Steve Blay (born January 12, 1973, in Jacksonville, Florida) is a poker author, inventor, and poker executive. He is the founder of AdvancedPokerTraining.com, and holds a patent in the creation of

computer poker players A computer poker player is a computer program designed to play the game of poker against human opponents or other computer opponents. It is commonly referred to as pokerbot or just simply bot. On the Internet These bots or computer programs are ...

and poker training software. He served as poker advisor to

2016 World Series of Poker The 2016 World Series of Poker was the 47th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Most of the events occurred May 31 – July 18 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were 69 bracelet events, including the $10,000 No Lim ...

champion

Qui Nguyen Qui Nguyen is an American playwright, television writer, director and screenwriter. He is best known for his plays, ''She Kills Monsters'' and "Vietgone." He is also known for writing ''Raya and the Last Dragon'' and '' Strange World''. Care ...

. Blay attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

and holds a degree in Computer Engineering. In 2017, he co-authored From Vietnam to Vegas: How I Won the World Series of Poker Main Event with Qui Nguyen.

Advanced Poker Training

In 2012, Blay was awarded a patent for his technique of “Dynamic Analysis” to improve the play of computerized poker opponents. His website Advanced Poker Training is a

reduction to practice In United States patent law, the reduction to practice is the step in the formation of an invention beyond the conception thereof. Reduction to practice may be either actual (the invention is actually carried out and is found to work for its intende ...

of this concept. Using Blay’s software, professional poker players such as

Scotty Nguyen Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn (born October 28, 1962) is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player who is a five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and ...

Jonathan Little Jonathan Little (born December 22, 1984 in Pensacola, Florida) is an American professional poker player who won both the World Poker Tour's Season VI Mirage Poker Showdown and Season VII Foxwoods World Poker Finals and won the WPT Season VI ...

, David Williams, Ed Miller, and

Scott Clements Scott Clements (born July 19, 1981) is a professional poker player from Mount Vernon, Washington, United States, who has won titles in both World Poker Tour (WPT) and World Series of Poker (WSOP) events. Clements has twice won championship br ...

have released training material. In 2014, pioneer poker theorist

Mike Caro Mike A. Caro (born May 16, 1944) is an American professional poker player, pioneer poker theorist, author of poker books, and casino executive. Author In 1978 Caro contributed 50 statistical tables to Doyle Brunson's ''Super/System'' and wrote ...

became the Chief Strategist for Advanced Poker Training.

2016 World Series of Poker

In 2016, Blay’s software was used by

PokerNews PokerNews is a website dedicated to providing poker industry news, live tournament coverage, strategy, player interviews and videos, podcasts, and information on bonuses and freeroll tournaments available at online poker rooms. It is run by iBus ...

to run AI simulations of the remaining nine players competing for the World Series of Poker Championship (known as the

November Nine The November Nine was the name used to refer to the final nine contestants, or final table, at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from 2008 to 2016. The winner of the WSOP Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker. ...

). These predicted a victory by

. When Nguyen heard of these results, he flew Blay out to Las Vegas to help him prepare for the final table. After Nguyen’s WSOP victory, D&B publishing reached out to Nguyen and Blay to share their story. The book analyses 170 hands from the final table, with Blay contributing the mathematical analysis.

Recent Work

In 2017, Blay directed the Secrets of the World Champions seminar at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. He also produced a series of hand review videos with 2017 World Series of Poker Champion

Scott Blumstein Scott Blumstein (born March 27, 1992) is an American poker player from Morristown, New Jersey. In 2017, he won the World Series of Poker Main Event for $8,150,000. Blumstein graduated from Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) ...

. In 2018, Blay took part in a panel discussion at US Special Operations Command (US-SOCOM), regarding the usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning for the benefit of US Elite Special Forces. In 2019, Blay released OmahaPokerTraining.com, demonstrating

pot-limit omaha Omaha hold 'em (also known as Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five ...

virtual opponents, also based on his research. In 2020, Blay appeared in the movie Poker Queens, a movie about gender disparities in poker. He served as advisor to one of the women poker players featured in the film. Blay is a certified chess coach, poker tournament director, and does personal poker coaching. He also writes monthly articles for Ante Up Magazine and D&B Poker Magazine.

Bibliography

Blay, Steve; Nguyen, Qui (2017). From Vietnam to Vegas: How I Won the World Series of Poker Main Event with Qui Nguyen. D&B Poker Publishing. .

References

External links

Steve Blay Official Coaching Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blay, Steve American poker players Living people American gambling writers American male non-fiction writers University of Florida College of Engineering alumni People from Jacksonville, Florida 1973 births