If you missed the first part of this story, be sure to click below. There, you'll learn how Oleg got into poker, how he created a work that was unrivaled in the world, and how, despite almost running out of money to pay the rent and live on, he didn't get discouraged and closed the deal of a lifetime:
A new game on the horizon
It was the summer of 2013 and Oleg's satisfied customer Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov came to him with another idea - "Try to create a solver for a game called 2-7 Triple Draw and you'll surely make a million on it". At the time, it was a game that was especially prevalent on PS, where it was played regularly at the $2,000 BB level (min buy-in $200,000). Lower limits weren't even being opened due to lack of interest from recreational players, so at first glance it seemed like an ideal space for a premium solver.
For those unfamiliar with 2-7 Triple Draw, it is a "traditional" poker format in which community cards are not dealt to the table. Instead, each player has their own 5 cards in their hand. From these cards, he can discard any number of cards 3 times and draw new cards for them. The only difference, compared to the classic 5-card draw poker, is that in this variant the player tries to complete the lowest possible hand. Nuts in this variant is 2-3-4-5-7 (an Ace is taken as the highest card and a hand of 2-3-4-5-6 makes a straight, so it is not a low hand).
Mission Impossible
Given this format of the game, the task of creating a solver seemed impossible at first glance. "So we went at it gradually, starting to focus on the beginning of the game and the first round of card swapping. Calculations on computers with over 1,000 cores ran for over 3 days and cost approximately $1,000. I must have run over 20 such calculations." Gradually, as development progressed, they moved on to the second and third rounds of card swapping, but that's when Oleg realized the results weren't what he expected.
"It didn't take long for me to realise that, compared to Hold'em or Omaha, discards play a key role in the calculations in this discipline. I had to re-dig everything, which took almost another year of work." But Trueteller and RaulG were by Oleg's side and it was them who bought the prototype solver from him just a year later.
Instead of a fixed payment this time, the parties agreed that Oleg would be entitled to 40% of their results for 2 years - if they won, he would earn, if they lost, he would pay them. Oleg still hasn't earned his first million, and as he admits, this period was crucial for him - during the 2 years he was constantly working with Trueteller and Raul and constantly improving the program. Trueteller and RaulG have started to participate in the $2,000/$4,000 heads-up tables, and the party started!
Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson
At the time, the King of the Hill format was running on PS, with pros sitting on $2,000/$4,000 tables for days waiting for their opponents to show up. In 2014, a group of pros dominated the Triple Draw tables and no one wanted to play against them. They also used solvers to study their game, but they made the same mistake as Oleg's prototype - they didn't consider the discarded cards. So Trueteller and Raul decided to take on this group and over the course of 40,000 hands they made a profit of about $700,000.
During these sessions, Oleg's guys played regularly against legends like Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey. In November 2015, Trueteller agreed to an 8-game match with Ivey that lasted 40,000 hands at $400/$800 limits. Oleg's software helped Trueteller in both Razz, Triple Draw and Fixed Limit Hold'em, and Trueteller emerged as the winner of this duel with $400,000. Oleg spiced up the duel with various other bets with other players and spectators, earning more than $200,000 in total.
After his online success, Trueteller headed to Vegas, where crazy mixed games were played during the WSOP. There were 10-15 poker formats alternating and buy-ins were around $500,000. But Trueteller's online fame caught up with him as well as the fact that he's incredibly good at Triple Draw. So he was in for an unpleasant surprise in Vegas - the players, led by Doyle Brunson, voted to play an "anti-Timofey mix" and therefore to remove Triple Draw from the mix of games.
Oleg's escape from reality
Over the course of 2013-15, Oleg made over a million dollars, but had to deal with huge swings due to the percentage deal. "It was crazy, Raul's records were $704,000 profit in one day, but also $346,000 loss in the other day. I hadn't been taught to do numbers like that, so I ran from reality to games. In 2014, I played more than 2,000 hours of Dota 2, more than 24 hours a piece on multiple occasions. I couldn't keep up with the crazy action on a daily basis, so I asked my partners to let us only settle once every 6 months."
Despite these psychological swings, though, Oleg felt happy. "All my life I had smarter classmates and I never won any math or programming competitions. Thanks to this project, I have finally achieved the feeling that I am the best in the world at something. And the fact that I got to work with true legends in the process is a nice bonus."
Jungleman's incredible win
In 2017, Trueteller introduced Oleg to Jungleman, who was aware that Oleg's solver could make him an even better player. At the time, Dan "Jungleman" Cates specialized mainly in mixed game disciplines, so the solver was a huge asset for him. "Oleg's solver helped me especially in NLH Single Draw, where it increased my winrate by 2.5-3bb/100. In Triple Draw and Razz it helped me by about 1bb/100. I spent about 100 hours studying this solver and it paid off - especially in heads-ups."
Also with the help of this solver, Jungleman became an even more feared player in Mixed Games, which was proven in 2021 and 2022 when he managed back-to-back wins in the world's toughest event - the $50k Poker Players Championship. Jungleman himself even invited Oleg as a guest on his podcast, and if you're interested in the topic, you can listen to more here:
For Oleg, Jungleman's win was a huge satisfaction, after which he decided to make a free version of his draw solver available at https://draw.olegsolvers.com/. If you're interested in his full version, prices start at $13,900.
Source: 2+2, Medium, Twitter (X), PokerNews
