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22 Feb![Snapshove poker app Snapshove poker app](https://pic4.zhimg.com/80/v2-57e9372172d8b5c6620d55c907945ee7_1440w.jpg)
![Snapshove Snapshove](/uploads/1/3/6/1/136130290/228764777.png)
22 Feb
The latest tweets from @SnapShove. I'm a big fan of the app Max Silver created to simulate short stack tournament situations. It produces game theory optimal push/fold charts for all stack sizes and blind structures. It's one of the apps I frequently use between hands.
![Snapshove poker app Snapshove poker app](https://pic4.zhimg.com/80/v2-57e9372172d8b5c6620d55c907945ee7_1440w.jpg)
Just over a week ago, live poker tournament specialist Max Silver, with the help of his good friend Sadan Turker, released a new poker app designed exclusively for the mobile environment. SnapShove is a brand-new tool that can help any player with his fold/push range. It basically calculates the Nash Equilibrium ranges for preflop Texas Holdem up to 25 big blinds. To popularize the new poker app, Silver made an Ask Me Anything on Reddit where he talked about a variety of topics, from his humble poker beginnings to the future of SnapShove and the future of poker in general.
The Beginning and Live Binking
Like many other poker pros, Silver started to play online at a very young age from the very bottom. By the age of 18, he was already pondering upon the decision of going pro while playing the micro stakes, 10nl. He quickly moved up to 50nl and stuck there for a while, until he was selected as one of the participants of ‘Jcarverland’ - a six-month group coaching experience with daily sessions and hand analysis led by Jason Somerville. With the help of Somerville, Silver took the next step and reached the mid stakes, 200nl.
His poker professional career however was put on hold when he decided to take a job offered by Full Tilt, But not for long. At Full Tilt, he met one of his best friends and decided to take a shot live, so in August 2010, he registered at the UKIPTEdinburgh Main Event and never looked back. He finished sixth and under one month later he binked the UKIPT Dublin ME winning €72,000.
Silver said it was:
A huge boost to my bankroll and really enabled me to take a few more shots and not have to grind my roll up quite as slowly as it would otherwise have taken.'
Then Black Friday and the closing of Full Tilt forced him to make yet another life-changing (yet obvious) decision: resume his poker duties full-time.
The Present and Live Poker Tells
A very good decision indeed as he’s currently one of the most successful live poker tournament players out there. According to Hendon Mob DB, he currently has over $2.35 million in live tournament cashes, winning a handful of UKIPT side events not to mention the Aria High Roller in 2015 for his biggest cash so far ($432,960).
With all that live experience gained in the last six years, many went ahead and asked him to share at least one of his ‘aha’ moments. Silver was kind enough to share with the rest of the community one of the most bizarre live tells tips: Look at your opponent’s feet!
Amateur poker players tend to be fairly decent at guarding obvious live tells in visible features, the face, the hands etc. One thing that players won't make an effort to control is the feet and with everything else trying to be kept still the feet are often a release of nervous or excited energy. Try and see for yourself!'
Snapshove Review
He also talked about Barcelona being his favorite EPT stop and about calling the clock at a live tournament. To speed up gameplay in general, Max Silver also had a very interesting suggestion: if a player delays his decision a certain amount of time, he should be forced to show his hand at the end of the play. Some pros are already doing it, and since giving up information can be the difference between winning and losing, many would be forced to speed up the process to avoid giving that edge.
The Future Of Poker: Drastic Changes Coming Up
Among other things, Max Silver also talked about the future of the game. He admitted he’s not ‘hugely optimistic’ about the future of poker and that starting from scratch and becoming a successful poker pro will become tougher and tougher ‘if not nigh on impossible.’
The information available on the web - training, coaching - has made poker very hard to beat and with ‘ Amaya ruining a lot of games’, things will only get worse. He said:
Many (of the poker pros) won't be able to sustain six figure winning years and will either move down in stakes or leave poker altogether. This will have an effect of making each stake tougher in turn and really punish the weaker players.'
Furthermore, the live environment isn’t as friendly as it used to be, so to make a living out of playing poker, you would have to be much more disciplined, selective, and hard-working. In other words:
If you’re willing to put in the time, it is not impossible to make a living from poker, but it's not something I'd recommend to my friends as I would have ten years ago.'
SnapShove: More Features Coming In
Last but definitely not least, Max Silver also talked about his new poker app, SnapShove. He admitted he was surprised at the lack of options that mobile players had and considers the mobile environment the next step forward for poker software out there.
Testing is the hardest part when building a poker app, according to him. Adding a new feature can more often than not break several other already-implemented features and fixing all those bugs can be time-consuming.
And since we’re talking about new features, it’s time to share with you SnapShove team’s next moves. The app has two versions - free and premium - and many poker enthusiasts complained about its lack of complexity. This issue however will be solved in the coming months. Silver said that a review of the incorrect answers that appear during the training mode is already added to the Android version and very soon will be added to the iOS version too. Some other features that will be soon implemented are the addition of ICM, card removal from hand ranges, overcalling, and reshoving.
With all those features added, SnapShove will have every chance of becoming the next big poker hit in the mobile world.
The message shocked Max Silver. “We are no longer allowing gambling apps submitted by individual developers. This includes both real money gambling apps as well as apps that simulate a gambling experience.”
A poker player and trainer, Silver is the proprietor of the SnapShove app and it had been removed from Apple’s iOS App Store – and he didn’t know why.
“I received no email notification about the removal,” Silver told USPoker on Monday. “It wasn’t until a user messaged me saying he had a new device and was unable to download that I investigated and found we had been removed. The only notification I got was via the internal Apple control center.”
The message from Apple said SnapShove had been removed from the App Store and that Silver could no longer distribute gambling apps from the account. The company noted that it is attempting to curtail possible fraudulent activity and illegal gambling.
“In order to reduce fraudulent activity on the App Store and comply with government requests to address illegal online gambling activity, we are no longer allowing gambling apps submitted by individual developers,” the message from Apple reads. “This includes both real money gambling apps as well as apps that simulate a gambling experience.”
Why SnapShove?
The move appears not to affect apps published by larger business entities. Apple notes: “Going forward only verified accounts from incorporated business entities may submit gambling apps for distribution on the App Store.”
As of Monday afternoon, poker apps by PokerStars, the World Series of Poker, Zynga, the World Poker Tour, and numerous others by major corporations were all still available and unaffected.
SnapShove is a mobile app offering game theory optimization for shoving all in as well as calling ranges for these types of situations. The app has been on the App Store since Silver began the business in February 2016, and he bills the service and website as “the best way to learn short stack perfection.” The service’s website says it has served 54,000 poker players worldwide including World Series of Poker bracelet winners (like Silver), super high roller champions, and many of the world’s top players.
SnapShove offers free access, but also more in-depth and unlimited access for those who download the “pro” version for $14.99. Silver notes that while the app serves those working on their poker game, there is no way to gamble on the app either directly or by simulation.
“I immediately appealed the situation citing the fact that SnapShove is clearly not a gambling app either in real money or simulated gambling and was swiftly denied,” Silver says. “It seems as they are expressly going after individual developers rather than corporations.”
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Apple’s access is crucial
As a businessman as well as a player, the ban is a tough hit to SnapShove. Apple makes up about 60 percent of its revenue. Targeting individuals and entrepreneurs seems a bit unfair, but Silver says it is more frustrating because his app offers no way to directly wager or gamble. SnapShove functions as a training and tutorial medium, not as a means to play online.
Poker Shove Fold Charts
“It more seems unfair that the app is clearly nothing to do with gambling or simulated gambling,” he says. “It’s no different than an app teaching blackjack basic strategy.”
As he works to remedy the situation, Silver so far has had no problems with Android devices and is sending his students to his website to access the app. He’s also looking for other solutions to get his app back up on Apple.
“I’m currently in the process of incorporating and will have SnapShove back to the App Store as soon as possible,” he says. “I’d like to apologize to any users affected.”
Incorporating takes some time and effort, however, certainly a major inconvenience. That could have at least been planned for if Silver had received more notice.
Who else is this affecting?
SnapShove isn’t the only app affected by the crackdown. MacRumors.com reports that others have also been taken down, even those unrelated at all to poker or wagering. In recent days, the company also began removing gambling and poker apps from the store in China and Norway as those governments asked the company to crack down on the offerings.
![Snapshove Snapshove](/uploads/1/3/6/1/136130290/228764777.png)
Like Silver, other independent app developers aired their frustrations on Twitter with the bans.
Just shy of its 10th anniversary, my Poker game (@thtouch) gets the boot from Apple. The reason? Gambling apps by individual developers are now banned. Doesn't matter whether it involves money or is just a simulation. ???? pic.twitter.com/Wqhx9adeeX
— Pit Garbe (@leberwurstsaft) August 9, 2018
Apple has not commented much beyond the same message that Silver received. Developers looking to get back on the app may have to seek a similar solution that he’s looking into. In the meantime, frustration has not only come from publishers of these apps, but also from users.
Ludicrous. The app doesn’t even simulate playing a poker hand. Only does calculations and a quiz game. This is a hell of a stretch by @AppStore
— Dylan Linde (@DylanLinde) August 17, 2018