Mac compatability with poker sites

the al kid

Hi all,

seriously pissed off with my computer crashing and freezing lately when playing poker and also at other times (not necessarily on-line).Its a Dell about 3 years old with full antivirus(Kaspersky) and spybot.Its on Windows XP with sp3 update.I am on wireless broadband coming into the house but my PC is hardwired to the router or whatever .My wifes laptop is using a wireless connection to above with no problems also using Windows XP.My computer pal has done full maintainence -disc cleanup,defrag etc and also removed any unwanted programmesfrom the startup etc but to no avail.He mentioned that Macs dont appear to have this type of problem which leads me to my question.Do any of you use Macs for online poker and if so are there any disadvantages,downsides and are all sites compatible with Macs.Apologies in advance if (a) this should be posted in some other section of Boards or (b) if this question has been asked before

mistabutta

i use a mac and have never had such problems.. with the new macs you can have windows on it so you can run all poker sites.. but i just use fulltilt and pokerstars which are mac compatible

the al kid

many thanks for the reply.I play on pacific and stars so at least stars would be available.Interesting to see the dual capability availability. I was googleing and some sites have "no download " versions for Macs.What does that mean cos I know nothing about computers.If I decide to go ahead with a Mac does anyone have a recommendation for where to buy same in Kildare /West Dublin area.

Slash/ED

I think no download means you can play off the website, on a flash player without downloading anything. Basically you'd log in on the website a list of tables would come up and you'd be able to sit down on the website without downloading anything. This would work on a mac or anything with the internet basically.

Limitations are, I assume, you can only play one table at a time and it's probably a bit slower and maybe less reliable, freezes more, that kind of thing but that's just me guessing I've never played on one.

Fatboydim

Stars and Tilt are the main Mac compatible sites. You can as stated above use windows on a Mac. Either using it via bootcamp. In which case you boot up in windows, but this isn't really much of a help as you still need to keep your copy of windows up to date and do all the regular crap with it. [You also need a copy of windows to put on it.] You can use third party software like Parallels or VM Ware to run Windows virtually on your PC. This works well - but again you need a copy of windows as well as the Virtual software. I did this for quite a while on my MBP[ Mac Book Pro] Playing I-Poker and it was fine. However if you want stress free poker playing I'd advise only using the Mac with Stars and Tilt, until other sites come on board.

As for buying a Mac - Prices of macs are strictly controlled so they are the same price online as through a shop. Most O2 shops deal with Macs so you could order through them. There is an apple store in Dublin think it's just over the halfpenny bridge - But buying online is no problem.

Do not buy from PC World however.

DubTony

I've got about 10 poker sites installed on the dark side eh ... the Windows side of my Mac. However I rarely use them, preferring to play on Stars or Full Tilt. Any I played on worked withou a problem.

The Stars and FT software on a Mac are top notch. I haven't had a single problem with either of them. And they are both upgraded regularly. Stars is seemingly still beta software, but it's as fully featured as the Windows version, re-sizeable tables etc. Most of the other sites that are Mac compatible are played in the browser and work fine. (Party is a bit naff. The Pokeroom network is the best imo.) Having said that, I havent played on anything except FT and Stars since they introduced excellent Mac versions. Another one you could try is www.Bugsysclub.com. Software's ok, but you can find yourself waiting for a game. Plenty of options though. But you do get plenty of Bang for your buck.

As Fatboydim says, prices are strictly controlled, with little room for bargaining, i.e. none. O2 shops are probably your best bet. Just be aware, these things aren't cheap. Your average PC laptop looks like a steal in comparison.

karlh

The all new Devilfish Poker is Mac compatible via our web-based version of the poker client!




just had to use this pic for something...