Poker-Mac

Full Tilt Poker has released a major update to their client. My last post mentioned that there was a problem with the download. That is over and the results are in….awesome. The new features rock. Here they are according to FTPDoug:

A) Tournament Dollars - Most people know what this is, so I won’t get too into it. It does mean that you will be able to unregister from just about every tournament you satellite into and get T$ credited to your account.

B) Auto Top-Up - This was all you guys. Just go to “Options->Set Buy-In Preferences…” and you’ll now see a checkbox under Ring Game Auto-Rebuy for Auto Top-Up. If you have it checked, you will be “topped up” to your preferred amount should you fall below it at the end of a hand.

C) Sit Out Next Blind - Or, more accurately, Sit Out Next Big Blind. Only found on Speed tables, and does just what it sounds like it does. We also changed the sit back in behavior on Speed tables so you no longer have to perfectly time your return so as not to post blinds out of position. Now when you click “I’m Back” you’ll be put into “waiting for big blind” mode. So, if you haven’t been playing the Speed tables for either reason, you should definitely check them out again.

D) Player Color Codes and Notes - The great feature suggestion by EWS87 in this thread has been implemented. You now see your color coded notes for players from the lobby. If you hover your mouse over a player you also see any specific notes you have on them. We also fixed the problem of losing notes if your client isn’t shut down gracefully. When you click Save and Exit now on your note, the note actually saves right then and there. What a concept.

Here’s a shot of the new Cashier window with tournament dollars listed

And here’s a new view of a table in the lobby - note the yellow triangle indicating a tagged player with a note and color assigned. Let’s fish.

In addition he mentions these a bunch of smaller changes. The full thread is at:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=141931

Full Tilt just announced their new payment option - echecks. Apparently you can deposit directly from your Bank Account. Since I’ve blown my latest bankroll, I think it’s time to re-up with echecks.

Things I wonder:

• I wonder if this will spread to other rooms.
• I wonder how fast the deposit happens

Update.

So I tried to open Full Tilt to check out the new echecks, and my mac is having a hard time downloading it - some kind of error which stuffit expander is identifying.

We’ve been talking about it for a year or so now, and finally it’s here. The Mac Pokerstars client is out.

I have to say, the design team did a great job with the interface. They took their time getting this put together and it really shows. Very nice Aqua features. Very professional appearance. Playibility is excellent as well and comparable to the PC interface if you’ve been playing using Parallels or Boot Camp. I am psyched to play against Moneymaker, Hachem, Negreanu and ?Boris Becker - rather than Ivey, et. all at Full Tilt (for awhile at least).

Ever since the UIGEA came down, Full Tilt has been the place to play on a mac. You can play on Parallels and bring PokerTracker into the game. Or you can play on OS X, save your results and transfer them over to PT on WinXP at a later time. Either way, FTP has had the highest quality client for a long time. It’ll be interesting to see what the competition from Pokerstars brings to the Mac Poker world.

There are definitely differences between the two - Pokerstars has a bunch of new games for us to play. 5-card draw, 2-7 Triple draw, as well as HORSE and HOSE, which have been at FTP for awhile. Some new tourneys to add to the schedule — I’m looking forward to playing the Sunday Million and WCOOP.

Loading is not significantly different than Full Tilt. The options are: instant e-checks, epassporte, VISA, Mastercard, Diner’s Club, CashTransfer, Money Order. Of these, I’ve only used epassporte, which works well at FTP as well. Though, it does take a week or so to go through. Keeps the bankroll rebuys to a minimum, I suppose. But right now I wish it was instant — can’t wait to get on and play at Pokerstars.

The one thing I ought to mention is that if you’ve been using the beta client on pokerstars.net, it won’t automagically upgrade to the .com client. So you will need to go to the main Pokerstars.com page to download the new client. See you on the tables…

Pokerroom has a ton of new promos that are going to be fun this coming year. The first is the $500,000 guaranteed tourney on Jan 19th. With US players out of the picture, there is no way the guarantee will be met. Juicy.

Starting Jan 25th there is a new schedule for the “GRAND” tournaments. These are $1000 entry tourney with huge guarantees that historically have had difficulty meeting their guarantee.

Now if I can just hold on in my sit n go, I might be able to rebuild my roll here and see you at the Pokerroom tables.