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Mac and Linux Poker Sites

I like playing poker. I'm not very good at it when I'm tired, and I can't play well if the stakes are of any significance, but I do enjoy playing.

We've been so busy with moving and other things that I couldn't play at all for a year, but things have calmed down again and I have rejoined Poker School Online. I like that site because it's more serious play than the "free play" sites and of course because they have a Mac OS X client (also a Java app, so it's generally possible anywhere).

TightPoker.com has a list of Macintosh poker rooms that are Virtual PC compatible, Java and also native clients.

The free play sites are packed with people who know nothing about poker and are no fun to play with. PSO is a membership site, and keeps league ranking stats, so the players are more serious. You still get some of the real beginners, but not so many and most of those are trying to learn, so it's much more challenging.

Of course, playing for real money is also challenging. As I said, I just don't do that well: if it's more than a dime or so, I tend to be far less aggressive than I am at PSO or in my dime ante friendly games. Well placed aggression is one of the most important skills in poker, and particularly so in No Limit games. If you don't have it, you will never do well.

My limitations aren't necessarily yours. You may be able to look at a pile of $100 chips with the same dispassion that I have when pulling out a roll of dimes. If so, and if you don't like using Windows but do like poker, you'll be happy to know that more and more sites have Mac and Linux compatibility and support: http://compatiblepoker.com tracks and reviews a number of them.

Java is the great equalizer here, but there are at least two sites that apparently offer native Mac clients. I don't know if there are any native Linux clients, but you'd think that the cross-port would be easy enough if they cared to do it. If a site you like doesn't cater to your favorite OS, let them know: surely they understand that we geekish folks are apt to be game players and aren't apt to be enamored of Windows. Spread the word.

5 comments

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Tue Mar 14 20:19:46 2006:   anonymous


I am surprised you did not mention http://www.linuxpoker.net - I found this web site very helpful. You also might want to provide a link to VirtualPC for Mac users ( http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx)



Tue Mar 14 20:46:29 2006:   TonyLawrence


I think we have mentioned that in another article.. and definitely there's an article on Virtual PC here - more than one actually. But no harm mentioning it here too.





Sun Apr 9 08:40:58 2006:   anonymous


Those are all great Macintosh Poker sites. I must say that http://www.macpokeronline.com is my favorite though. It has an index of poker reviews, bonuses, and many other things for Macintosh poker players.

I think that MPO is actually better than sites such as http://www.imaconlinepoker.com too. I really like the layout of it and the promotions are a big plus (I got $200 free last month!). I have also heard of a new site that should be coming out by September called http://www.onlinepokermac.com. It should be a great Macintosh Poker site.



Sun Apr 9 08:49:07 2006:   MPO


There are other resources besides http://www.macpokeronline.com and http://www.imaconlinepoker.com for playing online poker for Mac. Not too many people have found the quality page of http://www.duluthpoker.com/mac/online/poker or some of the other sites out there.



Sun Apr 9 08:51:16 2006:   Mac


I personally found http://www.macpokerweb.com to be another useful resource. They have detailed reviews of each macintosh compatible poker site and also offer great bonus codes for the largest mac online poker rooms.

I like to play high stakes poker games and am also a Mac player, so http://www.highstakes-poker.com provided me with just what I needed.

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