Online Poker for Linux?

Burianski11 wonders: "For a while now, I have been playing online poker at sites such as Poker Stars and Party Poker. In the past, this hasn't bothered me much, since I was primarily a Windows user. However, now that I am trying to make the switch to Linux I am realizing that this is one thing that will be sorely missed (and may cause me to keep a Windows box around). Do any of you know of any online gambling sites that support Linux?"

Comments

Consider it a benefit

[Godeke]

I would think the lack of online gambling is a good thing: It used to be people could destroy their savings once a quarter on Vegas trips but now they can dump money down the drain at will thanks to the Internet gambling. I personally wouldn't trust these sites (which are not regulated like Vegas casio's are: not that I trust *them* that much) one bit. Online casino losing money today? Guess it's time to stop dealing aces to the players...

Re:Consider it a benefit

[tc]

Just like a poker game in a brick-and-mortar casino, the casino doesn't really care whether you win or lose, so long as you play, because you're being paid by the other players not the house. The house makes money by taking a 'rake', either a percentage of every pot (usually) or a per-time charge (less common).

My experience with online poker has been that they have always paid up when asked, and I've not noticed anything that would indicate cheating on any widespread scale. Perhaps it might be common at higher stakes, but at anything below $10/$20 I just haven't seen it.

Re:Consider it a benefit

[cynical kane]

Poker isn't played against the house like blackjack and craps are. The poker house has absolutely no interest in whether you win or lose, since players play only against other players. They collect a small percentage of money from every pot, so all they want to see are lots of money changing hands. Also, casinos put caps on how much money you can spend in a certain time period. The caps are pretty high, though.

Re:Consider it a benefit

[Babbster]

You're right that cheating on the part of the provider isn't a high-percentage move. Not only would it be fairly easy to figure out (one or two people or chairs constantly getting top hands), but the casual gamblers would stop showing up if they lost constantly.

There is a kind of cheating that DOES go on, however, and that's when two or more people at a table know each other and are in communication outside the poker program. Knowing those extra cards can make it a LOT easier to fleece the rest of the table, assuming the cheaters are smart of course. Not good.

semi-ontopic question:

[EvanTaylor]

How about cross platform easy to setup poker game (with many rule types) for OS X, Windows, and Linux. My old game group and I used to play on game spy, but we went our separate OS paths and some didn't like gamespy in general.

My poker losses...

[Stigmata669]

made me switch to a free os.

Secure Poker?

[Sunlighter]

Actually in Applied Cryptography Bruce Schneier mentioned a way to play poker securely over the internet (so that no one can cheat). He complained that it took something like eight hours on a 486 to shuffle the cards, but Im sure it would be faster now. It seems like some enterprising Open Source programmer could implement this secure poker protocol. But I doubt that the online gambling sites have done so.

Re:Secure Poker?

[Tolchz]

This is only required if you are playing without a dealer. If you both connect to a third party server (acting as the dealer) you wouldn't need to use this method.

Re:Secure Poker?

[Sunlighter]

What if you don't trust the dealer?

Re:Secure Poker?

[Senjutsu]

How do you know that the person running the "third-party" server isn't also secretly one of the other players in the game?

That'd be a pretty good scam, considering how much trust people are apparently willing to blindly put in a faceless third party.

Re:Secure Poker?

[Tolchz]

Suppose you do use the encryption and play against 3 other players. Now suppose all three of them are playing from the same bankroll and against you.

They already know what 15 of the cards are. A few instant messages and they all fold except for the one with the best hand.

In effect you are playing against one player with three hands, they are three times more likely to win against you. It doesn't matter which one wins as they are sharing a bankroll.

Re:Secure Poker?

[Deraj DeZine]

Then don't play at his table.

Re:Secure Poker?

[Anonymous Coward]

Virtually all of the top rooms have anti-collusion detection built in to their software to specifically deter this type of thing. Also, they employ "floormen", so if you suspect collusion, they can watch the hands and see if it's happening. Most other forms of cheating ar detected, or eliminated because you're playing on line. Basically, to stay in businees, a poker room needs to guarantee as much as possible that players are playing a fair game.

Re:Secure Poker?

[forge5]

Except that the game of choice is Texas Hold 'Em, so you only get to know what 6 of the cards are. I don't think many players play 5 card draw anymore, at least online.

Re:Secure Poker?

[(trb001)]

Depends on the game...my favorite on PartyPoker is 7 card stud, but any stud type game (hold 'em, for instance) diminishes the chance of figuring out who has the 'good' hand since a hand can go from crappy great when the last card is revealed and, subsequently, the last betting round is held. More than once have I gone from having only a pair of 2's and losing to having three of a kind and winning. I've also experienced the opposite.

Even draw games disadvantage playing multiple hands, other than increasing your odds to win by having multiple plays per round. More hands may mean more wins, but it will also cost you more in blind bets, antes and opening rounds.

--trb

--trb

KPoker

[Anonymous Coward]

KPoker is a little Video Poker Clone for the K Desktop Environment.

Or a more helpful answer...

[smallfries]

would be to tell him to take a look at http://www.pokerroom.com which does exactly what he wants and is mozilla friendly.

Re:Or a more helpful answer...

[Oinos]

I'll second the recommendation for pokerroom.com. I play Texas Hold 'Em twice a week (the free version, I'm not that good) there. I use Mozilla on my Linux machine and have had no problems.

We're not stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux users are wise enough not to gamble online
Hence the lack of linux support

Poker is different

[Anonymous Coward]

On poker sites you are (presumably) playing other people, the site merely takes a "rake", which is about 5% of every hand iirc. Of course with a computer game you are always worried that you're getting cheated, but I still manage to make money at it so no complaints here.

Re:No.

[phlegm]

Actually it'a YES. Pokerroom.com works great. Uses java and is pretty much the same as partypoker.
Never had any problems with it.

Came up empty-handed

[lambent]

I ran into this problem last fall. All the sites that i visited that claimed to have a java implementation ... well, it turns out they only works in IE, on windows. I exchanged several frustrated and progressively nasty e-mails with tech support and eventually programming represetntatives. (pacific poker, paradise poker, and empire poker)

I tried 3 different clients with varieties of java plugins on several different platforms, browsers (ie, mozilla, netscape, konqueror, java 1.3X & 1.4x, blackdown, ms vm) ... long story short, nothing worked except java in IE on windows.

I even tried Wine on a otherwise perfectly running fake windows setup. Did not work.

As a result, i opened an account, got the sign-up bonus, played the requisite number of rounds, doubled my money (50$ turned into 110$) and then cashed out.

Also, a word of advice: there are a LOT of really really really BAD poker players on these gambling sites. It's not hard to take the money and run.

Long story short: these casino sites are not in the business to help you technically or support multiple platforms. They have also figured out that the best business plan is to take money from easy marks and then run for it.

Re:Came up empty-handed

[belloc]

I ran into this problem last fall. All the sites that i visited that claimed to have a java implementation ... well, it turns out they only works in IE, on windows.

I've found that pokerroom.com has a Java implementation that works just fine with Safari on my powerbook. I'm not sure about Linux.

Also, Victoria's Poker has an OS X client (not Linux, but hey), but it really chews up the processor on my powerbook pretty good. I abandoned it for Pokerroom recently because the Java works so well on the Mac.

Belloc

Paradise Poker worked ok under Wine

[scrubjay]

paradise poker
Debian unstable system ... have played for fake money a few times ... seemed to work fine ... jake

Linux: saving you more money!

[BeatdownGeek]

That's a perfect ad campaign for Linux!

"Not only is Linux free, but it will help you kick your gambling habit as well."

Ingenious!

java interface

[Skeezix]

PokerRoom.com has a nice Java interface that works great in Linux.

Best free online Texas Hold 'Em, easily,

[OgdEnigmaX]

is Poki Poker Online. There aren't that many rooms, but the interface Java applet is clean and compatible with Linux, OSX, and Win9x if you've got the right runtime package. The bots are quite competitive, and the playerbase fairly forthcoming with advice and commentary on precisely how bad your strategies, or lack thereof, are.

Rampant cheating?

[BTWR]

I was wondering why there aren't more compliants as such...

You're in a 6-person room and you are actually playing against 5 people in the same dorm/friends chatting over IM about what they have.

seems like "too easy" a scam to make a quick (minumum) $50 between the 5 of them. At best they make some serious $$$, at worst they get themselves $20 or so to buy they pizzas for the night...

More saved $$$

[wolrahnaes]

Others have said this somewhat jokingly, but it's my opinion that you should look at this as another way Linux saves you money.

Anyways, gambling is more fun in meatspace. There isn't the fun of watching someone try to maintain a "poker face" when online.

hmm

[havaloc]

The reason is that Linux users should know better than to gamble!

Poker is not gambling

[T-Ranger]

Gambling is the wagering (or betting) of money on games of chance. The odds are rigged in the houses favor, and you have a (long term) expectation of loosing. There are relativlty good bets to make, and relativly poor bets to make, and a knowladgeable player can/will last longer then a newbie. But it is ultimatly luck, and you ultimatly loose.

Poker (at least the kind that you mean) is game of skill. Your win/loss expectation is based on your relative skill vs the other players. If you are a skilled player you can overcome the ~2-3% the house takes from the pot.

The house makes money regardless of who wins - they arn't playing. This could be through an ante, a rake (a % of the pot) and the requirement for 'blind bets' that force the pot to be non-zero, possibly through players 'renting' a seat. Or potentially through bar sales (but most/all places where poker is played, the bar is cheep to bring the players in)

Re:Poker is not gambling

[Anonymous Coward]

This is all true but it would have to be quite tempting to stick a couple of ringers in the works who could perhaps see hole cards or something similiar to increase the profits (dramatically).

PokerRoom good cross-platform

[Bollenator]

I've played at PokerRoom.com a few times on my Mac with both Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird and it works fine (especially the modes sporting low-bandwidth graphics). My roommates have played extensively on Windows/IE, so it seems pretty compatible cross-platform. Also, both play and real money are possible--the former being more to my liking. ;-)

Small Rockets Poker

[EnglishTim]

Small Rockets Poker is available for Linux, but I don't fancy your chances of getting it to work - it was compiled some time ago for RedHat 6 and doesn't appear to work with later versions. You could try mailing them to ask for a recompile, but don't hold your breath - there's only one guy working there now and he wasn't anything to do with that game or the Linux port of it. However, it's worth a try.

Believe it or not on-line poker is very secure

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for a company that creates software for an on line poker room. The larger rooms have their reputations at stake, and if anything fishy was going on (like ringers) people would catch on and your business would be ruined. All the top sites are very secure and run over SSL, and their RNG's are analyzed and verified by independent testing or accounting firms. The servers are located in countries/territories where there are strict gaming laws, and the companies are overseen by local gaming commissions. Someone earlier pointed out that the difference between on-line poker and other on-line casinos is that you aren't playing the house, you're playing each other, and the house rakes the pot. Therefore they don't have any interest in you winning or loosing, but in making sure you play as many pots as possible :)

Anyway, I'd recommend some of the naysayers try some on-line poker. It's a heck of a lot of fun, and it's one of the few computer gaming passtimes where with a little bit of skill you can make a profit.

As to the questions...
PokerRoom.com does is Java based and should run on Linux. VictoriasPoker.com has a downloadable Mac client for the fellow who asked earlier. However, I don't think you'll be happy on these sites. They have a very small player base currently, which will be a real detriment to your enjoyment. The top poker sites now, which are all Windows only, (I won't list the site I provide software for, to nix the "free advertising" wanks are:

PartyPoker/EmpirePoker - by far the largest, with about 30k people playing on average. Has the most "fish" therefore is a very profitable site to play on.

PokerStars - The next biggest site, about 10k average players. Has the best tournaments imho. Very good software, probably the best on the market. This is where I play for the most part, as I really enjoy the tournaments.

UltimateBet - Not sure of player base as they don't advertise it, but it's fairly big, estimated around 7k average. Seems to have more skilled players than other sites.

ParadisePoker - Very nice tournament software. About 7k average players on line.

Poker in the front.

[Anonymous Coward]

.
.
. ...
Liquor in the back...

Thank you Mr. Babysitter

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm so glad I have you to look out for my best interest. How ever could I survive without kind-hearted folks like you telling me what I can't do every step of the way?

any freeware poker server software?

[Syncalot]

speaking of all these poker servers is there any software out there that a unix admin could install and have windows/unix clients for people/friends to gather and play with stats?

irc.poker.net

[Zaph]

It's not a gambling site, but if are just looking to practice your skills for free, try irc.poker.net.

It's an IRC server with various pokerbots that has been running for many years. It has hold'em, omaha, 7stud and other games. It has fixed limit, nolimit games as well as tournaments. I used to play there pretty heavily around 96-97.