with the card icon, you can assign cards and hand ranges to the respective players/positions. See chapter: define hand ranges.
  • Define random cards (8) Via the button with the cube icon it's possible to generate a random hand for a player, thus a range with any possible card combination, for instance if this player is acting behind you. As a result, the word random appears in the respective display panel.
  • Clear entries (9) Via the button with the cross icon you can delete information about the respective player.
  • Display panel for hand ranges (10) This panel displays the preset hand range of a player. It's also possible to enter hands manually.
  • Display panel for equity (11) This panel displays the respective equity of a player for a given hand range against the given hand ranges of his opponents.
  • Equilate (12) A mouse click on this button starts the calculation. The results will be shown in the result window (21).
  • calculation mode(13) The modi Monte Carlo and Enumerate specify different possibilities for the calculation. While the mode Enumerate tries all possibilities, the mode Monte Carlo tests only respective randomly selected examples. When using lots of data, the calculation with the mode Enumerate can naturally take a lot of time, where it then makes sense to use Monte Carlo.

Board and Dead Cards window
  • Board (14) In order to simulate situations which take place postflop, you can select the respective community cards. Naturally, the number of cards is limited to five.
  • Dead (15) Here you can enter dead cards, thus cards which we can exclude in certain situations, for example, if you have seen cards of your opponent in a live game or when you don't want to consider them in certain situations with possible draws.

Hand range calculation window (16)

The hand range calculation makes it possible to find out with which hands we meet at least a given equity against a certain hand or hand range of an opponent.

  • Minimum equity (17) By using the slide control or the input field, it's possible to define the minimum equity of the calculated hand range that we want to achieve.
  • Range calculation(18) By a click with the mouse, the calculation starts. The results will be shown in the result window (21).
Result window (21)

This area displays the results of a calculation. It's possible to display a general overview or a detailed view of the results.

  • Overview (19) Opens the overview window.
  • Result (20) Opens a detailed view for the calculated results.


Define the hand ranges

A click on the icon with the card (7) in the equity calculation window (5) makes it possible to enter a hand range. For this purpose, the following input window opens:



  • Card matrix (1) In this area you can add or remove specific hands to a hand range of a player by a mouse click. You can configure how the cards will be selected via the Mark Mode (12). For instance, you can select all hands of a column instead of single ones.
  • Card selection (2) In this section you can use and combine several default options.

    All (3) Selects all hands.
    Pairs(4) Activates or deactivates all pairs.
    Suited (5) Activates or deactivates all suited hands.
    Offsuit (6) Activates or deactivates all unsuited hands.
    Broadway (7) Activates or deactivates all hands with broadway cards.
    Inverted (8) Inverts your current selection.
    None(9) Deletes the current selection.
    Hand Range (10) Selects the range of hands from the hand range window.
    Selected (11) Shows the percentage of the selected hands in relation to all possible hands.
    Mark Mode (12) Defines the mode of selection. For example, it's possible to select all hands of a row or column at once by a single mouse click.
    Suits (13) Defines a specific suit (colour) for the selected suited hands. It's possible to combine several suits.
  • Hand Range (14 and 15) You can define the percentage of all possible starting hands by using the slide control or the input field. Hereby you can define a upper and lower limit.
  • Selected Cards (16) Shows the current selection of hands.

Use in practise


 

Comparing two hands with each other

Assuming two opponents go all-in preflop and you want to figure out their chance of winning. For this purpose, please click with your mouse on the card icon, choose the respective hands and confirm your selection by clicking the button Equilate.

The above screenshot shows the important areas with red circles: the respective selected hands, the Equilate button with which you can start the calculation and the result.

The whole thing can be expanded to hand ranges and/or multiple opponents. Of course, the principle is the same: Select your hands or range of hands and click on Equilate.


Hand range calculation

The topic Blind Defense is one of many possibilities to use the hand range calculation:

Example:

An opponent steals with 45% of his hands from the button (e.g. you can take this value from Pokertracker). Now you want to find out with which hands you can defend your small blind in a profitable way, in other words you want to find out your 3 betting range from the small blind. Naturally your required equity varies from opponent to opponent but in this case we assume a lower limit of 50% equity.

 

The course of action is: You choose a hand range of 45% of all possible starting hands for the button and afterwards you click on the range calculation button. Provided that there is an existing range that fulfils the requirements, the results will be displayed in the result window.

Here as well, the interesting areas are marked with a circle: the hand range, the settings for the equity including the button for the calculation and the respective result in the overview window.

 

Calculation of the equity in a hand

In order to figure out the equity of a player when community cards have already been dealt, you proceed as follows: You assign a certain hand to a player and also a hand range to his opponents, then you enter the dealt community card and click the button Equilate.


Example:

We have AQ on the BU, CO raises preflop, we 3bet and get capped from the CO. The board gives us a nut flush draw and the CO has very likely a strong made hand. We give him definitely a tight cap-range and see the astonishing result. We have a very good equity. If we define a slightly more loose cap-range (which is realistic), the CO is even a underdog.

Like in the other pictures, the respective areas are marked in red: the hand range of the opponent, the own hand, the board (on the top right), the equity of both hands/hand ranges in the equity-column are marked in yellow. the Equilate-Button to start the calculation and also the window with the results.

Changelog


Version 1.1 - 24.07.2007
  • NEW: GUI over-worked
  • NEW: Output of the range calculation shows up as text in the tab "results".
  • NEW: Added delete-button in the card selection dialogue.
  • NEW: It's now possible to mark columns, rows and diagonals via keyboard shortcuts SHIFT, CTRL and ALT
  • NEW: card matrix is now coloured for a better accentuation.
  • NEW: It's now possible to select individual hands via the extra button.
  • NEW: It's now possible to choose between different range listings.
  • FIX: Cards will now be included in ranges with their real weighing.
  • FIX: Monte Carlo-calculation is now faster.
  • FIX: Changed icons to separate this program from Texas Grab'em.
  • FIX: The last selection of calculation mode (Monte Carlo or Enumerate) will now be saved.
  • FIX: Dialogues are now named more meaningful.
  • FIX: Dead cards are now correctly included into the calculation.
  • FIX: The bug of the output in the reverse calculation is fixed.
  • FIX: Output of ranges are correct now.
  • FIX: Automatic check and correction of entries.

 

previous page 1 next page