Independent Comparison Of Wilson Software Versus Acespade

(Ed. Note: The overall evaluation/comparison by SGarcia has been placed on this page.
Other than that, the review has not been altered.)

Overall evaluation/comparison

Each area is evaluated, one software program against another, with my preference for each category listed by company name.

GRAPHICS- Wilson

Contrary to what Acespade claims on their web site, their graphics are much cruder than Wilson's standard table view.. and Wilson's Internet table view is even farther ahead, presentation-wise. The main table, in-game views and associated graphics reminds me of
the early Windows graphic upgrades from DOS. THAT might be a fair competition. against the current Wilson software, it's not even close.

Anyone wishing to verify my statement without buying both games can simply compare screen shots from each company's website. There are also downloadable demos of the Turbo
games from the Wilson site.

GAME PLAY- Wilson

Acespade's Pro 2002- Overall, the words "clunky" and "cluttered" comes to mind when I play
the regular ring game. The other analysis play modes are worse, especially Case Play- it is literally draining to walk your way through the hands in this mode.

Wilson Turbo Holdem- Play is much smoother and much closer to live play in its feel.
The flexibility in game speed and configurable situations that can be easily tweaked and
re-analyzed makes the game very comfortable to play. The Challenge feature is enjoyable competition and can also be a useful analysis tool.

STATISTICS/INFORMATION- Wilson

The presentation in Pro 2002 is, for want of a better word, "cheesy". Dull, simple graphs or charts, dull colors. While the software does have some unique statistic categories, such as yearly return on investment and various ranking charts of all 169 card combinations, there
are a greater number of choices available in Turbo Hold'em.

ANALYSIS TOOLS- Wilson

Wilson's ease of use, flexibility of operation, varied and sophisticated manual and high-speed analysis tools, along with extra features such as the Challenge completely blow Acespade
away, in my opinion. Pro 2002 is not even close to having reasonable, workable equivalents
in analysis tools.

ADVICE- Wilson

As I detailed above, some of the playing advice in Wilson's Turbo seems a bit erratic- sometimes too tight, sometimes too loose, sometimes too aggressive or not aggressive enough. Over the long haul, I don't know if my opinion would change based on volumes of
data. I also am not sure how much my natural aggressiveness colors my interpretation of the advice's value or accuracy.

That being said. while I question both software games' advice in some of the situations I
ran into during initial play, I really think Pro 2002's advice is generally unreasonable, if not useless. I found the Acespade's calculations and advice to make so little sense (to the point where I couldn't figure out why it was doing what it was doing), that I don't think that I can ever bring myself to trust it or to use it as a basis for learning.

While Acespade's marketing makes claims such as ".. delivers the best decision in various situations. This can not be achieved by software from other providers which uses only predefined decision tables..," I don't see how this "best decision" can be safely assumed,
based on what I've experienced in a short time. While the company may claim that "...
Acespade's poker software has made novice poker players who used to be beaten at
low-limit poker tables become expert players even at high-limit poker tables.", I highly
doubt that ANYONE could become even an expert LOW limit player by following this
software's advice.

PRICING (at the time of this March 2002 review) - Wilson

Individual games are listed at $90. Volume purchase discounts may be available. Upgrades
are $19 plus S+H, with upgrades coming every year or so in my experience, depending on
the game.

Acespade- Individual games are listed at $70, with certain two-game packages priced at $110. Upgrades- Supposedly runs $25 plus S+H. Sales person I talked to said that upgrades are released every one to three years.

Yes, Pro 2002 is cheaper. but since I will never get much use out of this software in the future
(if I even use it again), and will never buy another Acespade product again, the money was wasted. Therefore, the extra $20 for Wilson is cheap when calculated over the hours that I
plan on using the software.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION

I cannot recommend the Acespade Texas Holdem Pro 2002 product on any basis. The play
is much worse; the graphics are old; I cannot figure out, much less trust, any of the Advice
given, especially since the calculations seem to be somewhat inconsistent or contradictory; there are no worthwhile analysis tools, partially because the limited tools that are available
are aggravating to use; and there is no equivalent to the high-speed, high-volume testing that Wilson's Turbo Texas Hold'em 4.0 makes available.

For the quality of play and graphics, the flexible tools and functions available and the general ease of use of the software, I recommend Turbo Texas Hold'em 4.0.

{The body of the full review starts here}
{Detail for both programs are posted on separate pages}
{One for Wilson Software, one for Acespade.}
{The links are shown below.}

The following document contains my in-depth review of both the Wilson Software and
Acespade Software releases of Texas Hold Em that are currently available. This comparison was prompted initially by my questions about the accuracy of the advice given by the Wilson software concerning play strategies in certain scenarios. I was also curious about the validity
of claims made on the Acespade web site as to the superiority of their product when
compared to Wilson Software.

I finally decided that an analysis of the Pro 2002 Hold Em product would be worth the investment, even though I already owned Turbo HE. and then I decided that the comparison might be of some use to the RGP community. You'll have to decide whether that is true or not.

Since I already owned the Wilson product, I reviewed it initially before loading and using the Acespade product. I tried to approach the software as if I hadn't used it before. Hopefully this approach will reduce any bias or conditioning I may have as an existing user of Turbo
Texas Hold'em.

Due to the final length of this evaluation, I am breaking it into three separate postings-
Overview, Advice and Evaluation. The latter includes a short winner/loser comparison of
various areas in a separate attachment, which I put together after evaluating each product individually.

This review is based on my current ownership and use of the two software products, with
some additional information gleaned from my Turbo Omaha/8 product from Wilson Software.
My review of each game's functionality is as in-depth as I thought necessary to fully introduce
the products to those who don't own them. I hope that all of this information allows you to
make a safer decision concerning what software you would like to invest in, regardless of
what my conclusions end up being.

Configuration Notes: Dell Dimension PC with Win98 Second Edition installed. 64 MG RAM, Pentium II processor.

Detailed review of Wilson's Turbo Texas Holdem
Detailed review of AceSpades Software