Thank you for using Poker Potjie, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Getting Started
To 'Cook' with Potjie you need to do three things.
- Enter your hand
This is optional, you can also leave your hand blank. Any hand you enter for yourself will remove possible hands that your opponent could be holding. - Enter board cards
This is optional, you can leave the board cards blank to cook or calculate equity pre-flop. - Select a range for your opponent.
Click 'Cook'
You can also calculate your equity by clicking the 'Calc Equity' button.
The basics of hand ranges
Bear in mind that you should probably use different ranges for your opponent at different times.
Here are two player statistics which are commonly used:
| Acronym | Meaning | Example of a good time to use this statistic |
| VP$IP % | The % of hands the player puts money in the pot with | When the player limps in. (generally limp means just calling the blinds or calling a tiny raise) |
| CPFR % | The % of hands the player calls preflop raises with | When a player calls a preflop raise |
The more hands you've seen your opponent play the more accurate these statistics will be. Generally 50 hands are considered a minimum for these kind of stats to mean anything.
Example, Villain X has a VP$IP of 50% and he has limped in before the flop. Now you can set his range in Potjie at 50%.
Selecting hand ranges in Potjie
Potjie allows some pretty advanced hand range selection, but also allows you to use it as simply as you like.
Basic Range Selection:
Click and drag the slider, or type in a number between 1 and 100 next to the slider and press Enter.
Custom, Simple Hand Range Selection
| Different colours here and their meaning | |
| Pale Green | Offsuit |
| Light Green | Pairs |
| Red | Suited |
| Yellow | Blocks which are 'on' |
| Purple | Blocks which are 'on' and also selected |
Selected blocks can have suit combinations added or removed.
In this example, we remove the 'Diamond-Diamond' suit combination from the 4 selected blocks by clicking the 'Diamond-Diamond' Suit button.
Suit combinations can easily be added or removed with this method, and its very easy to see whats going on.
After deselecting these blocks, notice the colour of these 4 blocks... They are light yellow, this means that they are only partially 'on'
We can always go back and look at the state of any block by holding Ctrl Alt and clicking on the block. This will select the block, without modifying it in any way.
Advanced Hand Range Functionality
WHOA... what the $*)@&^#$ is that?
As well as being able to left click blocks to set them 'on' it is possible to right click them to set them as 'seen'.
This program is designed to be as quick, easy and efficient as possible to use to predict what your favourite villains are holding. Here is the reasoning behind the 'seen' vs 'on' block states.
When we put our opponents on a hand range, we are guessing what range of cards they are playing. They may play 57% of the cards they get delt, but they may not exactly play 57% of the strongest possible hands.
When we see a villain reach showdown, we have 'seen' that he plays with such and such a card. You can use this feature however you like.
Blocks which are seen are like 'Always on' markers. You can select a block as seen and then adjust the player's range and not loose the valuable information you have carefully gained in witnessing this villain's play. Any block which is seen is automatically considered when you do a 'Cook' or equity calculation regardless of whether the block is 'on'.
| Seen Colours | |
| Pale Violet | This block is on and seen |
| Green | This block is partially seen |
| Turquoise | This block is seen |
| Blue | This block is seen and selected |
Player Profiles
Potjie allows you to maintain seperate profiles for all your favourite villains. You can create a profile for each opponent and define their ranges in precise detail. Then you can quickly switch between different player profiles.
More meticulous people may want to create multiple profiles per player, one for each position that the villain plays. Example: Superman_SB, Superman_BB, Superman_MP, Superman_CO, Superman_BTN
You can also use Potjie without maintaining seperate player profiles.
| Profile functions | |
| Create a new profile | Type in a name in the dropdown box in the 'Player Profiles' section, and press Enter |
| Switch profiles | Select another profile from the list |
| Delete a profile | Select the profile you want to delete, click delete |
* Player profiles are saved in when you exit Potjie
* To backup your player profiles, make a copy of the Player_Profiles.ini file.
Categories
When you do a "Cook", all the possible hands your opponent could be holding are displayed in a list.
Depending on your opponent's range, they could be holding any of 1326 different hands.
Poker Potjie takes into account our hole cards as well as the board cards to accurately list all the possible hands the opponent could have.
The list is broken up into categories beginning with the most common / important hands. We've laid out the categories so that its easy to navigate the list.
Next to each category and sub category appear two numbers like so: (x) y%.
x tells you how many hands are in this category
y tells you the probability of the opponent holding a hand in the said category. This probability is based only on their range and you ofcourse need to take other factors into consideration to put your opponents on hands.
Draw Categories:
* Cards appearing in draw categories will also in normal categories.
* The '8 out or better draw' category may show a probability of over 100% This is due to the fact that Open ended straight draws *as well* as flush draws are listed in this category, and it is possible for hands to be in both of these categories at the same time.
Normal Display Output
This is the display mode which is used when 'Simplified Output' is disabled in the options.
Simplified Output
When enabled, hands are consolidated together to provide shorter lists which are easy to navigate around. Here is an example of 'Simplified Output':
Simplified Hand Lists will be preceeded with a prefix and may be succeeded by a suffix. They are followed with the number of hands they contain written in brackets ( )
| Possible names for lists containing: Ace King | Number of combinations in complete list | |
| AK | List contains suited card combinations as well as offsuit card combinations | 16 |
| AKs | List only contains suited combinations of AK | 4 |
| AKo | List only contains offsuit combinations of AK | 12 |
Prefixes:
All simplified hand lists will begin with a prefix. Here they are with their meanings:
Complete
~ Incomplete
Here are some examples of complete and incomplete hand lists:
| Type: | Pair |
Any |
Any |
Any |
||||
Suited |
Suited |
Offsuit |
* If a hand list is followed by an asterisk, then at least one of the hands it contains, also appears in one of the '8 out or better draw' categories.
| Over | Card/Hand's rank is higher than any card on the board |
| Top | Card/Hand's rank is equal to the highest ranked card on the board |
| Middle | Card/Hand's rank is equal to the card which is approximately middle ranked on the board |
| Bottom | Card/Hand's rank is equal to the lowest ranked card on the board |
| Low | Card/Hand's rank is lower than the lowest card on the board |
* Please note: The middle rank is biased high, meaning Middle rank on this board will be 8: 9c8c7c6c
Asterisks
Asterisks * will appear on the right of any hand which is also listed in the '8 out or better draw' category.
Asterisks will appear next to a hand in the 'Open ended straight draw' category if that hand also appears in the 'Flush draw' category and vice versa.
Icons
There are 2 different types of Icons.
- Category Icons - A graphic representation of categories.
- Win/Lose Icons - Provide a quick way of spotting which hands you win against, and which hands you loose against. (Or tie with)
Win, Lose, and Tie Icons
These symbols are displayed next to opponents hands. They can be enabled or disabled in the options.
They indicate if we currently Win/Lose/Tie with the particular hand. Ofcourse, this may change if we are not yet at the river. These icons are available from the flop onwards.
| Win | Our hand beats the opponent's hand | |
| Lose | Our hand loses against the opponent's hand | |
| Tie | Our hand ties against the opponent's hand |
Categories
| Icon | Category Name | Eg Hand | Eg Board | |
| High Cards | ||||
| Over Pair | Pocket pair higher than the top card on the board | KcKd | Tc9d8h | |
| Top Pair | Pair = top card | KcTd | Tc9d8h | |
| ~ pair (between top and mid) | Pair between the middle and top | 9c9d | Kc8d7h | |
| Middle Pair | Pair = middle card | 8c2c | Kc8d7h | |
| ~ pair (between mid and bottom) | Pair between middle and bottom | 4c2c | Kc8d4h3s | |
| Bottom Pair | Pair = bottom card | 4d2c | Kc6h4c | |
| Low Pair | Pocket pair lower than any card on the board | 3c3h | Kc6h4c | |
| The following 2 pair hands are made using both hole cards, each making a different pair... | ||||
| Top-Middle own 2 pair | Both hole cards are used to make a '2 pair' with the top and middle board cards | Kc9c | Kd9h7s | |
| Top-Bottom own 2 pair | Both hole cards are used to make a '2 pair' with the top and bottom board cards | Kc7h | Kd9h7s | |
| Middle-Bottom own 2 pair | Both hole cards are used to make a '2 pair' with the middle and bottom board cards | 9d7c | Kd9h7s | |
| The following 2 pair hands are made using a pair on the board... | ||||
| Over-Top 2 pair (>TC) | Pocket pair higher than any board card | QcQd | Jd9h9s | |
| Over-Top 2 pair (=TC) | One hole card forms a pair with the top card | Jh3d | Jd9h9s | |
| Over-Top 2 pair | Pocket pair greater than the pair on the board | TcTs | Jd9h9s | |
| Top-Middle 2 pair | A pair of middle or greater rank, lower than the board pair | 6c6d | Kc8c8s3h | |
| Top-Bottom 2 pair | A pair less than middle rank, lower than the board pair | 3h3d | Kc8c5h5d | |
| 8 out or better draw | There could be at least 8 cards left in the deck which would complete the opponent's straight or flush | |||
| Open ended straight draw | One card above or below the sequence of cards we have now can complete the opponent's draw | 7h6s | Kc8c5h5d | |
| Flush Draw | One more card of the same suit will complete the opponent's flush | AcQc | Kc8c5h5d | |
| Gut-shot and backdoor draws | Gut-shot draws require a specific card to complete the straight. Backdoor draws require 2 cards. | |||
| Gut-shot straight with pair | The opponent has a gut-shot straight draw, and currently holds a pair | Ks9d | Kc8c7h5d | |
| Gut-shot straight no pair | The opponent has a gut-shot straight draw | Ac9d | Kc8c7h5d | |
| Backdoor flush draw | The opponent needs two more cards of the same suit to complete their flush | AhJh | Kc8c7h | |
| Backdoor straight draw | The opponent needs two more cards to complete their straight | AhTs | Kc8c7h | |
| Trips | One of the opponent's cards is combined with a pair on the board to make 3 of a kind | Jc8s | Kc8c8h | |
| Top Set | Three of a kind with rank = top card | KsKd | Kc9c8h | |
| ~ Set (between top and mid) | (this category is currently unused because we bias the middle board rank high) | |||
| Middle Set | Three of a kind with rank = middle card | 9s9d | Kc9c8h | |
| ~ Set | Three of a kind with rank between middle and bottom | 8d8s | Kc9c8h3d | |
| Bottom Set | Three of a kind with rank = bottom card | 3s3h | Kc9c8h3d | |
| Straight | 5 cards whos ranks are in a sequence | Th7d | Kc9c8h6d | |
| Flush | 5 cards of the same suit | Ac3c | Kc9c8c | |
| Full House | 3 of a kind as well as 2 of a kind (a.k.a. boat) | AcAd | 8s8h3c8d | |
| Quad | 4 of a kind | JcJd | Js8cJh | |
| Straight Flush | A straight whos suits are all the same | Tc7c | 9c8c6c | |
| Royal Flush | A straight flush with top card Ace | KcTc | AcJcQc | |
Add to range Function
Lets say you've done a 'Cook' for a player and you've got a listing for the range which they are likely to have reached the flop with.
But now they have called a raise... So you want to narrow their range for your next cook, to see what they may have on the turn.
(Logic: They would call raises on the flop with a tighter range than than they would reach the flop with)
Click the 'Clear On' button, then right click on a card in the list and click 'Add to Range'
*At this time Potjie supports selections 1 level up from the bottom. Experiment with this function in Normal and Simplified output. We will probably expand functionality in this area soon.
Sharing your Cooking!
So you want to share your analysis with a friend? Right click on the list you have cooked and click 'Copy Results to Clipboard' then simply paste them into an email, forum, instant messenger, etc.
If you are on an IRC channel, you may want to use a service like http://pastebin.com to avoid flooding.
Alternative Colour Scheme
Pojtie offers an alternative colour scheme which you might like. It can be activated in the options under 'Appearance'
