After visiting Las Vegas on summer 2007 I became interested in poker, and in particular in its most popular variant: Texas Hold'em. I didn't play there in Vegas, though, because I realized I wanted to learn more about the game before risking real money. I knew just the basics and I would have been beat by any player. So, instead, I bought this book to learn the game and then I couldn't resist the temptation to play the game online.
However, being the geek that I am, I did not want to install Windows on my linux workstation, just in order to be able to play poker. I needed linux-compatible solution, and I was afraid I was not going to find one. I gave pokerroom.com a try and it worked out-of-the-box. They do have a windows client, but they also have a fully featured java applet that allows you to play hold'em poker on linux - and virtually any java-enabled browser, that is without installing no additional software.
I tried other sites (888, absolutepoker) and they did not offer such a good experience. Usually, installing a Windows program provides all the features, while some of them offer the java applet as a bad substitute. Installing a Windows binary in linux is messy if possible at all - requires playing around with Wine to test if it will work. However, pokerroom.com offers a really good java client that works on any browser and has a good user interface for the game.
On my gentoo linux system, I have firefox 2.0.0.3 plus SUN's java runtime (JRE) mozilla plugin. This will work on all major linux distributions (RedHat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandriva and many others) and FreeBSD since they include both mozilla and java. And it will work from Windows and Macs as well!
After you open an account, click on the "INSTANT PLAY" button and you're all set:
This opens a new window with the available poker rooms for each type of game. You can play Hold'em with real money or just for fun (with virtual money, very useful to learn and test you strategies), Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, and 5 Draw.
The gaming experience is really good. The software is clear and easy to deal with. I find it especially useful that you can play Hold'em solely with the keyboard, no need to move the mouse around. You can fold, check, call or raise with F1-F3.
If you plan on playing Texas Hold'em or any other poker variant on-line, choose pokerroom.com for the best gaming experience on linux. Plus, if you open an account now, you can benefit from their 50% (up to $100) bonus on you first deposit! I'm fairly sure that you will enjoy the experience! If you don't want to risk real money, you can always sign up and play for free.
Check our poker blog!
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