How to run an online poker night?

January 11, 2007 7:57 PM

I'm looking for a way to have an online poker night with friends who don't live near me.

We'd like to play texas hold'em. Bonus if we can use mac and windows machines, but windows-only is ok.

The free online poker sites i looked at (e.g. yahoo) didn't seem to have any control over the tables. The pay sites looked like you had to have some cash in your account to get a private table, and then it wasn't clear if there was a rake. (i'm guessing there would be.)

So, is there any software or website out there that can facilitate our game?

(Interestingly the new version of skype comes with "extras" some of which allow you to play games with the people you're chatting with. unfortunately, no poker yet.)

posted by kamelhoecker to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Full Tilt is Windows and Mac compatible and allows you to set up private tournaments very easily.

You'll need to play for real money though for a private tourny.
posted by ODiV at 8:18 PM on January 11, 2007

In yahoo, you can make the poker tables you create private. That way only the people you invite can play or watch. Also, there's a boot feature if anyone you don't like shows up.
posted by Citizen Premier at 8:56 PM on January 11, 2007

Just looked at Yahoo again, and it's totally different from what I played last time I was there. (I guess it was a Casino Royale sponsored game?)

Yes, private rooms are possible. So that's good. Unfortunately, the betting is limited to raises of 2. (makes for a very slow game, as we there is are many rounds of raising and re-raising.)
posted by kamelhoecker at 6:20 AM on January 12, 2007

update — the casino royale i remembered was aol's no limit texas hold'em. and you can create a table with a password. sweet.

haven't figured out if you can turn off the computer players, but maybe with a few real players (only tried with two) they will go away.
posted by kamelhoecker at 10:23 AM on January 12, 2007