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- By RJ, PokerCruncher, LLC

* Updated section Range Equity Distribution Graphs: added a subsection "Determining/Filtering The Top X %ile Of Hands Of A Range" (Mac-Expert Version)

* Added screenshots in "Basic Features: 7) %age's Or n:1 Odds" section

Table Of Contents

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Introduction

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This Tutorial explains PokerCruncher's features and shows you how to use PokerCruncher to improve your game by:

• Thinking in terms of hand ranges, not just specific hands or random hands.
• Understanding flop odds/equity, in addition to the usual river odds/equity.
• Using advanced techniques like flop texture analysis.
• And more.

PokerCruncher is an advanced Texas Hold'em odds/equity calculator that supports:

• Fully General Hand Ranges
• Deal-To-Flop and Flop Texture Analysis
• Many Stats: hand type stats, flop hit stats, odds for flopping draws and combination draws, OnePair breakdown stats
• Range Equity Heat Maps And Hand Combo Stats
• Save/load and export/import scenarios (hands) and hand ranges (import scenarios feature: iOS and Mac-Expert versions)
• And more.

And the Mac-Expert version of PokerCruncher has many additional, expert-level features.

Few odds/equity calculators have these powerful features at the level of PokerCruncher. But with all of these powerful features it may be hard to see where to start to use PokerCruncher effectively; this is the goal of this Tutorial.

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General Usage

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PokerCruncher is a powerful poker odds/equity study and analysis tool for improving your game. You can of course use it however you'd like, but it's not meant to be used in real-time in the middle of a live casino hand.

Internet play is different; you should be able to use PokerCruncher effectively in internet hands, especially the Mac-Expert version of PokerCruncher. For example you can create a library of useful hand ranges for different styles of players and for different positions, and with PokerCruncher running side by side you can quickly put your opponents on hand ranges and calculate.

As a study and analysis tool, here's how you can use PokerCruncher to improve your odds/equity knowledge and decision making process:

1. Review key hands you've played to analyze the odds/equity each step of the way, to see if you made the right decisions and how you could have played better. Discuss your big hands and strategies with friends or on forums. PokerCruncher's save/load and export/import features let you save key hands (scenarios) for future review and share scenarios and hand ranges with others (import scenarios feature: iOS and Mac-Expert versions).
2. Set up and analyze realistic "what if" and test scenarios you may encounter in the future.
3. Analyze and test yourself on random scenarios (use the "Rnd" button to generate random player and board cards).
4. Analyze specific hand vs. hand range scenarios, and hand range vs. hand range scenarios. Poker is a game of incomplete information; you don't know your opponents' cards, so being able to estimate your equity against a range of hands is very important.
5. Analyze flop odds/equity, in addition to the usual river odds/equity. PokerCruncher's Deal-To-Flop and Flop Texture Analysis features let you do this. These features also give you many stats - hand type stats, flop hit stats, odds for flopping draws and combination draws, OnePair breakdown stats.

The below sections explain how to use PokerCruncher's powerful features to do the above things, using real-life hand situations as motivating examples.

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Basic Features - Completely General

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1) Internet Connection Not Needed

2) Up To 10 Players

3) Specific Or Random/Unknown Cards

4) Equity/Win/Tie %age's

5) Hand Type Stats

First note that PokerCruncher does all of its calculation locally on your device/machine so an internet connection is not needed.

You can enter up to 10 players. You can enter specific cards for the players and the board, or you can leave some cards blank, which means random/unknown cards. (You can also enter hand ranges; that's an advanced feature that we'll cover later, below.) This is useful e.g. for reviewing hands you've played where in retrospect you know your opponents' cards, or for analyzing "what if" scenarios.

For example consider the below 3-player specific scenario. JTs has flopped an open end straight draw and a backdoor flush draw against overpairs AA and KK. As you can see, JT's Equity is about 38%, and the Stats view shows how often JTs will make a Straight, Flush, OnePair, TwoPair, etc. by the river.

Positive equities (10% or more above breakeven equity) are colored green; negative equities (10% or more below breakeven equity) are colored red (actually, orange); breakeven equities are colored yellow.

Also consider the below 10-player random scenario: AA vs. 9 random hands. AA's Equity is about 31%.

In addition to each player's hand type stats (tap/select the player to view the player's stats in the Stats view), PokerCruncher can also show the winning hand's hand type stats (tap/select the board). (Android version: use the "P" <-- and --> buttons in the Stats view to select the player.) For example you can use the winning hand's stats feature to see what the expected best hand is for example if 3 players with random hands go to the river.

Example: Basic Calculation: 3 Players With Specific Cards, And A Specific Flop:

Example: Basic Calculation: AA vs. 9 Random Hands, Preflop:

6) Equity

Equity is a player's %age ownership of the pot (or of the situation/scenario). It's the sum of the player's Win %age and the fractional ownerships of the pot that the player has in ties with other players.

Equity's add up to 100% but Win %age's usually don't (because of ties). Most people usually think about Win %age, but Equity is really the more important stat.

Consider the below example: AA vs. AA. Win %age for both hands is only about 2.2% (when they make a flush using a single Ace). But the hands tie about 95.6% of the time and each hand's Equity is 50%. The 50% Equity %age describes the even nature of this matchup much better than the 2.2% Win %age. This example is extreme, but similarly in general, Equity is the better stat to think about.


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Example: Equity: AA vs. AA:

7) %age's Or n:1 Odds

PokerCruncher can show stats as %age's or as n:1 odds (against). "n:1F" means odds "in favor". The "n:1" ("%") button toggles between the two.

Example: %age's:

Example: n:1 Odds:

8) Generate Random Player And Board Cards

The "Rnd" button assigns random player and board cards.

• If you tap/select a player card/range field, the "Rnd" button assigns random cards to all players that you haven't assigned cards to. So for example you can enter specific cards for Player 1 (you) and tap the "Rnd" button to generate random cards for the other players.
• If you tap/select a flop/turn/river card, the "Rnd" button generates a random flop/turn/river. In addition, if you tap/select a flop card, a new submenu "Random Flop" appears in the Menu ("Menu" button), which you can use to generate more specific kinds of random flops like: broadway/medium/low flop, suited flop, paired flop. (Mac-Expert version: the "Random Flop" pulldown menu button is to the right of the "Rnd" button, when a flop/turn/river card is tapped/selected.)

Additionally, you can assign random cards to just one specific player by long-tapping one of the player's card fields (which brings up the player's shortcut menu) and then tapping the "Deal Random Cards" button. (Mac-Expert version: SHIFT+<Rnd> button.)

You can use this feature to generate random what-if and test scenarios and test your odds/equity estimates against PokerCruncher at each street: preflop, and after a random flop, turn, and river.

9) Fold/Un-Fold Players

You can use the "Fold Selected Player" button in the Menu to fold a player out of the hand, and the "Un-Fold Selected Player" button to put a player back into the hand. (Mac-Expert version: click "Fold" / "UnF" button.)

10) Dead Cards

You can enter dead cards: tap Menu --> Dead Cards, Settings, Undo --> Set Deck Card Dead/Live button, then tap a deck card to mark it dead/live. (Mac-Expert version: click "Set Dead Card Dead/Live" button, then click a deck card.)

11) Setting For Number Of Random Monte Carlo Simulation Trials

PokerCruncher has a setting (Menu --> Dead Cards, Settings, Undo --> Number Of Sim. Trials) for the number of random trials to do for Monte Carlo simulation.

Note that there's an Infinite setting. For any setting, you can stop/continue the calculation.

(Mac-Expert version: Click the "Stop" button after a few seconds when the stats stabilize, or use the "Auto-Stop" checkbox setting, which automatically stops Monte Carlo calculation, and is configurable.)

12) Undo

PokerCruncher has an undo feature for recovering hand ranges that you accidentally cleared out in the main screen (Menu --> Dead Cards, Settings, Undo --> Import Last Cleared Range (Undo); select (tap) a player first).
(Mac-Expert version: "Edit" menu --> "Undo/Redo Hand Range Edit (1 level)".)

13) Shortcuts

• Double-tap a player's card/range field to bring up the Hand Range Editor screen. (iPhone and Android versions; is not needed for iPad and Mac-Expert versions)
• Long-tap a player's card/range field to bring up the player's shortcut menu. This menu lets you do some important operations faster e.g. fold/un-fold a player, load a saved hand range onto a player (without having to open the Hand Range Editor screen). (iPhone, iPad, and Android versions)
  

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Fully General Hand Ranges

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Poker is a game of incomplete information; we need to think in terms of ranges of hands, not just specific hands or random hands. PokerCruncher's fully general hand ranges feature lets us do this, and this feature is where PokerCruncher starts to separate itself from many other odds/equity calculators.

Real-Life Hand Situation: How to play QQ (or JJ) preflop when facing a re-raise?:

Let's look at a simple preflop situation that's very common - we call it the QQ (or JJ) dilemma. This example illustrates why QQ (or JJ) can be a difficult hand to play. You're in a 2/5 no-limit cash game and you have a 500 stack. You're in early position with QQ and you raise to 20. A solid tight-aggressive player on your left (also with a 500 stack) 3-bets you to 60. Everyone folds, and you 4-bet to 200, thinking your QQ is probably the best hand and since you're out of position (this may not be a smart play on your part, it may be better to call, or fold, but we'll say you 4-bet). (Also, this is pretty large bet-sizing at each step in this example; we wanted to reach all-in pretty fast in this example.) Your opponent goes all-in for 500. It's 300 for you to call his all-in. Should you call his all-in?

It all depends on how this opponent plays of course. If he only makes this play with AA or KK, then you should fold, because it's 300 to you to win 707 (your opponent's 500 + your 200 + the blinds = 707; we'll ignore the rake here), so you're getting about 7:3 pot odds for the call, but you're a 4:1 underdog (your QQ has about 20% Equity against AA or KK, as a basic specific hand vs. specific hand calculation in PokerCruncher will show), so you don't have enough pot odds to make the call.

But let's say this opponent loves to make this play with AK too. Now the situation is more complicated. Here's how you can analyze this situation in PokerCruncher using hand ranges:

1. Player 1 (you): Enter specific cards QQ (suits don't matter in this example).
2. Player 2 (opponent): Enter hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}. To enter a hand range, select (tap) a player's field and tap the "Rng" button, or just double-tap a player's field (iPhone and Android versions). (iPad and Mac-Expert versions: single-tap/click a player's field in the main view to select the player; the Range Editor view then lets you edit the selected player's hand range.) "KK+" means "KK or better" i.e. KK or AA. "AKs" means AK-suited. "AKo" means AK-offsuit.
3. Calculate. You see that your Equity with QQ is about 40%.

This is pretty decent, not too much less than 50%. You may have thought your Equity would be lower than this because you're a big underdog against AA and KK (80:20 underdog), and you're only a 57:43 favorite against AK (only a little better than a coin flip). But there are 16 hand combos for AK (4 combos for AKs, 12 combos for AKo), and only 6 hand combos for AA and KK each, so your opponent will have AK more often (16 hand combos) than AA and KK combined (12 hand combos). Be sure that any hand ranges odds/equity calculator you use takes this number of hand combos factor into account correctly.

Back to your decision - you're getting about 7:3 pot odds for the call (you need to call 300 to win 707), so you need more than about 30% Equity. You have about 40% Equity, so this is a profitable call. Best decision: call (if the hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo} for your opponent is accurate of course).

The below screenshots show this example situation.


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Example Situation: QQ vs. Hand Range {KK+, AKs, AKo}, Preflop:

2nd screenshot: AA cell is selected

"Test Around" The Situation

But don't just stop here; continue analyzing this situation by "testing around" this situation. So you've figured out that QQ is a call in this situation against this opponent's hand range. How weak a hand would you need to have in order to fold? JJ? TT? 99? Etc. Plug in these hands instead of QQ and see how your Equity changes. Maybe you'd need a hand as weak as AQ, AJ, AT, etc.? Also plug in these hands and see what your Equity is for these cases. Try to find the tipping / breakeven point.

Similarly, test around this opponent's hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}. This is a pretty tight range; how does your Equity change if we add e.g. QQ and JJ to his range? Or if we add AQ?  Or if we add some suited connectors like 87s? Or suited hands like A3s (if this opponent is capable of making this kind of bluff with his Ace blocker card)? Again try to find the tipping / breakeven point.

This kind of testing around and practice will give you a "feel" for hand range Equities over time, which will help your live play decisions greatly.

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Hand Combos (Weights) In Hand Ranges

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In the QQ vs. {KK+, AKs, AKo} example above, we noted that there are 16 hand combos for AK (4 combos for AKs and 12 combos for AKo), and 12 hand combos for KK+ (6 combos for AA and 6 combos for KK). So in the hand range we constructed above, AK has more hand combos than KK+. This default/full hand weighting helps QQ's Equity (40%) in this example, because it's up against AK more often than it's up against KK+.

But what if our opponent doesn't always play AK this way. What if he plays AK this way about half the time? We can use PokerCruncher's Hand Combos view to model this custom hand weighting:

1. Player 2 (opponent): Enter hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}, as in the above example.
2. Tap the AKo grid cell to select it.
3. Tap the "Combos" button to bring up the Hand Combos view. Note that by default the full set of hand combos are turned ON (12). (iPhone X, Mac-Expert versions: the Hand Combos view is always shown so no need for a "Combos" button.)
4. In the Hand Combos view, turn OFF half (6) of the hand combos by tapping on each of them. We'll remove the 6 hand combos in the top triangle. Since flush draws aren't involved in our scenario here, the specific suits of the hand combos don't matter. NOTE: If flush draws are involved (even backdoor flush draws), then suits most certainly matter, and we have to be very careful which specific hand combos we turn OFF/ON w.r.t. suits.
5. Tap the AKs grid cell to select it. Then as in the previous step, in the Hand Combos view, turn OFF half (2 of the 4) of the hand combos; we'll remove the 2nd and 4th ones. Again, since flush draws aren't involved in our scenario here, the specific suits of the hand combos don't matter. The "NOTE:" in the previous step above applies here too of course.
6. Calculate. You see that QQ's Equity is now 33% (vs. 40% originally).

So cutting AK's weight in half reduced QQ's Equity from 40% to 33%. This is a significant change in Equity which may affect your decision.


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Example: Custom Hand Combos (Weights) For AKo And AKs:

1st screenshot: AKo cell is selected
2nd screenshot: AKs cell is selected

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Suits In Hand Ranges

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Here's another useful application of the Hand Combos view mentioned in the Hand Combos (Weights) In Hand Ranges section above. You can use this view to control the suits of the hand combos you wish to add to the hand range.

For example you can enter the hand range Ahxh (h = Heart) instead of the more general suited range Axs (s = suited), for example if the flop has exactly two Hearts and you want to put a player on the (Heart) nut flush draw. You can select any combination of suits. The below screenshot shows how you would select Ahxh (h = Heart). Multi-select the range of cells AKs .. A2s by swiping across these cells on the range grid, then turn ON only the hh button in the Hand Combos view. You can also multi-select cells by using the Built-In Hand Ranges screen.


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Example: Select Suits In Hand Ranges (Ahxh (h = Heart)):

Screenshot: AKs-A2s cells are selected

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Top X% Of Hands Slider

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This slider selects the top x% of hands. PokerCruncher uses a standard hand ranking system (PokerStove's): hands are ranked according to preflop all-in equity versus 3 random hands. This hand ranking system balances the value of high cards with the value of drawing cards.

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Hand Range %age/Odds Indicator

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This %age, shown at the top right of the Hand Range Editor screen, shows the %age of all possible hole-card hands that are in the hand range (taking assigned and dead (non-live) cards into account if the "View Card Removal Effect" setting is ON). This is also the odds of the player getting a hand in the hand range.

For example the range %age is 2.11% in the QQ vs. {KK+, AKs, AKo} example in the Fully General Hand Ranges section above.

However it's 1.51% in the Hand Combos (Weights) In Hand Ranges section above (lower than 2.11% because we removed some hand combos from the range).

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Extensive Built-In Hand Ranges

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PokerCruncher has the following built-in hand ranges that you can use as building blocks:

• Pairs: any pair, high, medium, low.
• Broadway, medium, low cards.
• Connectors, also 1-gap, 2-gap, 3-gap.
• Ax, Kx, Qx, Jx, Tx.
• Suited/offsuit subsets of the above built-in hand ranges.

Also:

• The 8 Sklansky-Malmuth Hand Groups.
• Our own Group 1a (AA and KK).

For example the below screenshots show how you would select all suited connectors, and Sklansky-Malmuth Hand Groups 1..3.


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Example: Select All Suited Connectors, Sklansky-Malmuth Hand Groups 1..3:

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Auto-Add/Remove Grid Cells

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If you turn ON the “Auto-Add/Remove Grid Cells” setting in the Hand Range Editor screen (Menu --> ...), then grid cells are added/removed to/from the hand range as you tap/swipe them (else they're just selected, not added/removed).
(Mac-Expert version: this setting isn't needed because add/remove is the default grid cell click behavior. To just select grid cells, do SHIFT+click/drag.)

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View Card Removal Effect

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If you turn ON the “View Card Removal Effect” setting in the Hand Range Editor screen (Menu --> ...), card removal effect is shown in the range %age (top right), in the range's hand combo count, and in the Hand Combos view.
(Mac-Expert version: this is a checkbox setting in the Range Editor view.)

Note that this setting shows card removal effect, but not range removal effect. So, if you want to assign a specific hand to a player, assign the player 2 specific cards from the card deck; don't assign the player a (1-combo) hand range. This way, the player's hand will be in the scope of the "View Card Removal Effect" setting.

Also note that calculation results take both card and range removal effects into account i.e. all removal effects (calculation results must take all removal effects into account in order to be correct).


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Example: View Card Removal Effect

"View Card Removal Effect" Setting Is **OFF**: (AA cell is selected)

"View Card Removal Effect" Setting Is **ON**: (AA cell is selected)

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Range Equity Heat Maps And Hand Combo Stats

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This feature lets you dig down into a range's overall equity and lets you see the equity of each hand in the range so you can understand the range's equity breakdown.

The equity breakdown is shown using a color-coded equity heat map. Cells/hands that have above-breakeven equity are shown in green-ish color; cells/hands that have below-breakeven equity are shown in red-ish color; and cells/hands that have around-breakeven equity are shown in yellow-ish color.

The color-spectrum-slider (1% .. 50%) lets you adjust the radius (or width, i.e. 2*radius) of the red -> yellow -> green color spectrum (which is centered at yellow).

If you tap the "View Details" button you can see the specific Equity and hand combo stats for each cell and also a %age value for each cell that tells you what %age of the range the cell comprises (taking dead and already assigned cards into account). You can also see the number of hand combos for each cell and for the entire range. Also, a sorted list of all hands is shown at the bottom (sorted on Equity).

1) Note: Monte Carlo Simulation

Note that due to Monte Carlo (random sampling) simulation, each hand's (grid cell's) Equity has a higher variance (margin of error) than the entire range's Equity. You can set the "Number Of Sim. Trials" setting (Menu --> Dead Cards, Settings, Undo --> Number Of Sim. Trials) to 2x or higher (or even Infinite) to get more accurate results.

2) Note: Complete Enumeration

If the scenario is simple enough, PokerCruncher computes the exact odds/equity and stats by doing complete enumeration of the possible cases. For example it does this if all player and flop cards are specified (no random hands, no hand ranges).


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Example: Top50%OfHands vs. Top25%OfHands:
Range Equity Heat Map And Hand Combo Stats For Player 1 (Top50%OfHands):

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Deal-To-Flop Analysis, Many Flop Stats

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* Hand Type Stats

* Flop Hit Stats

* Odds For Flopping Draws And Combination Draws

* OnePair Breakdown Stats

Most odds/equity calculators can only deal to the river. But when we play e.g. speculative hands like JTs or 75s or even AK, especially for a preflop raise, we'd like to know how often these hands can flop big made hands and draws. We're not necessarily playing these hands for their river showdown value; we'd like to know how often they can flop big. PokerCruncher's Deal-To-Flop feature lets you do this. PokerCruncher also has Deal-To-Turn and Deal-To-HoleCards.

Set Deal-To = Flop, bring up the Stats view (the Stats view is always shown on iPhone X), then tap the "Hit" button to switch to flop hit stats (must hit hand strongly using the hole cards), from the default make hand stats. (iPad and Mac-Expert versions: use the "Make Hand" Stats vs. "Hit Hand" Stats selector in the Stats view.) For example flop hit stats can tell you how often AK hits an Ace or King on the flop (OnePair), or hits TwoPair or 3OfAKind on the flop. The default make hand stats are weaker, but are true to the textbook definition of the stats. They include cases where the board's cards are solely or mostly responsible for making the hand, e.g. for OnePair, when the pair is on the board.

For Deal-To = Flop, the Stats view also shows odds for flopping draws and combination draws, and OnePair breakdown stats (TopPair, MiddlePair, BottomPair, OverPair). Swipe left/right in the Stats view to see these stats (iOS versions). (Android version: use the "S" <-- and --> buttons.)

Real-Life Hand Situation: How much do you want to pay to see the flop with a speculative hand?:

You're in a 2/5 no-limit cash game and you have a 500 stack. A couple of early position players limp. Say you limp in middle position with a speculative hand like JTs (or 75s, etc., i.e. a suited/connected-type hand). A middle/late position player raises to 30, and the two early limpers call. Should you call with JTs to see the flop?

Actually we can't answer this question because we haven't given nearly enough information, for example:

• What are the stack sizes of the other players, and your stack size, i.e. the effective stack size?
• What style of player is the preflop raiser?
• What implied odds does the preflop raiser (and the other players) offer on his (their) entire stack? I.e. do these players lose their entire stack easily (especially the preflop raiser)?
• How likely is it that the early position players limped/called with monsters?
• What's your table image?
• What's the recent hand history and recent game flow at the table?
• And much more ...

So currently we have limited information on your decision. But one factor in your decision should be how often your speculative hand can expect to flop a big made hand or a big draw. Knowing these odds will help you figure out if the additional chips you need to call to see the flop are worth it, especially in relation to your stack. The below screenshots show these odds for JTs (assuming random hands for your opponents; if you want to be more accurate, you can put your opponents on hand ranges).

You can see that on the flop, JTs hits OnePair about 27% of the time, and hits TopPair about 14% of the time. It hits TwoPair about 2% of the time, and hits 3OfAKind about 1.4% of the time. JTs flops a flush draw about 11% of the time and flops an open end straight draw about 9% of the time. Etc. Are these odds of flopping a strong hand or a strong draw good enough for you to call the preflop raise?, also taking all of the other considerations into account (stack sizes, player styles, etc.)?


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Example: Deal-To-Flop Analysis For JTs, Many Flop Stats:

Hand Type Stats, Flop Hit Stats:

Odds For Flopping Draws, OnePair Breakdown Stats: Odds For Flopping Combination Draws:

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Flop Texture Analysis

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Real-Life Hand Situation: How can you tell if a specific flop hits your opponent's range of hands hard?:

Any game, any player stacks. You have AJo, and say you put an opponent on a certain range of hands, e.g. top 10% of hands (use the range %age slider to assign this range). Then a specific flop is dealt, say it's 8s7s2d. You'd like to know if this flop hits your opponent's range of hands, and how hard it hits it, or if this flop misses your opponent's range of hands. Flop texture analysis lets you do this.

Set Deal-To = Flop. Assign a hand range (say top 10% of hands) to your opponent and assign your cards (say AJo). Assign a particular flop (say 8s7s2d). Bring up the Stats view (the Stats view is always shown on iPhone X), turn ON flop hit stats, tap on your opponent's hand range field to select your opponent in the Stats view. Calculate. The Stats view shows how this flop hits your opponent's hand range (hand type stats, flop hit stats). Swipe left/right in the Stats view to see odds for flopping draws and combination draws, and OnePair breakdown stats. (Android version: use the "S" <-- and --> buttons.)

The below screenshots show the above example. Note that on the flop, your opponent (top 10% of hands) hits OnePair about 29% of the time, hits 3OfAKind about 3% of the time, and hits a flush draw about 5% of the time. Note that since the top 10% of hands range consists mostly of high cards, when this range hits OnePair on this 8s7s2d flop, it will have an OverPair on the flop, as indicated by the healthy 29% OverPair stat.

Of course, flop texture analysis also works if you assign specific cards to your opponent. But the more common use case is to see how a hand range hits a particular flop.


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Example: Flop Texture Analysis: How Hand Range {Top 10% Of Hands} Hits Flop 8s7s2d:

Hand Type Stats, Flop Hit Stats:

Odds For Flopping Draws, OnePair Breakdown Stats:

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Save/Load And Export/Import Scenarios (Hands) And Hand Ranges

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Save/Load And Export/Import Scenarios (Hands)

You can save scenarios (hands) and load them back in, using Menu --> Save/Load Scenario --> ... (iOS and Android versions).
(Mac-Expert version: "File" menu --> ...)

You can also export scenarios to email and import them back in, using Menu --> Export/Import --> ... (import scenarios feature: iOS and Mac-Expert versions).
(Mac-Expert version: "File" menu --> ... To export a scenario, do "View Scenario Text/Notes, Export", then select all of the scenario's text with the mouse and copy the text (Cmd-C), then paste the text in email, etc.)

These features let you save key hands (scenarios) for future review, and share scenarios with friends or on online forums.

Save/Load And Export/Import Hand Ranges

iOS And Android Versions

In the Hand Range Editor screen you can save/load and export/import hand ranges using Menu --> ... You can save/load up to 100 hand ranges directly inside the app. Uses: Range Library, Subranges, Range Refinements.

Mac-Expert Version

In addition to save/load hand ranges as .rng files on your filesystem ("Save.." and "Load.." buttons in the Range Editor view), you can quick-save and quick-load up to 200 hand ranges directly inside the app (using the quick-save/quick-load pulldown buttons to the right of the "Save.." and "Load.." buttons). Uses: Range Library, Subranges, Range Refinements.

To export a hand range, copy the hand range's text from a player's text field (or via the Range Editor view's "Txt" button) and paste the text outside the app.

To import a hand range, copy the hand range's text from outside the app and paste the text in a player's text field, <Return>.

Batch-Export / Batch-Import Saved Hand Ranges

In all versions of PokerCruncher (iOS, Android, and Mac-Expert), you can batch-export and batch-import your saved hand ranges.
iOS and Android versions: Hand Range Editor screen: Menu --> Range Text, Export/Import --> "Export All Saved Ranges" and "Import Saved Ranges ...".
Mac-Expert version: "File" menu --> "View Quick-Saved Hand Ranges Text, Export/Back-Up" and "Import Quick-Saved Hand Ranges...".

You can use this export/import feature to back up / restore your hand range library, transfer your saved hand ranges from one device to another (or between the other OS/device versions of PokerCruncher), and share your saved hand ranges with others.

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Enter/Edit Scenario Notes

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You can enter/edit text notes on a scenario.

To view and edit a scenario's notes, in the main screen, do Menu --> Scenario Text ... --> View Scenario Text/Notes ... (iOS and Android versions).
(Mac-Expert version: click the “Txt” button at the top of the main view (left hand side of the app's window), and then click the “Edit Notes” button.)

Of course, notes are handled in saved scenarios and exported/imported scenarios.

For example, this feature lets us record/save important info. on our key hands in real time while it's fresh in our mind, so we can review/analyze our key hands better later.

However note that PokerCruncher is primarily an odds/equity calculation app, not a hand tracking / note-taking app. But we're happy to add this minimal useful note-taking ability.

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Monte Carlo Simulation, Complete Enumeration

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PokerCruncher does Monte Carlo simulation: it generates hundreds of thousands or even millions of random hands (trials) to converge on accurate odds/equity and stats within seconds. There's a setting for the number of random Monte Carlo simulation trials to do (Menu --> Dead Cards, Settings, Undo --> Number Of Sim. Trials), and there's even an "Infinite" setting (iOS and Android versions; Mac-Expert version: The "Auto-Stop" checkbox setting automatically stops Monte Carlo calculation and is configurable).

However if the scenario is simple enough, PokerCruncher computes the exact odds/equity and stats by doing complete enumeration of the possible cases. For example it does this for postflop scenarios with specific players' cards, which is a common situation (for example the 3-player scenario in the first screenshot in the Basic Features section above). For such scenarios only the turn and river cards are unspecified, a small number of combinations (on the order of 1000), so PokerCruncher simply enumerates all possible cards for the turn and river to compute the exact answer, and it computes the answer very fast.

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Answer Interesting And Challenging Odds/Equity Questions

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This section is more technical than the others, but it's because PokerCruncher is so powerful. Fasten your seat belts.


So far you've seen examples of some basic odds/equity questions that PokerCruncher can answer:

Some Basic Odds/Equity Questions

• Specific hands vs. specific hands preflop, e.g. AA vs. KK preflop.
• Specific hands vs. specific hands on the flop, e.g. the 3-player scenario in the first screenshot in the Basic Features section above.
• Specific hands vs. random hands, e.g. the AA vs. 9 random hands scenario in the second screenshot in the Basic Features section above.
• How often specific hands make OnePair, TwoPair, etc. by the river (hand type stats). For example how often a flush draw on the flop makes a flush by the river, or how often an open end straight draw on the flop makes a straight by the river.

Let's go deeper and see examples of some more-challenging odds/equity questions that PokerCruncher can answer, using
primarily its Deal-To-Flop and flop texture analysis and flop stats features. We won't even consider hand ranges here because the hand ranges feature adds an entirely new level of odds/equity questions that can be answered.

Some More-Challenging Odds/Equity Questions

• If you have a pocket pair then how often will you flop a set?
• If you have a non-pocket-pair e.g. 72 then how often will you flop trips? Two-pair?
• If you have suited cards then how often will you flop a flush? Make a flush by the river? How often will you flop a flush draw?
• If you have a connector e.g. 76 then how often will you flop a straight? Make a straight by the river? How often will you flop an open end straight draw? What if you have a one-gap connector e.g. 75? Two-gap? Three-gap?
• If you have a one-gap suited connector e.g. 86-suited then how often will you flop a strong draw, i.e. either a flush draw or an open end straight draw or a double gut straight draw? What if you have a two-gap suited connector? A zero-gap suited connector?
• How often does AK flop top pair? Or other non-pairs like KQ, QJ, AT, etc.?
• How often is KK an overpair on the flop? QQ, JJ, etc.?
• How often does a suited connector like 76s overtake AA, KK, etc. on the flop?
• If you have KK, QQ, JJ, etc. then what are the odds that someone has a higher pocket pair preflop? E.g. what are the odds that someone has AA if you have KK?, and what are the odds that someone has AA/KK if you have QQ?, say in a 10-handed game? What about in a 7-handed game? In a 5-handed game? The Deal-To-Hole-Cards feature lets you answer this.

Let's go even deeper. Here are some examples of more-advanced odds/equity questions involving multiple hands that PokerCruncher can answer, again using primarily its Deal-To-Flop and flop texture analysis and flop stats features:

Some More-Advanced Odds/Equity Questions

• If two players have suited cards of the same suit then what are the odds that they'll (both) flop a flush?
• (Challenge) If say 5 players see the flop with you and the flop has a pair e.g. the flop is 772, then what are the odds that someone has flopped trips or better (assuming random cards for all of the players)? What if 7 players see the flop with you? 3 players?

A Challenge

Give your answer for the last question above before reading PokerCruncher's answer below ...

The last question is an example of conditional probability, which can lead to counter-intuitive results. To make the example more specific, say you raise preflop with AA and 5 opponents see the flop with you and the flop has a pair e.g. it's 772.

A hint: you may think, "it's really hard to flop trips or a full house, how lucky can these people be?, I have to be in the lead 90+% of the time here". The problem with this reasoning is, it's true that it's very hard to flop trips starting from scratch, but given the condition that the flop is paired, it becomes much easier to flop trips, especially if many players see the flop. Furthermore if there's significant betting action in the hand, the probability that someone has trips is conditioned even higher, but we won't even take betting action into account here.

Answering The Challenge Using PokerCruncher

Here's how you would model this in PokerCruncher: Set the number of players to 6. Give Player 1 (you) AA; leave the other 5 players' cards blank (random). Enter 772 for the flop. Set Deal-To = Flop. Calculate, and see how often your aces are in the lead. The below screenshot shows this example.

PokerCruncher's answer is you're in the lead on the flop with AA about 61% of the time. The other 39% of the time, one of your 5 opponents has flopped trips or a full house or quads (this is assuming random cards for your 5 opponents; if you want to be more accurate you can put your opponents on hand ranges). Is this answer of 39% higher or lower than you expected? If you nailed this question you have our congratulations! Actually it's probably not as hard as we made it out to be, maybe just counter-intuitive at first.

This example shows how PokerCruncher's powerful and general features complement each other to enable you to answer just about any odds/equity question.


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Example: Challenge: How Often Is AA In The Lead On The Flop Against 5 Random Opponents, When The Flop Is Paired?:

Limitless Variety Of Interesting And Challenging Odds/Equity Questions

These examples just scratch the surface of what you can do with PokerCruncher. The powerful and general simulation and modeling features complement each other well and enable you to answer a limitless variety of interesting and challenging odds/equity questions. The variety of scenarios and questions is limited only by your skill and experience and creativity. As you become more experienced and improve you'll find that you'll set up more interesting or complex scenarios to investigate new aspects of the game, or maybe even simpler and subtler but still important scenarios.


All of this powerful calculation and analysis is running locally on your device/machine (internet connection not needed) so you can think and study poker anywhere, any time.

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Additional, Expert-Level Features (Mac-Expert Version) (New!)

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The Mac-Expert version of PokerCruncher has the following additional, expert-level features:

Hand Ranges Features: (Mac-Expert Version) Range Equity Distribution Graphs Additional Hand Ranking Systems For Top X% Of Hands Slider/TextField %age Weights In Hand Ranges View Hand Combo Counts In Hand Range Grid Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) Filter Hand Range On Equity Color-Coded Groups In Hand Ranges (Groups Editor) (New!) Manage Subranges And Range Refinements Range Manager Set Custom Value For Breakeven Equity In Range Heat Map Support Other Programs' Hand Range Text Syntaxes For Weights Stats Features: (Mac-Expert Version) Mouse Over A Range's Stats When Doing Flop/Turn/River Texture Analysis Full Stats And Features For Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River/HoleCards Customizable "Total Hit" Stat A Few Additional Advanced Stats General Features: (Mac-Expert Version) Next Card Heat Map Player Names Calc'ed Scenarios History, Calc Results File, Ranges Backup File Dark-Appearance Mode (macOS Mojave 10.14+) Run Multiple Instances Of App

========== Hand Ranges Features (Mac-Expert Version) ==========

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Range Equity Distribution Graphs (Mac-Expert Version)

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A range equity distribution graph is a good way to see a range's equity breakdown across all of its hand combos. The shape of this graph can tell you a lot about the range's equity breakdown. The Range Equity Heat Map feature discussed earlier is another good (but slightly different) way to see this breakdown. Distribution graphs and heat maps each have their unique strengths and complement each other well, as we'll discuss later in this section.

In a range equity distribution graph, the X-axis shows the range's hand combos, sorted from highest Equity (at the left) to lowest Equity (at the right). The Y-axis shows each hand combo's Equity.

Real-Life Hand Situation: You Flop TopPair With JTo On A Dry Flop, Villain Has Top25%OfHands:

This example is shown in the below screenshot. You (with JTo) have flopped TopPair on a dry flop against a Villain with range Top25%OfHands. We see that Villain has only 30% Equity on the flop. To understand this 30% Equity number better, we see the range's equity distribution graph and notice that most (about 80%) of the range's hand combos have low (< 30%) Equity, but the bulk of the range's remaining hand combos (a little less than 20%) have very high Equity (> 80%). This indicates a polarized range, i.e. either Villain is well ahead in this situation or is well behind; there are very few hand combos in his range that have breakeven (50%) Equity.


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Example: Range Equity Distribution Graph: Villain Has A Polarized Range:

Screenshot: Note: Villain's Next Card Heat Map is also shown.

Polarized And Non-Polarized Ranges

In the above example, even though Villain is behind overall in this scenario with only 30% Equity, he has a good number of hand combos (a little less than 20%) that have you beat soundly. And he has a large number of hand combos (about 80%) that you beat soundly. This means he has a polarized range. This is a very different 30% Equity situation than one where most of Villain's range's hand combos have around 30% Equity, with very few hand combos that have significantly higher or significantly lower Equity (i.e., a non-polarized range).

You can tell if a range is polarized or non-polarized by looking at the shape of the distribution graph.

A polarized range looks something like:

----------
           |
           |
           |
           ----------

(Most of the hand combos are at the top or bottom of the graph, with very few hand combos in the middle of the graph around the Breakeven Equity level.)

A non-polarized range looks something like:

-
 --
   --------------
                   --
                     -

(Most of the hand combos are in the middle of the graph around the Breakeven Equity level, with very few hand combos at the top or bottom of the graph.)

A polarized range is best suited for either value betting or bluffing. A non-polarized range is best suited for bluff catching (i.e., check/call).

This kind of further digging down into a range's equity breakdown can help you understand the situation much better than knowing just the range's overall Equity number.

Additional Features Of Distribution Graphs

PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac's range equity distribution graphs have some additional features:

• Click on a point on the graph (on a point that corresponds to a hand combo) to see that particular hand combo's details.
• “View Details” button shows all hand combos' Equities, in sorted order. This is a different ViewDetails text than for heat maps.
• Your selection/preference for viewing Heat Map or Distribution Graph is saved in the app's state.

Determining/Filtering The Top X %ile Of Hands Of A Range

The “View Details” button mentioned in the preceding section lets us determine/filter the top X %ile of hands of a range. The ViewDetails text lists all hand combos of the range in sorted order on Equity. So for example if we want the top 10 %ile of hands of the range, if the range has say 130 hand combos, we would look at 130 * 10% = hand combo #13 in the ViewDetails text and note its Equity, say it's 58%. Then we filter the range on 58% Equity (using the SHIFT+<E> button), and save the resulting subrange if desired. To make our life easier we can copy/paste the ViewDetails text outside the program somewhere first so we can look at it standalone. We can then repeat this process for more X %ile chunks of the range that we want.

Distribution Graphs And Heat Maps

Let's compare distribution graphs and heat maps. PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac has both of these features, and each feature has its unique strengths.

Heat maps show hands e.g. AA, JTs, etc. clearly using cells and colors so you can easily see which hands (cells) have high equity, low equity, and breakeven equity. Distribution graphs don't show individual hand names (you'll have to click the "View Details" button for that).

However, distribution graphs show hand combo counts and weighting better than heat maps. In a distribution graph each hand combo is given an equal amount of space on the X-axis so each hand combo is treated equally. However in a heat map, you have to keep in mind yourself that a pair cell has 6 hand combos, a suited cell has 4 hand combos, and an offsuit cell has 12 hand combos. Distribution graphs also show the shape of the equity distribution better than the colors of a heat map.

But distribution graphs and heat maps have the same purpose, to show a range's equity breakdown, and have some similarities. For example, both can quickly indicate if the range is polarized or non-polarized. We saw above how the shape of a distribution graph indicates this. A heat map indicates this using color; a polarized range has mostly green-ish or red-ish cells, with very few yellow-ish (breakeven equity) cells. A non-polarized range would appear as mostly yellow-ish cells in the heat map.

If an app has both distribution graphs and heat maps like PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac, that's the best of both worlds and you get a clear and full picture of a range's equity breakdown.

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Additional Hand Ranking Systems For Top X% Of Hands Slider/TextField (Mac-Expert Version)

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The “Ranking” popup selector under the top x% of hands slider lets you choose from 8 useful hand ranking systems:

1. PokerStove (preflop all-in equity vs. 3 random hands)
• This hand ranking system balances the value of high cards with the value of drawing cards.
2. Sklansky-Malmuth Hand Groups
• This hand ranking system, created by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, ranks playable starting hands at a full table.
3. Sklansky-Karlson(Chubukov) All-In No-Limit Hold'em Rankings
• This hand ranking system is based on a heads-up preflop push/call/fold decision model.
4. Heads-Up (preflop all-in equity vs. 1 random hand)
5. ProPokerTools: 10-handed, evolution program
• This hand ranking system "evolves" its final hand ranking slowly over time, over each iteration the program runs. A given hand isn't pitted simply against random hands, but against a progressively-refined set of "good" hands that the program computes and improves on on each iteration.
6. ProPokerTools: 6-handed, evolution program
7. ProPokerTools: 3-handed, evolution program
8. ProPokerTools: pre-flop all-in equity squared vs. 1 random hand
• The key word in this hand ranking system is "squared". Because a hand's equity (on each possible board, against the 1 random hand) is squared, drawing hands like JTs (which can make the nuts or nearly the nuts, i.e. 100% equity or nearly 100% equity) go up in value compared to non-drawing hands (like A8o) that make the nuts or nearly the nuts way less often. Non-drawing hands make mostly medium-strength hands, which have equity in the neighborhood of 50% on the vast majority of possible boards. Squaring these medium-strength equities isn't nearly as much of a benefit as squaring 100% or nearly 100% equities, so drawing hands go up in value in this hand ranking system.

PokerStove's hand ranking system is the default (preflop all-in equity vs. 3 random hands).

These hand ranking systems are used by the top x% of hands slider/text-field, and also when you enter a range %age in a player's hand range text field in the main view (left hand side of the app's window).

These 8 established and well-known hand ranking systems each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and are best suited for different types of games (e.g., cash games vs. tournaments, no-limit vs. limit, heads-up vs. short-handed vs. full table).

We (PokerCruncher, LLC) didn't invent these hand ranking systems; explaining and discussing all of them fully here is out of the scope of this Tutorial; we couldn't easily do the topic justice. For further info. we suggest you google search these hand ranking systems. And of course you can try out these different hand ranking systems in this app on some example ranges like Top5% or Top20% or Top50% and see what their differences are.

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%age Weights In Hand Ranges (Mac-Expert Version)

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%age weights are a more granular, more general, and more convenient weighting mechanism than hand combo weights (Hand Combos view). The "Weight" text field lets you assign an integer %age weight to the selected added cell(s), [1% .. 99%]. For an added cell, a blank/cleared weight means no weight i.e. the default weight 100%. "---" means multiple cells selected and no change to their weights yet (you can multi-assign a weight).

In the Hand Combos (Weights) In Hand Ranges section above, we used hand combo weights (Hand Combos view) to lower the weight of two cells (AKo and AKs) to 50%. In this section in Example 1, we'll do the same using %age weights. And in Example 2, we'll do a hand range weighting that we can't do with hand combo weights (Hand Combos view). These examples show how %age weights are more general than hand combo weights (Hand Combos view).


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Example 1: %age Weights (50%) For AKo And AKs

We put opponent on hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}. We want to lower AKo's and AKs's weight to 50%. Here's how we can do this using %age weights:

1. Player 2 (opponent): Enter hand range {KK+, AKs, AKo}.
2. SHIFT+click the AKo grid cell to select it.
3. In the "Weight" text field, enter "50" (without the quotes), <Return>. Or use the "50%" button.
4. SHIFT+click the AKs grid cell to select it.
5. In the "Weight" text field, enter "50" (without the quotes), <Return>. Or use the "50%" button.

In addition, we'll turn ON the "View Weights" checkbox setting; this shows weights in the range grid.

The below screenshots show the resulting weighted hand range.

1st screenshot: AKo cell is selected
2nd screenshot: AKs cell is selected

More Granular, More General, And More Convenient

• A %age weight can have any integer value from 1% to 99%, which is more granular than hand combo weights (Hand Combos view) where we remove <x> hand combos out of a cell's 4 or 6 or 12 hand combos.
• Note that for both the AKo and AKs cells, all of the cells' hand combos are enabled (12 and 4 hand combos, respectively). This means that all of these hand combos are live and assign-able in the hand range. If we use hand combo weights (Hand Combos view) to do the weighting, we have to manually/artificially remove some of the hand combos, and these removed hand combos aren't live and assign-able in the hand range (which could make a difference if specific-suit flush draws are involved in the scenario, so we have to be careful). This makes %age weights more general than hand combo weights (Hand Combos view). Of course, sometimes we do want to restrict the hand range to specific suits, and in these cases it's appropriate and necessary to remove specific hand combos.

Assigning %age Weights

• %age weights can only be assigned to cells that have been added to the hand range.
• The “Weight" text field lets you assign an integer %age weight to the selected added cell(s), [1% .. 99%].
• For an added cell, a blank/cleared weight means no weight i.e. the default weight 100%.
• You can use the "25%", "50%", "75%" buttons to assign weights (OPTION+click on these buttons sets custom values for these buttons).
• You can multi-assign weights (when you have multiple added cells selected).
• When in Groups Editor:
• In a group, you can give an added cell a different (lower) weight than the weight the cell has in the current hand range. Of course, the cell's weight across all of the groups must not sum to more than the cell's weight in the current hand range.
• FN+<Enter Weight In Weight Text Field> treats the entered weight as %age of this cell's weight in the current range, not as an absolute value. Similarly for FN+<25%>, FN+<50%>, FN+<75%>.

Fast-Assigning %age Weights

• The "Rmbr" button remembers the current weight; OPTION+click/drag on an added cell(s) assigns the remembered weight to the added cell(s).

Viewing %age Weights

• In the range grid, weighted cells are colored on a yellow -> orange color gradient (fully added cells) or light-green -> green color gradient (partially-added cells).
• The “View Weights” checkbox setting shows weights in the range grid.

PokerCruncher Hand Range Text Syntax For %age Weights

• PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac's hand range text syntax has been expanded to include %age weights, by adding an optional “; Weights: …” section at the end. For example the above hand range's text is:
  
  
  KK+, AKs, AKo; Weights: AKs:50%, AKo:50%


• Click the "Txt" button in the Range Editor view to see the hand range's text in PokerCruncher hand range text syntax for weights, and in other programs' hand range text syntaxes for weights.

%age Weights Across The App

• Range %age's and hand combo counts in the Range Editor, Heat Map, and Distribution Graph views are weight-adjusted.
• Of course, %age weights are handled in save/load, quick-save/quick-load, export/import, and in the app's state, for both hand ranges and scenarios.
• The Range Editor view's “?” (Help) button/screen has a section on %age weights.
• The players' hand range text fields' “?” (Help) button/screen (near the top of the main view (left hand side of the app's window)) has a section on PokerCruncher hand range text syntax for weights, and other programs' hand range text syntaxes for weights.
• Other Help screens have also been updated for %age weights e.g. the Keyboard Shortcuts Help screen.

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Example 2: Top 25% Of Hands, With The Super-Strong Hands Weighted Down

Screenshot: AA cell is selected, "View Weights" checkbox setting is ON


A real-life hand situation for the weighted hand range in Example 2 is: opponent raises pre-flop (we'll ignore position and other factors here for simplicity), you 3-bet with AsKh, opponent just calls your 3-bet.

Opponent raised pre-flop so we put him on a strong range of hands e.g. Top 25%. But opponent just called your 3-bet (he didn't 4-bet), so he probably doesn't have a super-strong hand, so we weight down the super-strong hands of his range. Note that we assign a very low weight of 10% to the two strongest hands of his range, AA and KK, because he most probably would have 4-bet with these hands. We assign higher weights to AKo, AKs, QQ, and JJ, in this order.

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View Hand Combo Counts In Hand Range Grid (Mac-Expert Version)

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If you turn ON the “View Hand Combo Counts” checkbox setting in the Range Editor view, each grid cell in the range grid shows its hand combo count (weight-adjusted).

View Card Removal Effect

Also note the related checkbox setting “View Card Removal Effect”. If you turn this setting ON, card removal effect is shown in the range %age (top right), in the range grid cells' hand combo counts, and in the Hand Combos view. Note that this setting shows card removal effect, but not range removal effect. So, if you want to assign a specific hand to a player, assign the player 2 specific cards from the card deck; don't assign the player a (1-combo) hand range. This way, the player's hand will be in the scope of the "View Card Removal Effect" setting. Also note that calculation results take both card and range removal effects into account i.e. all removal effects (calculation results must take all removal effects into account in order to be correct).


The below screenshot shows this feature using the Mouse Over A Range's Stats When Doing Flop/Turn/River Texture Analysis section's example scenario. In the below example both “View Hand Combo Counts” and “View Card Removal Effect” are turned ON.


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Example: View Hand Combo Counts In Hand Range Grid (And Also View Card Removal Effect):

Screenshot: AA cell is selected

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Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) (Mac-Expert Version)

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This operation ("Filter" button) applies (is available) when specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river cards have been assigned, and when Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River. This feature lets you filter (narrow down) a hand range based on hand types (stats) that you select (turn ON / "-") in the Stats view using the stats' checkbox buttons.

SHIFT+<Filter> = negative-filter hand range, i.e. remove the selected hand types (stats) from the hand range.


Also, the "Filter" button provides a way to minimize/clean-up a hand range's hand combos:

CTRL+<Filter> = filter hand range on all assign-able hand combos (if "View Card Removal Effect" setting is ON), i.e. remove all un-assign-able hand combos from the hand range to minimize/clean-up the hand range's hand combos.


**Note**: You need to be doing flop/turn/river texture analysis for a hand range for the Filter Hand Range operation to be enabled (Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River, with a specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river). For example, if you have assigned 3 board cards (the flop), and have set Deal-To = River (or Turn), then this operation will not be enabled. You need to set Deal-To = Flop here for this operation to be enabled.

Uses

1) Refine (Narrow Down) a Range Street to Street: Start with a preflop range e.g. TopX%, then deal flop cards and set Deal-To = Flop and filter the range, then deal a turn card and set Deal-To = Turn and filter the range again (further), to repeatedly refine (narrow down) the range as the hand progresses street to street. Quick-save the original range and each refinement/subrange at each street so you can go back and forth and compare (e.g. the ranges' hand combo counts).

2) Generate Subranges: Quick-save the original range. In the Stats view, turn ON the checkmarks of the stats (hand types) that you want to include in the first subrange (stats marked as "-" are then deleted), then filter the original range to generate the first subrange, then quick-save the first subrange. Repeat to generate the other subranges.

3) Build a Range: To build a range from scratch based on hand types (stats), start with range Top100% (all hands), then do a filter hand range operation that keeps only the hand types (stats) you want.

Steps

1) Set up your scenario: assign players' cards/ranges (where there's at least one hand range), assign specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river cards, and set Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River.

2) Calculate.

3) Click/select the desired hand range in the main view (left hand side of the app's window).
**Note**: A red "Mouse Over" indicator label is shown/enabled at the top left of the Stats view. This indicator label is a further indication that the filter hand range operation applies (is available).

4) In the Stats view, turn ON the checkmarks of the stats (hand types) that you want to filter the hand range on (stats marked as "-" are then deleted).

5) Click the "Filter" button. You may want to quick-save the original range first, and then also the filtered range (refinement/subrange).

When the "Filter" button is clicked, the hand range is filtered (narrowed down), keeping only the hands (hand combos) that are in the hand types (stats) that you selected in the Stats view.

SHIFT+<Filter> = negative-filter hand range, i.e. remove the selected hand types (stats) from the hand range.

Undo And Redo

1) To undo a filter hand range operation, click the "<-" button that's under the "Filter" button. To redo a filter hand range operation, click the "->" button. **Note**: This 1) method has only 1 level of undo. The below 2) method gives multiple levels of undo.

2) You can also quick-save each variation of the hand range into the #1 .. #200 range slots so you can go back to any previous point (using the quick-save pulldown button at the top of the Range Editor view). **Note**: This 2) method gives multiple levels of undo.

3) You can also simply use copy/paste to save each hand range variation's text outside of this app e.g. in a text editor.


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Example: **Before** Filter Hand Range:

Note that the original hand range has 210.35 hand combos (is fractional because some of the cells have weights).

Screenshot: AA cell is selected




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Example: **After** Filter Hand Range:

Note that the filtered hand range has 90.75 hand combos (is fractional because some of the cells have weights). These 90.75 hand combos are the hand combos of the original range that are in the stats (hand types) that we selected in the Stats view (using the stats' checkbox buttons).

Also note that the "<-" button that's under the "Filter" button is now enabled; this button lets you undo the filter hand range operation (1 level of undo).

You can also quick-save each variation of the hand range into the #1 .. #200 range slots so you can go back to any previous point (multiple levels of undo).

Screenshot: AA cell is selected

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Filter Hand Range On Equity (Mac-Expert Version)

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You can also filter a hand range on Equity, using the “E” button to the right of the “Filter” button in the Range Editor view. You can do *cell-level* filtering (using the Range Equity Heat Map's calculation results), or *combo-level* filtering (using the Range Equity Distribution Graph's calculation results):

    <E>                =    *cell-level* filtering (using Range Equity Heat Map's calc. results)
    SHIFT+<E>    =    *combo-level* filtering (using Range Equity Distribution Graph's calc. results)

In the "Filter Hand Range On Equity" popup dialog:

1) The "Filter" button filters the hand range, keeping only the cells (or hand combos) that have at least the specified Equity, using the Range Equity Heat Map's (or Range Equity Distribution Graph's) calculation results.

2) The "Negative-Filter" button removes the cells (or hand combos) that have at least the specified Equity from the hand range, using the Range Equity Heat Map's (or Range Equity Distribution Graph's) calculation results.

**** Note ****
We feel that the Filter Hand Range On Equity operation (this section's feature) is useful/applicable in some types of scenarios (like range vs. range) but not in some other types of scenarios (like specific hand vs. range). In scenarios of the latter type (specific hand vs. range), we feel that the Filter Hand Range On Hand Types (Stats) operation (previous section's feature) is more useful/applicable.


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Example: Calculate What Range Has 33% Equity Against Opponent's Range:

Steps:

1) Click ResetAll button to start clean.

2) For Player1 (opponent), enter his range.

3) For Player2 (you), we'll calculate what range has 33% equity against Player1's range.  The "E" button for this is a filter operation, so we'll start with the all-hands range (max range) and filter it down.  So for Player2 enter the range Top100% of hands e.g. by using the range slider.  Or instead of 100% of hands you can start with whatever applicable preflop range you desire.

4) Calculate (click "Calculate" button).

5) Click the "E" button and follow the directions e.g. enter the 33% equity value.  Player2's range will then be filtered down to the hands/cells that have >= 33% equity.

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Color-Coded Groups In Hand Ranges (Groups Editor) (Mac-Expert Version)     (New!)

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Click the "Groups" button in the Range Editor view to show the Groups Editor. This view lets you break up the current hand range into color-coded groups (up to 10 groups in a hand range), and see useful info. about the groups (e.g., number of hand combos in each group).

**Note**: When you're in this view (Groups Editor), you can only edit groups; you can't edit the current hand range itself (to do that, switch out of the Groups Editor).

Select a group

1) Click/select a group to edit.

**Note**: The Hand Combos view and Weight text field show the selected group's hand combos and weights. The hand range grid shows all groups' colors; ungrouped cells are colored white, and cells that aren't in the current hand range are colored dark-gray and are uneditable. Also, the hand range grid shows the current hand range's hand combo counts and weights if these settings are ON, not the selected group's hand combo counts and weights, to let you see the (entire) current hand range while you're editing groups.

"Name" button

2) Click the "Name" button to give the selected group a custom name, if desired.

Add/remove cells and individual hand combos to/from the selected group

3) In the hand range grid, click on cells to add/remove the cells to/from the selected group. You can also use the "Add", "Remove", etc. buttons in the Range Editor view.

4) You can also click on individual hand combos in the Hand Combos view to add/remove individual hand combos to/from the selected group.

(Note: Partial/multiple colors/groups on a cell are supported.)

**Note**: In 3) and 4), of course, you can only add/remove cells and individual hand combos that are in the current hand range; all other cells and hand combos are uneditable.

Select cells, multi-select/unselect cells, etc.

5) In the hand range grid, in addition to clicking on cells to add/remove the cells i.e. 3) above, you can also SHIFT+click/drag, SHIFT+CMD+click/drag, CTRL+click/drag, and CMD+click on cells, as in the Range Editor view. These actions have the same meaning as in the Range Editor view (e.g. SHIFT+click/drag = Select cell(s)), except the last two remove/add actions operate on the selected group of course, not on the current hand range.

Weights in groups

6) In a group, you can give an added cell a different (lower) weight than the weight the cell has in the current hand range. Of course, the cell's weight across all of the groups must not sum to more than the cell's weight in the current hand range. FN+<Enter Weight In Weight Text Field> treats the entered weight as %age of this cell's weight in the current range, not as an absolute value. Similarly for FN+<25%>, FN+<50%>, FN+<75%>.

(Note: Partial/multiple colors/groups on a cell are supported.)

Filter "Add" and "Remove" buttons

7) You can also use the Filter "Add" and "Remove" buttons to add/remove desired cells and hand combos to/from the selected group, based on hand types (stats) that you select (turn ON / "-") in the Stats view using the stats' checkbox buttons. These operations apply (are available) when specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river cards have been assigned, and when Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River.

**Note**: You need to be doing flop/turn/river texture analysis for a hand range for the Filter "Add" and "Remove" buttons to be enabled (Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River, with a specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river). For example, if you have assigned 3 board cards (the flop), and have set Deal-To = River (or Turn), then these operations will not be enabled. You need to set Deal-To = Flop here for these operations to be enabled.

"Add All Ungrouped" button

8) You can use the "Add All Ungrouped" button to add all ungrouped cells and hand combos to the selected group (takes weights into account).

**Note**: But cells that have been partially-added to groups, where the cells have both different hand combos and different weights in groups than in the current range or across groups, aren't / can't be taken into account fully. Such cells aren't typical usage in groups; usually it's one or the other: different hand combos, or different weights, but not both.

"L" (Load) button
    (Uses: Calculate a group's Equity/stats, Load a group to continue analyzing a hand street to street)

9) You can use the "L" (Load) button to load the selected group as the current hand range.

**Note**: Click the "U/R" button to revert back to the original current hand range/groups (1 level of undo/redo).

**Note**: As an additional backup, OPTION+<L> shows the last original current hand range's/groups' text (1 level).

**Use #1**: Calculate a group's Equity/stats: Click/select the desired group, click the "L" (Load) button to (temporarily) load the group as the current hand range, calculate (to see the group's Equity/stats), then click the "U/R" button to revert back to the original current hand range/groups.

**Use #2**: Load a group to continue analyzing a hand street to street: Say you've broken up the current hand range into 3 groups: "Call", "Raise", "Fold". To continue analyzing the hand after one of these actions is taken in the hand, say "Call", click/select the "Call" group, then click the "L" (Load) button to load the "Call" group as the current hand range. Before doing this, you may want to quick-save the original hand range first. Then, also quick-save (into a different range slot) after loading the "Call" group. Etc., street to street, so you can go back and forth and compare (e.g. the ranges' hand combo counts).

Handling groups across the app

* Save/Load: A hand range's groups are saved/loaded when the hand range is saved/loaded. This includes in the app's state.

* Export/Import: Groups have been added to the PokerCruncher hand range text syntax, so groups are written out to a hand range's text (at the end of the text), and are parsed back in.

* Groups are full-fledged components of a hand range and are handled everywhere/fully in/for hand ranges across the app.

Help screen, buttons' tooltips

* In the app, see this feature's “?” Help button for information on usage and features (button is at the top right of the Groups Editor view).

* And in the Groups Editor, see the buttons' tooltips.


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Example: Color-Coded Groups In Hand Ranges (Groups Editor):

Example Scenario:
We'll use the same scenario as in the example in the Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) section above. This scenario is shown again in the screenshot below, after we construct 3 groups for Player 2's hand range.

Example Usage/Screenshot:
In this example scenario, on the flop, let's say Player 1 leads out betting, and the action is on Player 2. As shown in the screenshot below, we've broken up Player 2's hand range into 3 groups, for his 3 possible actions: call, raise, fold. We've used the Filter "Add" button and the "Add All Ungrouped" button to construct the groups automatically / fast. Of course, you can also construct/edit groups manually by clicking on cells in the hand range grid and by clicking on individual hand combos in the Hand Combos view.

Note: In this example, we're putting Player 2 on being a straightforward ABC player (e.g., he only raises with very strong made hands) to make the 3 groups clean/simple, as this is just an example. Of course in your usage you can define/construct your groups as you wish according to the specific situation and player styles.

1) Group 1 (Blue): **Call**:
Let's say Player 2 will call with TopPair, SecondPair, PPBelowOnlyTopCard, FlushDraw, OpenEndStraightDraw; that's it.
Click/select Group 1, select (turn ON) these stats in the Stats view, then click the Filter "Add" button.

2) Group 2 (Green): **Raise**:
Let's say Player 2 will raise with made hands TwoPair or better, Overpair; that's it.
Click/select Group 2, select (turn ON) these stats in the Stats view, then click the Filter "Add" button.

3) Group 3 (Red): **Fold**:
Let's say Player 2 will fold with all other hands (hand combos).
Click/select Group 3, click the "Add All Ungrouped" button.

After constructing the above 3 groups, we see (in the Groups Editor view) that:

Group 1 (**Call**) has 112.50 hand combos.
Group 2 (**Raise**) has 32.85 hand combos.
Group 3 (**Fold**) has 65.00 hand combos.
(Number of hand combos is fractional because some of the cells of Player 2's hand range have weights.)

The groups' hand combo counts tell us how big each group is and help us to balance groups and ranges and bet/call/raise/fold actions better.

Screenshot:
* AKs cell is selected.
* Group 1 (*Call**) is selected in the Groups Editor.

Notes:
* Note that in the Hand Combos view, only the Club-Club hand combo is ON. This means that only the AcKc hand combo of the AKs cell (the selected cell) is in Group 1 (**Call**) (the selected group).
* Note that in the hand range grid, some cells, e.g. AKs, AQs, etc., have multiple group colors on them. If a cell has multiple group colors on it, this means that some hand combos of the cell are in one particular group and some other hand combos of the cell are in another group. Or, this means that the cell is in multiple groups with different (lower) weights in the groups than in the current hand range.

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Manage Subranges And Range Refinements (Mac-Expert Version)

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Generate Subranges And Range Refinements

As described in the Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) section, you can use the filter hand range feature to generate subranges and range refinements. This is much faster and much less error-prone than creating/editing subranges and range refinements "by hand".

1) Generate Subranges: Quick-save the original range. In the Stats view, turn ON the checkmarks of the stats (hand types) that you want to include in the first subrange (stats marked as "-" are then deleted), then filter the original range to generate the first subrange, then quick-save the first subrange. Repeat to generate the other subranges.

2) Refine (Narrow Down) a Range: Start with a preflop range e.g. TopX%, then deal flop cards and set Deal-To = Flop and filter the range, then deal a turn card and set Deal-To = Turn and filter the range again (further), to repeatedly refine (narrow down) the range as the hand progresses. Quick-save the original range and each refinement/subrange so you can go back and forth and compare (e.g. the ranges' hand combo counts).

Manage Subranges And Range Refinements

This set of features are improvements to quick-save/quick-load hand ranges (the 200 app-internal range slots) to make it easier and more convenient to manage subranges and range refinements (e.g. flop range -> turn range -> river range). For example, add/remove/select subranges.

1) CMD+<Quick-Load Range> = add selected subrange to current range.
A subrange's cells' weights are added only if the corresponding current range's cells have the same hand combos.

2) CTRL+<Quick-Load Range> = remove selected subrange from current range.
A subrange's cells' weights are subtracted only if the corresponding current range's cells have the same hand combos.

3) SHIFT+<Quick-Load Range> = select selected subrange's cells in current range (cell-level selection, not combo-level).

4) Turn range naming OFF/ON (using quick-save pulldown button).
Example usage: after you have the quick-save range slots named per your personal usages, you can turn range naming OFF for a while to speed up quick-saves.

5) OPTION+<Quick-Save Range> = quick-save range with range naming ON.

6) CTRL+<Quick-Save Range> = clear selected quick-saved range.

7) Show all quick-saved hand ranges in the "File" menu -> "View Quick-Saved Hand Ranges Text, Export/Back-Up" dialog, in a cleaner way. This dialog is useful for e.g. export and offline backup purposes.

8) Show each quick-saved hand range's range %age and hand combo count in the quick-save and quick-load pulldown lists. This applies for ranges that you quick-save from now on, not to previously quick-saved ranges. This lets you see how big a quick-saved range is without having to load it in first.

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Range Manager (Mac-Expert Version)

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In addition to using the quick-save/quick-load pulldown buttons (to the right of the "Save.." and "Load.." buttons), you can use the Range Manager view at the bottom of the Range Editor view to save/load and work with your ranges and subranges. Click the “RngMgr” button in the Range Editor view to show this view.

The Range Manager view lets you:

• Navigate through your quick-saved ranges (a page of 10 ranges at a time).
• Quick-save/quick-load ranges and subranges.
• Add/remove/select subranges.
• ...

There are keyboard shortcuts to enable you to load, select, and save ranges even faster:

    CMD+<Click Range>         =    LOAD
    SHIFT+<Click Range>       =    Select
    OPTION+<Click Range>    =    SAVE


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Example: Range Manager View:

Screenshot:
Range Manager view is shown at bottom of Range Editor view when you click "RngMgr" button.

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Set Custom Value For Breakeven Equity In Range Heat Map (Mac-Expert Version)

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In the Range Heat Map view, you can set a custom value for Breakeven Equity, using the slider under Breakeven Equity's value.

Note that the default value for Breakeven Equity is (100% / <number of active (non-folded) players>).

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Support Other Programs' Hand Range Text Syntaxes For Weights (Mac-Expert Version)

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Hand range programs (across the various operating systems) often have their own unique hand range text syntaxes for weights in hand ranges. Likewise PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac also has its own unique syntax. This can make sharing hand ranges with weights across different hand range programs difficult or even impossible. To help with this, PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac can import/understand hand range text that's in several popular hand range text syntaxes for weights, and can export/print hand ranges with weights into these other syntaxes.

PokerCruncher Hand Range Text Syntax For Weights

For example here's a simple hand range with weights in PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac:


(a) PokerCruncher hand range text syntax for weights:


                                        JJ+, AKs; Weights: QQ:50%, JJ:25%


This hand range is "JJ+, AKs" with a weight of 50% for QQ and a weight of 25% for JJ.

In PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac, weights in hand ranges are integer %age's. Note that PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac writes the weights at the end of the hand range text. This gives PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac the desirable "prefix property" in its hand range text syntax: the leading part of the hand range text ("JJ+, AKs" in the above example) is standard hand range text syntax (without weights) that we can copy/paste/import into any other hand range program/app (regardless of if the other hand range program/app supports weights or not). If we do this, then in the other hand range program/app, if we desire we can then apply weights (%age weights, or hand combo weights) on top of the standard syntax hand range we copied/pasted/imported. So having the "prefix property" in its hand range text syntax gives PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac a more flexible and more portable hand range text syntax.

Other Programs' Hand Range Text Syntaxes For Weights

Other hand range programs (across the various operating systems) take a different approach with their hand range text syntaxes and intersperse weights in the middle of the hand range text. There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach. An advantage is that such syntaxes are usually quite compact. A disadvantage is that such syntaxes don't have the desirable "prefix property" discussed above (which PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac's hand range text syntax has). Likewise, PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac's approach also has advantages and disadvantages.

Here are some other programs' hand range text syntaxes for weights. PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac can understand and import/export all of these other programs' hand range text syntaxes (for example, for hand range (a) above):


(1) "<weight>:" on left side of each weighted subrange; [0 .. 100] integer %age weights:


                                        KK+, AKs, 50:QQ, 25:JJ


(2) "[<weight>]" and "[/<weight>]" enclosing each weighted subrange; [0 .. 100] integer %age weights:


                                        KK+, AKs, [50]QQ[/50], [25]JJ[/25]


(3) ":<weight>" on right side of each weighted hand range term; [0.0 .. 1.0] decimal number weights:


                                        KK+, AKs, QQ:0.50, JJ:0.25


(4) "@<weight>" on right side of each weighted hand range term; [0 .. 100] integer %age weights:


                                        KK+, AKs, QQ@50, JJ@25


(5) Decimal number [0.0 .. 100.0] %age weights in (1), (2), (4); are rounded up/down to integer [0 .. 100] %age weights:


                                        KK+, AKs, 50.123456789:QQ, 24.987654321:JJ

Import

To enter/import a hand range that's in any of the above hand range text syntaxes into PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac, simply paste the hand range's text into a player's hand range text field in the main view (left hand side of the app's window).

Note:

1. In PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac, weights in hand ranges are integer %age's. So decimal number [0.0 .. 100.0] %age weights and decimal number [0.0 .. 1.0] weights in other programs' hand range text syntaxes are rounded up/down and converted to integer [0 .. 100] %age weights when imported into PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac.


2. In PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac, weights in hand ranges are cell-level, not combo-level. So weights on individual hand combos in other programs' hand range text syntaxes are converted to weights on the hand combos' cells (by averaging the weights of the added hand combos in each cell) when imported into PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac.

Export

To export/print a hand range into any of the above hand range text syntaxes, click/select the hand range in the main view (left hand side of the app's window), then click the "Txt" button in the Range Editor view.

If the hand range has weights, the above other programs' hand range text syntaxes will be shown in the "Txt" button's popup dialog (except syntax (5); there's no need to show this syntax because weights in PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac are integers). If the hand range doesn't have weights then there's no need to show the above other programs' hand range text syntaxes because the standard hand range text syntax which is shown suffices.

Help Info. On This Feature

Click the players' hand range text fields' “?” (Help) button (near the top of the main view (left hand side of the app's window)).

========== Stats Features (Mac-Expert Version) ==========

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Mouse Over A Range's Stats When Doing Flop/Turn/River Texture Analysis (Mac-Expert Version)

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When doing flop/turn/river texture analysis for a hand range (Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River, with a specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river), and even for Deal-To = Hole Cards, after you calculate you can mouse over the range's stats' checkbox buttons (when you're in Range Editor view) to see which hands of the range hit a particular stat. The hands that hit the stat are shown in red color in the hand range grid.

**Note**: You need to be doing flop/turn/river texture analysis for a hand range for the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature to be enabled (Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River, with a specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river). For example, if you have assigned 3 board cards (the flop), and have set Deal-To = River (or Turn), then this feature will not be enabled. You need to set Deal-To = Flop here for this feature to be enabled.

When you're mousing over a stat, the Range Editor view's range %age (top right) shows the %age of the range's hand combos that hit the stat (red color; includes card and range removal effects in numerator, only card removal effect in denominator). The hand combo counts in the hand range grid also adjust similarly (if they're being shown).

When the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature is enabled, the red "(Mouse Over)" label at the top left of the Stats view is enabled (bright color) to indicate that this feature is enabled. The "#comb" button to the right is also enabled (but not during a calculation); this button shows all of a range's stats as Number Of Hand Combos / %age (Or Odds).

Also, when you mouse over a stat, if you then move the mouse off of the stat, the range grid cells that are in the stat are selected (dimmed color) in the range grid. This lets you do further things on these cells, perhaps after using SHIFT+CMD+click/drag to select only some of the cells, like add/remove some cells, or turn some specific hand combos ON/OFF in some cells (using the Hand Combos view), or weight some cells differently.


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Example 1: Mouse Over A Range's TopPair Stat When Doing Flop Texture Analysis

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Example 2: Instructions From Scratch For Using The Mouse Over A Range's Stats Feature

Here are minimal steps from scratch for using the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature:

1) ResetAll. (to start clean)
2) For Player 1, assign a range e.g. Top25%.
3) Set Deal-To = Flop.
4) Assign 3 flop cards.
5) Click on one of Player 1's fields (cards or text field) to select Player 1.
6) Calculate.

You can now mouse over Player 1's range's stats in the Stats view, similarly as in the screenshot in Example 1 above.

Note that the red "(Mouse Over)" label at the top left of the Stats view is now enabled (bright color) to indicate that this feature is enabled.  The "#comb" button to the right is now also enabled.

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Full Stats And Features For Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River/HoleCards (Mac-Expert Version)

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The full set of stats are calculated for Deal-To-Turn (as for Deal-To-Flop). For this feature the MiddlePair stat has been changed to SecondPair, to give it a sensible meaning for Deal-To-Turn.

Also, for Deal-To-River, advanced non-draw stats (Top/Second/Bottom-Pair, etc.) and Make/Hit stats are calculated (optionally per the "Calc. Adv. & Make/Hit Stats For Deal-To=River" checkbox setting near the bottom of the Stats view; calculating these additional stats for Deal-To-River is expensive/slow).

The Mouse Over A Range's Stats When Doing Flop/Turn/River Texture Analysis feature and Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) feature are implemented for when you're doing turn texture analysis (as for flop texture analysis), i.e., Deal-To = Turn, with a specific flop+turn, and also for when you're doing river texture analysis (Deal-To = River, with a specific flop+turn+river). The Mouse Over A Range's Stats When Doing Flop/Turn/River Texture Analysis feature is also implemented for even Deal-To = HoleCards.

Note that calculation runs slower for Deal-To-Turn than for Deal-To-Flop, because the full set of stats are more expensive to calculate for Deal-To-Turn. And calculation runs even slower for Deal-To-River if the "Calc. Adv. & Make/Hit Stats For Deal-To=River" checkbox setting is turned ON; we recommend turning ON this checkbox setting only when you need these additional stats. However overall this shouldn't be an issue because Mac's are pretty fast in general.


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Example: Full Stats And Features For Deal-To-Turn:

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Customizable "Total Hit" Stat (Mac-Expert Version)

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The Stats view has a stat called "Total Hit" at the bottom of the view; this stat lets you see a hand's or hand range's total/cumulative hit (taking overlapping of stats into account). In the Stats view, turn ON the checkmarks of the stats you want to include in the "Total Hit" stat (stats marked as "-" are then deleted).

1) The (Normal) ON State For Stats' Checkbox Buttons

Here is an example use of the "Total Hit" stat using the (normal) ON state for stats' checkbox buttons (Example 1 below). We want to see how often a suited connector like JTs hits the flop strongly. To see this, we enter specific hand JTs, set Deal-To = Flop, select "Hit Hand" stats in the Stats view, and turn ON the made hand stats TwoPair or better (7 stats) and the strong flush draw and straight draw stats (3 stats), and then calculate. Looking at the TotalHit stat, we see that JTs hits these 10 strong stats about 24.7% of the time on the flop (this TotalHit result takes overlapping of stats into account of course).

In this example we're looking at the TotalHit stat for a specific hand JTs, but we can do this for a hand range too of course (as Example 2 farther below will show).


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Example 1: Using The "Total Hit" Stat To See How Often A Suited Connector Like JTs Hits The Flop Strongly, Using The (Normal) ON State For Stats' Checkbox Buttons

2) The "-" (Delete) State For Stats' Checkbox Buttons

In addition to marking the stats' checkbox buttons as ON (checkmarked), you can mark them as "-", which means delete the stat from the TotalHit stat, after adding/unioning all of the checkmarked/ON stats. This also applies in the same way to the Filter Hand Range operation (“Filter” button).

For the stats' checkbox buttons:

    Click                =    Mark stat as ON / OFF in TotalHit, Filter
    SHIFT+click    =    Mark stat as "-" (delete) / OFF

The “-“ (delete) state makes the TotalHit stat and the Filter Hand Range operation more flexible/powerful by allowing us to subtract off some stats after adding some other (larger) stats, allowing us to in a way create different/custom stats and filters. For example, we can add the OnePair stat (with "Hit Hand" stats selected), and then subtract off the OverPair and TopPair stats, to get only the marginal and weak OnePair's, if that's what we desire. Example 2 below shows this example use of the "-" (delete) state, for a hand range's stats on the flop.


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Example 2: Using The "-" (Delete) State For Stats' Checkbox Buttons To Subtract Off Some Stats From Some Other (Larger) Stats

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A Few Additional Advanced Stats (Mac-Expert Version)

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The Stats view has a few additional advanced non-draw stats:

• "Nut Flush Draw"
• "Pocket Pair Below (only) Board's Top Card"
• "Two Overcards"
• "Ace High"

... over and above the full set of stats in the "Advanced" versions of this app.

And the Stats view also has a few additional advanced combination draw stats:

• "Flush Draw & Two Overcards"
• "Gutshot Straight & Overcard"

========== General Features (Mac-Expert Version) ==========

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Next Card Heat Map (Mac-Expert Version)

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This feature shows how each possible next board card (for the turn or river) changes the Equity of the currently selected (clicked) player. You can view this info. as a heat map and also as text.

This feature is enabled when specific flop / flop+turn cards have been assigned, and when there's a (blank) next board card (per the Deal-To setting).

Next Card Heat Map

Calculate, select (click) a player, then click the "Heat Map" button (this button is at the bottom right of the Card Deck view).

The Card Deck switches to the Next Card Heat Map. Each possible next card is colored on a color spectrum according to its Equity (for the currently selected (clicked) player) as follows:

RED                    ...                    YELLOW                    ...                    GREEN
(>= 30% Below                        (Breakeven                             (>= 30% Above
Breakeven Equity)                        Equity)                            Breakeven Equity)

Each possible next card's Equity (for the currently selected (clicked) player) is shown in each next card's cell, rounded to a whole number. You can also mouse over a next card to see its (unrounded) Equity.


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Example: Next Card Heat Map:

Screenshot:
Player 1:  AsKh
Player 2:  Hand range "Broadway and TT+" i.e. {TT+, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo}
Flop:        Kc Td 9d
Deal-To:   River

The Next Card Heat Map for Player 1 (the selected/clicked player) is shown below.

Note that the green-ish next cards are the best next cards for Player 1, the red-ish next cards are the worst next cards for Player 1, and the yellow-ish next cards are breakeven-ish next cards for Player 1.

Next Card Heat Map Text

Calculate, select (click) a player, then click the "Txt" button (this button is at the bottom right of the Card Deck view).

A table of all possible next cards and their Equities (for the currently selected (clicked) player) is shown, followed by a sorted list of all possible next cards.

The list is sorted on the next cards' Equities (for the currently selected (clicked) player), in highest Equity to lowest Equity order. So, the next cards at the top of the list are the best next cards for the currently selected (clicked) player, and the next cards at the bottom of the list are the worst next cards for the currently selected (clicked) player.


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Example: Next Card Heat Map Text:

The Next Card Heat Map Text for Player 1 from the example scenario in the above screenshot is shown below.

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Player Names (Mac-Expert Version)

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You can give a name to a player, e.g. “Hero”, “Villain”, “BTN”, “UTG”, “LAG”, “TAG”, anything. This helps to keep track of who's who better for example if there are more than 2 players, and helps to better communicate your hand/scenario to others or even to yourself.

• First select (click) a player, then click the “N” button at the top of the main view (left hand side of the app's window).
• Of course, player names are saved in a scenario's state, are included in a scenario's text (“Txt” button), and are handled when a scenario is saved/exported/imported.
• We've made the player hand range text fields wider to make space for both the player name and hand range name under each text field.

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Calc'ed Scenarios History, Calc Results File, Ranges Backup File (Mac-Expert Version)

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Calc'ed Scenarios History

A history of the last 50 calc'ed scenarios is automatically saved app-internally.
The "File" menu --> "Load Previous Calc'ed Scenario" and "Load Next Calc'ed Scenario" menu buttons let you navigate backwards and forwards in the scenario history. When you navigate, the current scenario is also saved in the scenario history (even if you haven't calc'ed it) so you can return to it.

Keyboard shortcuts:

        Cmd-Option-LeftArrow            Load Previous Calc'ed Scenario (50 levels)
        Cmd-Option-RightArrow          Load Next Calc'ed Scenario (50 levels)

You can use this feature to go backwards and forwards to different points/streets of a hand that you're analyzing, or to different scenarios that you calc'ed a while ago.

Calc Results File

All calc results are automatically written/appended to file pokercruncher.txt, which is at this location:

~/Library/Containers/com.pokercruncher.PokerCruncherMac/Data/Library/Application Support/PokerCruncher/pokercruncher.txt

Un-hide your "~/Library" folder if needed using Terminal command "chflags nohidden ~/Library":

1) Launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
2) In Terminal window, enter command:
        chflags nohidden ~/Library

Quick-Saved Hand Ranges Backup File

As an auto-backup, all quick-saved hand ranges are automatically written/appended to file pokercruncherquicksavedhandranges.txt, which is at this location (in the same folder as the Calc Results File above):

~/Library/Containers/com.pokercruncher.PokerCruncherMac/Data/Library/Application Support/PokerCruncher/pokercruncherquicksavedhandranges.txt

See the Calc Results File section above for instructions on how to un-hide your "~/Library" folder if needed.

Note:
However we recommend that you periodically export/back-up your quick-saved hand ranges yourself outside of this app by using the "File" menu --> "View Quick-Saved Hand Ranges Text, Export/Back-Up" menu button.

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Dark-Appearance Mode (macOS Mojave 10.14+) (Mac-Expert Version)

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PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac supports dark-appearance mode in macOS Mojave 10.14+ (System Preferences --> General --> Appearance).

There's a new/different color scheme across the entire UI for dark-appearance mode, to make everything readable and colorful.


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Example: Dark-Appearance Mode (macOS Mojave 10.14+):

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Run Multiple Instances Of App (Mac-Expert Version)

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You can run two or more instances of the PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac app at the same time, but there is a complication as explaned below so you will need to be careful.

1) Launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
2) In Terminal window, enter command:
        open -n -a /Applications/PokerCruncher.app

The "-n" means new instance, and will open a new instance of the PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac app.

Running two or more instances of this app at the same time can be useful for example if you want to see/compare two different sets of stats/results side-by-side.

Complication:
However note that PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac is primarily designed to be a one-instance app. If you run two or more instances at the same time, a complication is: when you close the instances, the instances will write their app-states to the same place on disk (because all of the instances are the same one underlying app, PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac), so the last instance that you close will "win". That is, the instances that you closed earlier will have their app-states overwritten by the last instance that you closed. So for example if you do additional hand range editing/saving work in one of the instances, close that instance last so you don't lose your work.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Features     (New!)

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1) Why can't I save/load hand ranges? My saved hand ranges are loading back in as empty.

(All versions of PokerCruncher)

Answer:
This is most probably happening because you saved your hand range as an empty range, so it's loading back in as empty. Note that after you use the top x% of hands slider in the Range Editor screen/view to select the top x% of hands, you need to tap/click the "Add" button (under the slider area) to actually add the selected cells/hands to the hand range. The slider just selects a bunch of cells/hands, it doesn't actually add them to the hand range (the slider must work this way i.e. just select). To actually add the selected cells/hands to the hand range, you need to tap/click the "Add" button.

Note that the Range Editor screen/view gives several indications of how the current hand range is defined, so you can easily see/tell if a hand range is empty.

• At the top left is the hand range's text, e.g. "JJ+, AKs"; for an empty hand range this will be "<Empty>".
• At the top right is the hand range's %age; for an empty hand range this will be 0%.
• Cells/hands that have been added to the hand range will be yellow color in the hand range grid.

So it should be easy/clear to see how you've defined your hand range and to see/tell if it's empty.


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2) Why doesn't the "View Card Removal Effect" setting take a player's hand's card removal effects into account as expected?

(All versions of PokerCruncher)

Answer:
This is most probably happening because you entered the player's specific hand (e.g. AsKh) as a hand range, instead of as 2 specific cards from the card deck. For example, you entered (in the Mac-Expert version of PokerCruncher, but this question/answer also applies in the Advanced versions of PokerCruncher):


The "View Card Removal Effect" setting takes card removal effects into account, but not range removal effects. So in the above example Player 1's hand's card removal effects aren't taken into account when looking at Player 2's range because Player 1 doesn't have any specific cards, he has a hand range. So you'll see a combo count of 12 for Player 2's range, instead of the expected 6.

Instead, if you enter Player 1's specific hand as 2 specific cards from the card deck:


... then this will put Player 1's hand into the scope of the "View Card Removal Effect" setting, and you'll see a combo count of 6 for Player 2's range as expected (of course with the "View Card Removal Effect" setting turned ON).

Background And Motivation

The reason that the "View Card Removal Effect" setting doesn't take range removal effects into account is that in a general program like PokerCruncher, where you can enter multiple ranges up against one another (up to 10 ranges), and where the ranges can intersect with each other in complex ways, it would be very difficult or intractable to compute/show all of the range removal effects for all of the ranges statically/up-front (before calc'ing). Some other programs in this space sidestep this complication altogether because you can only enter 1 range in those programs; the other hand in the scenario is entered as "dead cards" in the card deck. But a goal of PokerCruncher is to be as general as possible so PokerCruncher supports multiple ranges, up to 10 ranges, but as a result PokerCruncher must live with this range removal effects complication.

Calculation

However note that this card removal effects vs. range removal effects distinction in PokerCruncher has nothing to do with calculation results. Calculation always takes both card and range removal effects into account i.e. all removal effects; it has to to get the correct equity/stats results (for example note that the equity results are the same in the two examples above). So this removal effects issue only applies to the "View Card Removal Effect" setting which shows ranges' hand combo counts statically/up-front (before calc'ing); it doesn't apply to calculation results.

Summary

In summary, use the card deck to assign specific cards whenever possible, to give PokerCruncher the maximum amount of info. on specific cards at pre-calc time.


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3) Why doesn't the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature work for me (it's not enabled)? (Similarly, also the Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) operation?)

(Mac-Expert Version)

Answer:
You need to be doing flop/turn/river texture analysis for a hand range for the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature to be enabled (Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River, with a specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river). For example, if you have assigned 3 board cards (the flop), and have set Deal-To = River (or Turn), then this feature will not be enabled. You need to set Deal-To = Flop here for this feature to be enabled.

See Example 1 (screenshot) and Example 2 (instructions from scratch) in the Mouse Over A Range's Stats When Doing Flop/Turn/River Texture Analysis section.

Background And Motivation

In other words, the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature needs there to be 0 (no) more blank/unknown board cards to go. If there are 1 or more blank/unknown board cards to go, then pretty much any cell/hand of the hand range can hit pretty much any stat because there are blank/unknown (random) board cards that can be used to help hit pretty much any particular stat. So then the concept of "hitting a stat" wouldn't have a good/useful meaning, so we don't enable the Mouse Over A Range's Stats feature if there are 1 or more blank/unknown board cards to go.

Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) Operation

Everything said above in this answer also applies to the Filter Hand Range (On Flop/Turn/River) operation. You need to be doing flop/turn/river texture analysis for a hand range for this operation to be enabled (Deal-To = Flop/Turn/River, with a specific flop / flop+turn / flop+turn+river).

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Questions, Suggestions, And Conclusion

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Please write to us or post on our PokerCruncher-iOS TwoPlusTwo forum thread or PokerCruncher-Expert-Mac thread or PokerCruncher-Android thread if you have questions or suggestions or ideas for future development. We would love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for using PokerCruncher; we hope you enjoy this app and put it to good use!
-RJ, PokerCruncher, LLC