Thursday, June 28, 2007

Mac Poker & iPhone Poker

If you're interested in playing poker on Mac check out: http://www.mac-poker.net

A new poll on iPhone demand takes a more optimistic appraisal than. According to a Harris Interactive poll of more than 10,400 people between the ages of 13 and 64, 15 percent are at least somewhat likely to buy an iPhone, within which one percent Mac Poker is absolutely certain they will be buying. However, while four percent of the "somewhat likely" group wants to buy as soon as they can, 55 percent is willing to wait for a price cut, and an overlapping 49 percent wants to know how good the product is in practice.
Breaking results into Poker for Mac demographics, 17 percent of males say they are somewhat likely to buy an iPhone, whereas only 13 percent of females echo the same view. The group hoping to buy becomes 20 percent in rich households (over $200,000 in income), and even larger when solely considering teenagers: among those poker on a Mac aged 13 to 17, 27 percent of males want the product, as well as 20 percent of females.Of the 85 percent of total respondents who said they did not plan to buy an iPhone, 49 percent said it was too expensive. Another 42 percent said they had no need or desire for another device, and 40 percent answered that the extra features of the free Mac Poker iPhone were unnecessary to them.Since the poll was conducted between May 8th and 23rd, Harris Interactive notes that the desire to buy may have changed considerably in one direction or another as the June 29th launch approached.

Today’s Gem is a simple one, but a poker for Mac respresentative as a product that satisfies a complaint-slash-request I’ve heard from a surprising number of readers. That sentiment can be summarized as, “I like Safari a lot, but its source view doesn’t provide syntax coloring Mac Texas Holdem like [Firefox/Camino/etc.].” In other words, when you view the source of a Web page in Safari (using View: View Source), you get a page of plain text that’s difficult to read.
In fact, for those who need to look at the HTML source Macintosh poker of Web pages often—for example, anyone who does Web development—Safari’s stock source-viewing functionality, which just sticks raw text in a window, seems more like an afterthought than a legitimate feature.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Mac Online Poker News

Online poker is not one of those games that are compatible with all pc's. In fact if you are a Mac user and have tried to play poker recently you probably were stumped as to why there are so many poker rooms and barely any Mac compatible poker rooms. It's like they're working directly with Microsoft to further the monopolistic era of Bill Gates Empire.
While many Mac applications may seem that way it's all a numbers game. According to the statistics, which may dramatically change because of the Intel processors, Mac users only represent 5% of the market share. There was actually an article out by Macworld.com that stated they expected in home use of Apple computers to jump by 3 times.
Fortunately, there are ways around these barriers Mac poker players face. After contacting literally hundreds of poker rooms I found only a handful of sites that were Mac compliant. I figured there had to be a better way. Visiting forums and other chat groups I found a lot of people use Java poker rooms, Dual Boot, run Virtual PC and even some talk has been around the use of Wine. Parallels is also a hot topic lately. We'll touch base on all these different uses to play poker on a Mac.
Java, while simplistic has been the best path for playing poker using a Mac. These Java poker rooms are also referred to as quick play and no download sites. They are customarily meant for players who don't want to download the software. Personally, I always used the Java versions when I was playing poker at work because it was much easier to get away with.
If you are not familiar with how Java works it runs in the browser leaving no traces of downloaded files. Like I said, great for playing at work. It also turns out that Java forms a great compatibility layer for Mac users trying to run certain applications such as poker programs. Macs that have Java run time installed run Java applets on their computer.
Newer Macs come with Java set up from the Apple manufacturer but if not you could always get it free of charge from Java.com. Instead of listing all the Java poker rooms for Macs, which consist of about 15 sites, I'll refer you to a place called where all Mac and Linux compatible sites are listed.
Like I said above there are some native poker rooms that run on Macs but the list is extremely small. Full Tilt, Bugsysclub, and a place called Gamesgrid have native download poker rooms. Full Tilt is actually a newer one which is by far the best in my opinion. Gamesgrid is a smaller site but they have backgammon for Macs which many say is the next wave in online gaming. I haven't seen any evidence to support that but it is true that a lot of poker pros have a background in backgammon. Benefits that native poker rooms have over Java are more features. Java limits features for game speed but the native versions come with everything that the Windows versions would. Note taking, avatars, hand histories and that entire jazz are things that the native poker rooms have that Java does not.
Before we divulge into other methods of playing poker on Macs let's discuss security issues. Because the security issues predominantly include Java and Download types we'll go into the subject right now. O.K. here's the problem with playing online poker. As you most certainly know fighting off cheaters is the single most important thing to the success of an online poker site.
Recently illegal cheat software and multi-table cheating has been exposed a long with some well known poker pros. Guys were getting picked off left and right for cheating and we're going to find out how and if it affects Mac users. Macintosh users are just as susceptible to these dangers as Windows users. So to fight the use of these illegal cheat software components and multi-account cheaters poker rooms have been sending out virus like attempts to view what you're doing while you play poker. These files called dll files capture information about what software programs you are running at the time and send it back to the poker room security employees where they can evaluate it while you play.
No matter if you're on a Mac or running Windows the poker rooms can view what programs you're running. It's not necessarily a terrible thing that they can view your files but if you have information you don't want in the wrong hands it might be. The thing is poker rooms can only send out dll files using their own poker programs. They can't legally send them in the Java software because of Java licensing agreements. This does potentially mean that you are safer from cheaters at downloadable poker rooms but you never know who's gathering this information about your computer. Due to personal preference I choose the Java way because I don't want anyone spying on my computer.
This takes us into the other territories of playing poker on Macs. I'm going to group Dual Booting and using Virtual PC together because they are closely related. Dual booting refers to running both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems on the same computer by partitioning your hard drive. Virtual PC is a software component which can be purchased from Microsoft that allows outside operating systems to run Windows applications without partitioning your hard drive. As you might expect the latter method is much easier but not a great route to take. Virtual PC is often extremely slow and buggy. The first time I installed Virtual PC I ran for the hills and immediately uninstalled it. The software is just too slow for me but some people don't mind. Newer versions are also said to be much faster but from my first impression I'll never go back.
Dual Booting on the other hand came to light when Apple decided to install the Intel processors into their newest Mac models. The MacBook Pro completed the integration of all new Mac Laptops going to the Intel chip. Dual Booting to play poker on Macs will certainly become more popular as more and more Mac users become owners of Intel Macs. The beta version for Dual Booting is called "Boot Camp" for right now. Word is that Apple plans to change the name once beta testing is completed. The Boot Camp download is also free but the Windows software is not. Whether you run Virtual PC or Boot Camp the user still needs a copy of Windows. Depending on what version you buy prices can range from $150-400. It also depends widely on where you buy the software from. A common question once Mac poker players decide on this method is, "Will I need virus protection since I will be running Windows." The answer to that is yes. Windows is very susceptible to all sorts of nasty stuff on the Web but your Mac OS X side will be safe. Only your Windows operating system is in danger.
Wine is the lesser of all accepted ways for playing online poker with Macs. Wine is more common amongst Linux poker players but now with the Intel chips the doors have opened for Wine and Macs to join hands. From what I hear most Wine/Mac poker players do not really advocate this option because Wine is still very unstable when running poker programs. Common bugs like sound problems, table minimization errors, font and table sizes occur all the time.
With all these options to choose from I'll give you a quick recap of what I would suggest from personal experience. First try Java poker rooms and see if you like online poker to begin with. There's no need to spend money on other methods if you're not sure if online poker is something you'll like anyway. Some Windows users who switch to Macs just can't get away from their favorite poker room and will end up Dual Booting. Party Poker tends to be the main reason most people go the Dual Boot route. There is a cost to Dual Booting or running Virtual PC so be prepared for that. Like we discussed above, running Wine can also be done. Wine is free but the programs could have problems that interrupt your playing time. When it boils down to it no one method is superior to the other. The Apple users decide on which method to choose based on their needs and wants in a poker program. I hope these techniques shed some light for the Mac online poker enthusiasts out there and help you find the best manner to suit your needs.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Mac poker - well, my FullTilt account has been drained recently as I went on a Neteller Tilt Binge at the 10-20 NL tables. Clearly skill is required at that level. So I’m back at lower limits and am going to try my hand at SNGs again… Fairly easy to make the top three.
I started to look into this further and a bunch of people have “systems” out there that they use. Even Harrington’s concepts could be mac online poker considered a system - once your M gets too low - push as soon as you can be first to do so at your table and hope for the best…

Naturally, any beta version will have a few kinks, but we hope you'll help us test the Beta and then tell us how it performed. Remember, just send your comments to: info@partypoker.com. System Requirements Your computer needs to have:
* Screen resolution of at least 800 x 600 mac poker pixels with minimum of 256 colors * 128MB RAM or more recommended * Sound card, if you want to hear sounds
We support the following software:
* Operating Systems o Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP o Mac o Linux
* Browsers o Windows Internet Explorer version 5.0 upwards o Mozilla Firefox 1.0 upwards o Safari 1.3 upwards
* Java version o Microsoft mac poker JVM o Sun JRE 1.4 or 1.5
Compare versions:
Software version: * Richer graphics * More fluent animations * Ability to launch game directly from your desktop * Full PartyPoker.com functionality
No Download version: * Mac online poker Instant access from any computer * Less hassle (because there's no download or installation process) * Play in your internet browser
Features not currently available on the Beta:
* Table filters * Buddy lists and search * Hand history * Table search * Private tables * Poker trainer * poker for Macs and Dealer options on the poker table * Network status * Table resizing, tiling and cascading

If you've come to this site, you've probably realized that at of the well known poker sites you can't play poker online with a Mac. Even worse, at the sites play mac online poker that you can play with Macintosh or OS X you are playing against opponents who may be using statistical analysis tools like Poker Tracker and PlayerView. Fear not. With a few quick tips, we should have you playing online poker on your Apple Macintosh, evening the score with analytic software of your own and winning enough to trade your Powerbook in for a new MacBook Pro. Check out our menu of Poker-Mac Tips on the right side of this page and keep up to date on the latest Mac Poker news with our
Here are the ones I’ve tried. They won’t let you legally give out their secrets/system or whatever, so I’ll try to give as much info as possible.
offers a video and handbook (+ some sweet bonus prizes actually) for $97. I found this to be the easiest system to learn and am up $542 after playing 13 SNGs.
The cheapest at $20. Not the greatest though. Some tips will definitely help. I guess if you are a bargain hunter - lol.
This one is $87. They give you 4 Videos a Guidebook and a secret bonus (chart, extra guide ?why didn’t they put it in the main guide, a MTT guide or an interview with the author). This is the newest system. I liked it, but have yet to play at length with it. Waiting to see what my poker compadres think of it as well. Lemme know if you’ve tried it.