FreePokerDB Founder Interview with PokerSoftware.com

Recently, PokerSoftware.com brought you information on freepokerdb, an open source program that is compatible with Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, and Razz. Cash games and tournaments on PokerStars are fully supported, as are ring games on Full Tilt Poker. The program’s developers plan to add Badugi support in the future; the four card lowball game was just added to the PokerStars game offering. PokerSoftware.com sat down with Steffen Schaumburg, the founder of freepokerdb, to learn more about this program, which is still in alpha testing.

PokerSoftware.com: Explain how you got the idea to develop the software.

Schaumburg: Soon after I started playing online poker, I ran into poker software, namely PokerTracker 2. Unfortunately, that ran way too slowly on my ancient poker laptop (a Pentium III 800), so I looked around until I found Hold’em Manager and bought it. However, I also wanted to play HORSE with tracking and play in Linux, so I decided to make my own.

PS: What challenges have you faced in its development so far?

Schaumburg: There was nothing unexpected or extraordinary, to be honest. Very quickly after I went public, Ray joined me with a huge chunk of code to provide an HUD and from then on, progress has been steady in terms of features as well as adding new developers.

PS: What feedback have you received from users so far?

Schaumburg: Mostly positive. Many where very enthusiastic in particular about freepokerdb being open source, running in Linux and MacOSX, and supporting Omaha, Stud, and Razz. Most issues so far were with installation owing to freepokerdb's alpha status and initially not having a Windows installer, but much progress has been made on that too.

PS: Is support for additional online poker sites planned? Is there any timeline for this?

Schaumburg: Support for more sites is certainly planned, but we can't give a timeline. This project is done entirely in the free time of the developers and contributors, so we can't give any estimates and will of course concentrate on the sites we play on. However, we have made progress on an improved importing framework that will make it easier to add more sites.

PS: What is your background as it relates to both poker and software?

Schaumburg: I don't have too much of a poker background except for a few play money games as a kid. I only started playing poker early this year. You can mostly find me on ring tables up to $0.50/$1 or sit and gos up to $10 in Hold’em and, lately, Draw.

I have some software experience mostly from college and some project work, but freepokerdb is so far my biggest and longest one. I am also hoping to use the skills I learn working on it to get a programming job. Ideally, I'd like to work full time on freepokerdb, but that is a bit of an illusion at the moment.

PS: Do you see your program as an alternative to PokerTracker or Hold'em Manager or where does it fit in?

Schaumburg: I see it as an alternative to PokerTracker, Hold’em Manager, and potentially other programs. I'm hoping that its increasingly large developer community will attract more and more people to add new features and refine the existing ones. For prospective freepokerdb users, I would like to add a little word of warning: freepokerdb is still in alpha, so it may have bugs. Therefore, please make sure you keep your history files so you can re-import if necessary.

PS: What do you see as the future of the poker software industry?

Schaumburg: I think we'll see two main directions of development: Large integrated packages like PokerTracker, Hold’em Manager, and freepokerdb that perform a multitude of functions as well as very small specialized things like AHK scripts. Of course, I'm also hoping that we'll increasingly see open source programs.