(1) What exactly is meant by "plays poker automatically" certainly I need to make decisions somewhere along the line?
All your decisions have been pre-defined by YOU, using the provided software. Essentially our application allows you to create virtual players that makes all the decisions for you. Allowing you to be somewhere else when the tournament takes place.

(2) I make my decisions based on several conditions as the game progresses, how is it possible to imitate my style of play accurately?
First of all, nothing can completely replace the decisions that are made by people. We can get very close but without the spontaneity of the human mind and your opponents brow doesn't sweat. In a nutshell, given the same conditions you will get the same results. What we have done is given the user the ability to select the hands they want to bet and create several conditions that would affect the way they bet that hand.

(3) My conditions just seem too involved for any software to understand. Can you explain this a little better?
What we have done is created a pre-defined list of conditions for pre-flop betting and for after the flop betting (flop, turn,river). We have compiled this list based on surveys, based on our own online play, and from our home games. Our goal was to capture conditions that all players use or should use and then some. We then give the user the ability to combine the pre-defined conditions together to create their own personalized conditions. The user can then select from the new list of conditions those that are important for the hand that they are defining.

(4) This still seems immense there are hundreds of hands to define.
It is not as bad as it seems. Let's quickly look at the 2 card pre-flop combination. We give the user the ability to define betting combinations for each of PAIRS, ACE high, KING high, QUEEN high, and JACK high. Not all possibilities have to be defined and the combinations can include a range. So if a user would normally bet A, Jack and A, 10 the same, they would define the combination to be A, J-10. This effectively would normally get your pre-flop card combinations down to roughly 10 or less depending on how aggressively you choose to play.

(5) Let's stay along these lines. I would bet the same on the A, J-10 but I would bet differently if I am the first bettor than I would the last. How is that handled?
We are back to the conditions. Here are a list of just some of the conditions that can be used to adjust your bet in the pre-flop situation:
Cards are suited
I have the BIG Stack
I have the Small Stack
Cards are suited connectors
I am on the button (dealer)
The bet to me is the big blind
2 or more players in front of me have raised or matched a raise
I'm in the money (tournament position)
I'm under the gun
I'm at the cut-off
4 or less players are left at the table
Within first  "?" hands
Not to mention that the user can build conditions by combining these together to create many more.

(6) Wow! Do I have to define my bets for all these conditions?
No, but you will be given as many as 6 conditions that you can program a bet against. This gives you up to 7 bets scenarios for the given hand. Using the example given above, we ask that a user program a basic bet for the (A, J-10) combination. This basic bet will be used if the ALL conditions selected are not TRUE. So if the user elects to select the basic bet to be to match the BB (big blind), they may select ("I'm on the button" AND "The bet to me is the BB") as a condition to raise the basic bet to 3 times the big blind.

(7) It sure seems like a lot to define.
It can be if the user elects to break down the hands significantly. For that reason we have defined several complete 'PLAYERS' that can be initially selected and the user can tweak those to meet his or her preferences.

(8) Exactly how does the betting get defined? It is not as simple as giving a number.
No it is not. In actuality, 4 numbers are required. The first number would be the bet that you be comfortable betting as a first bettor or calling a bet to you. The second number would be a raise of a bet, the third and fourth numbers would be a re-raise(s). The user will be able to modify their defaults so many of the fields will be defined right off the bat.

(9) Can you give me an example of betting?
The actual logic for betting would take up a whole page but here is a basic sample:

Using the hand defined above (A, J-10), if user defines a basic bet of (200, 3x-BB, 0, 0) they are betting in the following manner:

If I am the first bettor then bet 200. 

If I am not the first bettor then I will match the bet to me if it is near 200 and then raise 3X the big blind. 

If the bet comes back to me I will CHECK/FOLD (0).

The bottom line is in this case is I am trying to buy the pot but if I am called on it then I will fold (or check).
Bets can be numbers or pre-defined amounts such as BB, DR (double the raise) and of course ALL-IN. Any time a bet exceeds the "players" stack it is considered an ALL-IN.
Remember, I just used an example.  We have included other user defined betting features that allow a player to either match an initial bet that would have exceeded their initial bet ('near') or to just fold or to take the dollars from raise amounts.

(10) OK, I kind of understand for pre-flop conditions but the game gets more complicated when you have to anticipate what the other players have in relation to the community cards.
Yes it does, but we have managed to keep the same basic structure of Hands, Conditions and Bets. For instance, the hands go from 2 card combinations to the standard 5 card hands AND 5 card POSSIBILITIES such as 3 to a flush, 4 to a flush, 4 to an open ended straight and others. Custom definitions can be made by the user for High-Card, PAIRS and 2-PAIRS.

(11) What about when your best hand is in the community cards?
Good question. The reality of this situation is unique and so we have defined 3 selections that the user can make for each hand and for each turn of the community cards that describes whether the "player" wants to play the hand based on their high card in the hole. If the user makes this selection then they can also add a dedicated condition and bet. Another selection will allow the user to play a SECONDARY hand. SO if a user has 2 pair ALL in the community cards, they may elect to look for 4 to a flush or straight and bet a certain way if that exists. Finally, the user also has the option to play the hand but only if it costs nothing. To summarize, if neither selection is made, the normal bets and conditions will be used.

(12) So as an example, if I have 2 pairs and they are all in the community cards and I elect to play my highest hole card, then I will do that every time?
Not necessarily, remember, the user has up to 10 2-pair combinations that they can define. Only on the combinations that the user elects to play the high hole card will that occur. Yes it will occur every time for that combination and the associated condition. Regarding the high card in the hole, that is a level selection meaning that the play will only occur IF the high card is equal or above a user defined card. If not then the hand reverts to "play for free". Remember some conditions change as the game progresses SO if the condition has a level associated to it such as an opponents number of hands bet in the last 10.....your hand will play differently based on your opponent.

(13) When I play online or at a table I have an idea of what the other players have a possibility of getting if the right card(s) is turned. How is this handled?
We handle this through the conditions. The list of conditions above changes for betting after the flop. Some examples are listed below:

3 to a straight showing
4 to a straight showing
3 to a flush showing
4 to a flush showing
an ALL-IN bet was placed in front of me
..and many more

(14) When I am playing online or at a table I can kind of learn my opponents to a point of knowing if they are bluffing. What capabilities do I here when defining my "player"?
This is by far the biggest difference between InnovationPoker and manually playing poker. We can't give you options that play on your gut (like Tells). What we have done is played a lot of poker and we notice certain things about our opponents. Those have become conditions. For instance, I notice when a player is IN on a lot of hands and I usually can keep track of this in a rough fashion of the last 10 hands. So we have a condition that lets you define the amount of hands out of 10 that a player has been in the hand. One of your conditions may include this condition if you are up against that player and may assume he/she is bluffing and then structure your bet to stay in the game at all costs. The contrary is also true. If you notice a player that only gets to the flop one or 2 times per 10 hands, you may want to assume they have good hole cards.

(15) "??" on question 5 on the last condition. What does this mean?
A lot of players want to play differently at the onset of table, usually conservatively, to get a chance to learn the other players. This number is defined by the user. There are several of these 'global' parameters throughout the player definition software that the user is able to define.

(16) It looks like you have handled a lot but it still seems like I'll need to sit at a computer for hours defining my "PLAYERS" and it could get complicated.
Good players play a lot of poker to get good. We have made all attempts to structure the interface to allow a "PLAYER" to be defined in just minutes. We have also provided several pre-defined players that a user can use as a base for defining their 'players'. We would expect the user to define several "PLAYERS" and the have them play against each other within the software. The user will quickly learn which "PLAYER" is best over the long run. When they are comfortable, they can upload that player to the InnovationPlay host and compete in free tournaments against other who have defined their players.

(17) Won't everybody eventually have the same "Player"?
It's not likely unless users share their "PLAYERS". Assume the game is NO LIMIT Texas Hold'Em with a starting chip count of 10,000 and a smallest bet increment of 10 (BB=100). Combine that with the 20 or so pre-defined conditions and the 10 or so user defined condition using the 20 pre-defined conditions and you can see that the chances of 2 "PLAYERS" being similar is astronomical. In the case that ALL "PLAYERS" are the same, then the cards will decide the winner....a game of pure chance.

(18) So what if everybody plays conservatively, won't the game take a long time?
The game plays at hundreds of hands per second as limited by speed of the computer and the databases getting the user information.

(19) You mentioned online tournaments above, can you explain that a little?
Our intent is to create a web site similar to other online poker sites yet different. Our site is tournament play only. That is, a user will upload their best "players" and enter them in a 'type' of tournament. That tournament will start when all the slots are full. For instance, we may have a 1000 player tournament with a 200 player payout structure. When the last player enters, 100 tables will be randomly created and play will start on all tables simultaneously. The last 2 players at each table are 'in the money'. Play continues until there is one winner at each table. 10 tables are created randomly and so on. You can see that there are only 3 rounds and each will likely take less than 5 minutes to complete. Our 'types' of tournaments are generally related to number of tables, payout and rankings.

(20) Payouts? Are these money only tournaments?
We expect to have both, similar to current online brands.

(21) What does is cost to get into a tournament?
This can be anything from less that $1 to more than $100. It is purely based on the acceptance of our customers. Also, we can have tournaments with 10 players to thousands again depending on the acceptance of our customers.

(22) It happens so fast, how do you know if you win or loose?
We will use email to notify the players of tournament starts, and table wins, loses and when a player reaches the money. Attached to the WIN, LOSE email will be a history of play for that session.

(23) It seems like you can loose your money real quick.
You can and you can also win money real quick. With an automated fashion such as this we also have the ability to let the player define follow-on conditions if their player wins (or loses) in a tournament. For instance, a player may decide to enter a tournament and then select a follow-on tournament IF they reach the money (a any particular level) of the first tournament choosing to STOP if they do not get into the money. They can make this condition repeat so in effect they will continuously enter tournaments as long as they are winning. Further more, that can be a condition within the game that a player is a previous money winner. As a business it is important for us to make money, but we are driven by the competition and the complexity that we allow with a very friendly interface. All the capabilities we have described will be available at no charge as well.

(24) Wow, it doesn't get any more impersonal than this.
We agree to a point. That is why we also created a very low cost keychain device that can be used to play against your friends and co-workers during a coffee break or lunch break. This game is slightly slower and will slow the play down even further whenever an ALL-IN is encountered. So effectively, you can talk about whatever you want while the game plays at close to 100 hands a second all while it is collecting history data. Just as with a live table, up to 10 units can play all at once. Now you can understand why we like to talk about a POKER ENVIRONMENT as opposed to a POKER EXPERIENCE.

(25) Can I ask you why you are doing this?
We love poker. We just don't like sitting at a computer for hours. It is very difficult to establish a 'foundation' for your poker play at a live table or even online. As soon as money becomes involved the game often changes (when it shouldn't). Playing online for free results in a lot of inconsistent play.

With InnovationPoker, I can enter a tournament in minutes, I'll know within minutes whether I have won or lost and it is likely I played hundreds (or even thousands) of hands.. The email includes my hand history so if I choose I can load the history into the program provided and see right where I won and lost, adjust that section of my profile and be ready to play again in probably all of 15 minutes OR I can study the hands in the air on a business trip....because my style is in the computer I really don't have to remember. Serious poker players do the same type of recording with their online play and it takes a lot of time and effort. Since the result of defining a player is a 'file', I can load this into electronics such as a PDA or an even lower cost device developed solely for InnovationPoker.

(26) Is there a low cost electronic solution as you mentioned above?
There will be. InnovationPlay has developed just such a device that is smaller than most car door alarm units and is intended to attached to a keychain. 10 devices can play all at once using infrared (IR) technology. It has a beautiful OLED screen and just the right amount of buttons to select your "PLAYER", set an option or two and to start the game. As a bonus, it can do many other things as well....it's basically a really small computer. There is a small image of it on the InnovationPoker page.

(27) Do you really think that enough people will want to compete in this manner to make it a viable alternative to the current online experience?
You never really know until you try. We have taken online surveys and we saw no downside in proceeding with the concept. We did see a few responses that convinced us to proceed with even more excitement than we had initially. Time was a big factor why individuals did not play more.

(28) Your web site describes an environment that includes the current online experience. What is this all about?
With the right partner, we can create a poker environment that uses history from manual online play that can be used to create "players" for InnovationPoker tournaments.

(29) What about security issues? How do you know if someone is cheating?
It's just not a concern with InnovationPoker. In reality, we could care less how the "player" file is created. We will run a simple bounds check on the data to make sure it is valid. Everybody who creates a "player" is on the same playing field. There are no pokerbots to worry about, no program telling someone the best play to make.

(30) Will the software let us select the statistically best play?
No. This method of play is not about everybody getting the same odds or about teaching the best play in given situations (That is a likely result as a "player" is developed). There are some really good programs on the market that do just that. This method is about making the betting and conditions as real as possible and to meet most players capability. For instance, most people don't know how much better an AK is vs. AQ in the hole, they just know that an AK is better and when they only know their cards, an AK is usually pretty darn good, depending on the conditions.

(31) Your web site mentions PDA and mobile phones, won't this run up mobile phone bills?
Only to the extent that it takes to upload your "player" file to the host and register for a tournament. It may be that your "player" is already loaded under your profile at the host and then it’s a matter of just signing up for a tournament. In the latter case, we intend to have toll free numbers that allow a user to register for tournaments quickly and easily. All this is possible because registering just puts your name on a list as opposed to signing up for a regular tournament. A version of the Player Definition software will be available for those users with that capability in the handheld device. Those users will be able to fully modify their "players" as needed within the handheld device.