Mac user's options?

[rjamesd]

any good sites that don't require windows OS? I have a mac OSX and play on pokerroom and it is ok, but it seems like some of the others have more options/promotions/etc. A previous search turned up no other options...

[playersare]

short answer:
yes - cherry casino in sweden just opened a poker room which is java-based and runs (literally) on the same server as pokerroom. you can't use your pokerroom username on the cherry site no matter how unique the name is, that's how I found out. the casino itself has a meager but easy to earn $30 monthly bonus which you can then transfer into your poker account after filling the WR. I don't know any others off the top of my head...before cherry poker opened a week or two ago, I believe pokerroom was the only mac option out there.

long answer:
i cut my teeth with pokerroom on the mac as well. they used to let you trade in 100 player points for $1 cash back but I guess that was too generous of them so they replaced it with the player points freerolls which I'm sure you're familiar with.

my gripe with their PPF system is that you have to earn the required points within the same calendar week to qualify - accumulated points from the past don't count (WHY?!). also, they only offer these three PPF tourneys at the same exact day and time every week, and maybe people's schedules aren't compatible with that. I for one do not want to spend half my saturday afternoon playing a "use it or lose it" tourney where I have to survive at least 2 full hours of NL play just to make $20. so most of the time I just have a few thousand player points just sitting there doing nothing. pokerroom just opened a merch store but you can't use PP's there either (again, why?!). only once since they discontinued the cashback system did they give an option to exchange PP's for tickets to a few select regular tourneys with flexible scheds. but then, that offer disappeared too and I haven't heard anything new since.

after seeing the countless more options available to windows users for both poker and casino games online, I decided to bite the bullet (or apple, perhaps) and get a cheap PC on the side (<$300) strictly for home gambling. just on bonus whoring alone, I've been able to pay for the entire machine in just under two months. and there are enough monthly and reload offers on all the major poker and casino sites to make it worthwhile for even a mac diehard like myself to turn the other cheek in the long run. if you only stick with pokerroom, you'll probably get only one reload bonus offer every three months or so, and more importantly, you're missing out on some of the super-juicy games happening daily in the windows world.

I do still play on pokerroom every once in a while, particularly when I'm in a situation where I have access to a computer other than my own where the no-download option is key. I also like the pokerroom "light graphics" option which is easy on the eyes and runs smoothly even on machines a few generations old. but until they figure out better ways for us to use our accumulated player points and have more frequent reload offers, pokerroom will not even in my top 3 of poker sites for now.

[busguy]

Two words : Virtual PC.

Works fine, but a tad slow. Can play any site.

I've used it for over a year now and it has been fine. I think I may move up to a 2 monitor PC system soon though as once you get beyond 3 tables at most sites it does slow down a fair bit.

my 2 cents

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] busguy

[burningyen]

As I've said before, if you're a profitable player you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you don't get VirtualPC and play on the big sites.

[molluso]

Does anyone have any experience running Pokertracker using Virtual PC? How about Gametime or PlayerView?

[burningyen]

Yes, I'm using PokerTracker on my 1GB/1GHz Pokerbook G4 w/VPC 6.1.1. It works great by itself, but unfortunately the background auto-rate/auto-import feature makes UB run way too slow, so I dump my hand histories after finishing my sessions and don't get real-time info on my opponents.

[Luv2DriveTT]

You can also play at Check n Raise, and Celebrity Poker. Both are JAVA clients, which work on any platform in your web browser.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]