Creating a poker server

[MJ4H]

A while back a friend of mine and I started writing what was going to be a poker server. We had planned on going the whole way with it and trying to make some money. Well I have drifted apart from this friend (he is in graduate school), and this project kind of died. However, I have been thinking of restarting this project. But since Im not a programmer, really at all, I am going to do something a lot less ambitious.

I think my goal is going to be to create a server that will start out as allowing a maximum of nine players, all at one table. It will then be a sit and go tournament format, no limit holdem. Eventually, I would like to make it work as a multi-table tournament server. Now, one reason I bring this up is because I think this would be great for a bunch of us on this message board. I could give the address of the server out on here, set up a time, and we could just meet for our own private poker night, in whatever format we choose. Now, I actually already have the bare bones of this server and client started. What Im wondering from you guys is, if I were to get this project up and running, would you guys be interested in 1. helping to test it, 2. using it on a regular basis when finished?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Count me in, dude!

[cthomer5000]

yes and yes.

[TLK]

Sounds good....

[RPI-Fan]

Yep and yep.

[sabotai]

Hell yeah! And if you need help on the project, I'll help in anyway I can (but I have to admit, web-programming isn't my strongest area)

[MJ4H]

Good, I was hoping for this type of response.

Since Ive already completed work on a poker "server" that deals limit hold em, I already know what Im going to have trouble with. The dealing, action, and evaluation of hands was actually quite simple. The part I had trouble with and will have even more trouble with considering that this one will be no limit, is side pots/all-ins. It becomes very confusing keeping track of how much is in which pot, and who is eligible for which pot. Any pointers or procedural thoughs on this part of it would help me out a lot. I never really did figure out a good way to do this for my limit hold em server so I just simplified it quite a bit to get things rolling.

[Celeval]

I'm in.

[RPI-Fan]

Any chance we could give the Limit Hold 'Em server a test run to get a feel for how it works?

(at least dorks like me might like to see how you got things started)

[hoopsguy]

I would be happy to help, time permitting.

[Fido]

Where's option 3 - helping out with the coding? :)

As for your pot dilema, maybe thinking of it not as a pot but rather a list of pots, each with a set of participants and an amount. When a side pot is created, it simply adds another pot to the list. An All-in that is called with a smaller amount would result in the same thing, one pot containing the called amount, a second pot containing the remainder. At the end of eacxh betting round you would pay out the pots when only one player is left in it (you'll need special processing for the lower all-in call situation to not report that as a "win").

[MJ4H]

Any chance we could give the Limit Hold 'Em server a test run to get a feel for how it works?

(at least dorks like me might like to see how you got things started)

Well here's the deal. I put server in quotes above because it's not technically a server. It is really a program that resides on a server - FICS (Free Internet Chess Server). I wrote a program called "PokerBot" that allows up to 9 people to sit down and play poker on FICS in a text environment. I even, at one point, had it able to play a sit & go format, but I took that away because it was very buggy. As of now, you can on to FICS and play "ring game" style any time.

[MJ4H]

Where's option 3 - helping out with the coding? :)



That would be great. Trouble is Im an abhorrent programmer, and I can only program in VB. If you still want to help after that info, let me know :)

Or I can just let you write the damn thing and take credit for it.

hehe

[thealmighty]

Very interested (in the test and play, not the writing :) )

[kingfc22]

Count me all-in

[Fido]

Or I can just let you write the damn thing and take credit for it.

hehe

I would never take credit for that - this is a great idea and its yours. If you're serious about wanting help with the coding, I'm sure someone here could helkp you out - it just couldn't be me. I know VB, but don't have access to VB to no any work on it. Now, should you choose to convert the server portion to C++, let me know.

[Airhog]

I would be careful if you play for real money. It would be best to locate your server in another country if you have any intention of playing for real cash.

[Subby]

I don't know if this even exists, but I am most interested in having the ability to set up private single-table no-limit tournaments with entry fees ranging from $5-$10. I am not aware of any sites that have this option (admittedly I only play on PP), so if you could achieve this, I would be most interested...

[Bonegavel]

sign me up. I know there are way better coders on here, but I can find my way around an IDE if needed; vb, cpp, whatever. Great idea.

[MJ4H]

Just a note. This will not be a real money server. It is just for fun. We could do lots of things to make the games meaningful besides using money, like create a league type leaderboard or something.

[MJ4H]

I would never take credit for that - this is a great idea and its yours. If you're serious about wanting help with the coding, I'm sure someone here could helkp you out - it just couldn't be me. I know VB, but don't have access to VB to no any work on it. Now, should you choose to convert the server portion to C++, let me know.

Heh. I meant YOU write it, I take credit for it! My evil plan!

Id love to have the server written in C++. Unfortunately, I dont know anything about that language. Now if you wanted to do the actual coding and I help you with the conceptual things (since Ive already done this once, just not no-limit holdem), that would be different. But I wouldnt ask anyone to do that.

[Bonegavel]

I think a leader board would be great, and maybe, to keep things fun, reset to zero every month so that you don't get the guy with 1,000,000 points that nobody can reach. But, you can also retain the lifetime stats.

I'm assuming this is going to be like the Free Chess stuff you are involved with?

[MJ4H]

I'm assuming this is going to be like the Free Chess stuff you are involved with?

Im not sure what you mean by this.

[HornedFrog Purple]

I would like to try too Matt.

Do you ever play on ICC? (chess that is)

[Bonegavel]

Im not sure what you mean by this.
Aren't you Gorgonian on freechess.org?

[MJ4H]

Yes, I am. No I never play on ICC. I actually "retired" from chess. Havent played since May. Just grew to where I dont enjoy the game anymore. I still log on to FICS, mostly to have something to read while playing poker :)

[Fido]

Heh. I meant YOU write it, I take credit for it! My evil plan!
That works for me. No credit = no tech support needed...my evil plan. :D

Id love to have the server written in C++. Unfortunately, I dont know anything about that language. Now if you wanted to do the actual coding and I help you with the conceptual things (since Ive already done this once, just not no-limit holdem), that would be different. But I wouldnt ask anyone to do that.

If you want to write up a spec of what you want it to do (basically the communication protocol between the clients and teh server and the target platform specs) and send me the VB stuff you have I could probably get something together for you farily quickly.

ONe additional thought - since this will be a free system - it may be cool to optionally allow people not playing in the games to enter into a viewer mode - see all of the cards face up (like on TV) to watch how people are playing. Runs into potential problems with people cheating (having a partnet watch the game and IM them everyone's cards) but could definately be interresting when playing with friends (like an FOFC tourney).

[MJ4H]

Well, since Im a hack programmer, all communication was going to be in plain text. I really don't know a better way to do it. For instance if the info sent from the client was chat, it would be proceeded with the letter C. If it was an action, it would be proceeded with the letter A. The server would read the first letter and direct the info to the correct part of the program. This is really all I have done so far. The VB server I have written right now simply accepts connections (all are anonymous), and will relay chat in the chat box, preceeded by a number indicating which connection number the chat came from. I did this in about 20 minutes last night. Ive never written an actual server before, so that type of stuff will be the hardest for me. With the PokerBot program, the server stuff was taken care of by FICS and I just handled the incoming information from other users.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Yes, I am. No I never play on ICC. I actually "retired" from chess. Havent played since May. Just grew to where I dont enjoy the game anymore. I still log on to FICS, mostly to have something to read while playing poker :)

Aw too bad. :( I don't play much on ICC myself, mainly I watch major tournaments etc on it.

One thing you might try if you haven't is correspondence chess. I have 7 games going currently, just entering a move a day max. It's pretty fun for me and I don't get burned out.

[MJ4H]

I played correspondence chess more than live chess. I do like it far better without much time pressure. Im just burned out on the whole game.

[Fido]

Well, since Im a hack programmer, all communication was going to be in plain text. I really don't know a better way to do it. For instance if the info sent from the client was chat, it would be proceeded with the letter C. If it was an action, it would be proceeded with the letter A. The server would read the first letter and direct the info to the correct part of the program. This is really all I have done so far. The VB server I have written right now simply accepts connections (all are anonymous), and will relay chat in the chat box, preceeded by a number indicating which connection number the chat came from. I did this in about 20 minutes last night. Ive never written an actual server before, so that type of stuff will be the hardest for me. With the PokerBot program, the server stuff was taken care of by FICS and I just handled the incoming information from other users.

I am interrested in helping out on this any way you see as being appropriate, so let me know what I can do.

[MJ4H]

Ill send you a PM later today with some more info about what we can possibly do.

[cuervo72]

Hey, if it involves no money I'd be all for this too!

[Bonegavel]

I think that playing for fun and not money is fine if we keep a lot of stats. We should brain storm on all the stats that we would want.

[johnnyshaka]

Matt...great idea!!!

[SirFozzie]

see if this helps you.

A semi-graphical interface to play Holdem over IRC

http://www.jcsw.com/poker/

[Airhog]

could you use a predefined protocol like IRC to facilitate what you want to do? Although a holdem poker bot for IRC probably exists already.

[JeeberD]

I wish I knew how to play poker... :(

[MJ4H]

I tried that my first time with the FICS server. Id like to have a standalone this time around.

[RPI-Fan]

If graphics got involved, I like Fido's idea of having everyone be able to see the cards. We could schedule a weekly FOFC tourney, and I'm sure people would like watching near the end.

Also, I have a friend who wrote a good deal of code (graphics too) for a poker server over a LAN network. I'll see if I can't get him to send me whatever he had done - that might be a significant help.

[KWhit]

Sounds good. I'd definitely give this a whirl.

[MJ4H]

There will definitely be a client with graphics. The shown cards thing is a possibility since we'd be a closed community.