MAC and poker

[Pingviini]

Do pokersites run with Mac, is there a Mac version of PT or any other poker stats software? I am poundering whether to buy a laptop or a desktop and Macs are also one possibility, although I will most probably buy a PC..

[bigred]

I think you need to use their windows simulator thingy (I'm not a mac user, this is all hearsay) which I've heard tons of complaints from rellow FTR members about how it's really slow or constantly crashes.

[Xianti]

If it's for poker or any kind of online gaming, get a PC. There just isn't nearly as much support for the Mac when it comes to gaming.

[mtbottle]

I am one of the few mac users here on FTR. I mainly play on Pokerroom, as their java client is mac compatible. I also play on Partypoker and Ladbrokes, using VirtualPC. I have Windows XP, NT4, Hungarian version of 98 (don't ask) and a bunch of different linux distros insatalled. Mainly use XP for poker stuff as it is generally more compatible.
In general, any mac you buy today wil be able to run VirtualPC with some flavour of windows fast enough to cope with pretty much any poker software you throw at it, as it is not a graphics intense thing (which is the main failing, as the emulator cant really utilise the power of the graphics card).
There is also one big advantadge. You can make up a master image before ever connecting to the net with a basic ammount of sotware installed and then duplicate it at will, so you will always have a clean image to start from. This means when the 5 billion virii out to get you get past you Anti-Virus software, you only have about 5 keypresses and 2 minutes for a brand new clean install.

hope this helps

[|~|ypermegachi]

since OSX has BSD underpinnings, i believe WINE can be run it on pretty well.

wine emulates pokerstars flawlessly on my linux box.

[cassette]

If you're into, graphic or video production, or a solid operating system, or no viruses, then get a mac.

If you're into mostly gaming, get a pc.

[NewJack33]

If you want to get a MAC for doing non-pokering stuff, you could always get an el-cheapo PC that's nothing fancy and is dedicated to pokering, then setup a little network to connect the two. Probably a better idea not to install all the poker software on your main PC anyway...

Hyper: have you tried the other poker software with WINE, or just Stars?

[|~|ypermegachi]

i couldn't get any party skins working with wine.

absolute was a no go.

haven't tried pacific, but they have a java client

paradise worked fairly good, but had a stupid bug that every time you enter a table the lobby would shrink...so you'd have to restart the program....so this prevents multitabling

haven't tried others yet.

[alias2211]

Do pokersites run with Mac, is there a Mac version of PT or any other poker stats software? I am poundering whether to buy a laptop or a desktop and Macs are also one possibility, although I will most probably buy a PC..

I'm on a powerbook g4 titanium 1Ghz and 512MB RAM and have used both virtual PC 6.x and 7.x running win2k to play online. It works ok, although I find that I can't really try to do much other than run the VPC. Even then, I don't like the stuttering performance in VPC for the 3x miniview tables I play at UB. It is acceptable, but I won't recommend it.

I have a crappier old gateway laptop that I just use for poker now, and I would highly recommend that route if possible. If you want to run Poker Tracker while playing, which I also suggest, VPC just doesn't quite cut it, even w/ 1GB+ of RAM. I'm even thinking about getting a tablet PC so I can really get into the zone when playing online.

[mtbottle]

WINE does not run on OS X. The BSD underpinnigs are irrelevant, as the architecture is the thing that needs to be emulated (x86 vc PPC).