How Bad is Dial-up for Multitabling?

what's dial up?

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what's dial up?

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56K

[memphis57]

I used to 3-table on dial-up AOL with a 1280x1024 monitor and 600 MHz machine. With nothing else running except one extra browser window with 2+2 (text only), I'd crash or disconnect about once an hour or every two hours, which was just barely bearable. I couldn't run GT or PA HUD or it would freeze up immediately. With PT running in the background, or Excel, or anything that took decent resources, the crash/disconnect rate would double or worse.

As bad as all that sounds, overlapping screens, frequent disconnects, and worst of all freezes on my end (meaning that the host did not recognize a disconnect, so I would lose whatever hands I was involved in), it really didn't seem all that bad to me. I mean, I was only playing .5/1 and wouldn't want to do it for serious money, but I was learning and so it seemed far better than the alternatives (not playing or one-tabling). I just viewed the various malfunctions as additional challenges that had to be overcome. Strangely, after I got my new computer and broadband, I kind of missed the old way a little.

The funniest thing was that sometimes the screen-updating would start to deteriorate before it locked up completely. As cards were dealt or folded or money bet or any other action happened, the images would leave trails as they moved across the screen, obscuring what was underneath, and other weird things happened. As soon as it started to mess up I'd uncheck the auto-blind and try to make it to the end of the round before I restarted my computer, meaning I had to play several hands at a disadvantage. The screen would start looking psychadelic and you would gradually lose important pieces of information about the game, like other peoples stack sizes (not a big deal, playing limit), community cards dealt in prior rounds (ok if you had a decent memory), pot size (getting more serious), and finally your own cards or currently dealt community cards (getting really serious now).

[A_Junglen]

Wow, I'd kill myself if I still had dial up.

True story.

[stigmata]

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Is dial-up internet too slow/crap for 8-20 tabling internet poker?

Just wondering. Looked at a great house today, but no high speed internet access in that area...no cable or dsl.

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A possible soln: If a friend has broadband within a few km then you could borrow his internet through a directional antennae.