The landscape for online poker games has altered drastically from ten years ago. Many attribute poker’s immense growth to the Moneymaker Effect, however, live poker hasn’t been the only setting that’s modified poker’s reputation. Online poker has been the catalyst for cash game experts and tournament veterans, hosting the wealthiest and strongest collection of poker games found anywhere. With the consideration of Black Friday, and other important but less-publicized cheating scandals, online poker has been the primary topic of conversation for well over a year. Its necessity has yet to be threatened — even despite its numerous encounters with compromised safety and financial instability.
What makes online poker so valuable is its novelty; players have yet to find an environment that’s as encompassing to a wide spectrum of players and games, not to mention sponsorships and inherited prosperity. And in order for players to continue playing, sites have attempted to offer every version of poker software that you can imagine.
One of those developments has been the use of flash-based clients, both for use on Windows and Mac-based operating systems.
Users of poker software for Mac computers have been coping with troublesome issues in regards to online poker for years. In this most recent decade progress has been made, and although downloadable poker software isn’t available for every room, players are able to play through mobile clients or flash-based versions. However, with these additions comes the question of “which browser or software should I use,” and also “will the new no-download clients affect the quality of play?” In an effort to ease some of the tension surrounding this dilemma, we’re going to give a few tips on how to minimize the amount trouble you should encounter with flash-based poker clients.
At one time or another, if you’ve used a computer or the Internet, you’ve encountered Flash. Flash is a Adobe based environment that allows users to create, edit, and view animated graphics and video through the mobile web. While this is certainly a dumbed-down description, it gets the point across. Flash is a particularly attractive option for high-end web pages, since its use draws the eye and forces users to pay attention. Not always used for the most practical or efficient purpose, Adobe Flash is widely considered the vehicle the drives online advertisement, or more offensively, the slug of browser flow. Due to its drain on RAM and processing speed, it’s earned a bad reputation.
Online poker is an environment that thrives on speed, hence the issue many poker players have encountered. Most online poker sites require you to play through the browser, and traditional options such as Opera and Safari (while feasible), haven’t been the most efficient in addressing the task. With the growing popularity and development of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, they now lead the pack in terms of overall performance. Number 1 and number 2 respectively in terms of handling Flash graphics, they’re your two best bets when you need to play poker when you’re restricted to the confines of an Internet web page, such as Linux poker players are.
Mozilla Firefox
Taking over most of the market share that Internet Explorer once seized, Mozilla Firefox has become a full-featured web application that’s jam-packed with the most useful add-ons and customizable aspects. When incorporating Flash, Firefox handles this task with quickness. With all of the assets embodied in the browser, it has begun to take over the responsibility of several other external applications. Because of its totality, it’s the best recommendation for online poker play.
What you’re not going to be able to avoid, is the amount of CPU resources that a combo such as Flash and Firefox demands. Firefox attempts to make things smoother by offering to have Flash installed within the browser, despite updates needing to be made occasionally. A feature that players should deeply appreciate is the functionality of tabs. Since we’re talking about playing on multiple web sites, some browsers would make playing across several sites impossible with the opening and closing of new windows being a hindrance. In Firefox, the execution of a smooth and responsive tabular interface makes switching between sites simple, and gives players more time to focus on the task at hand – winning money.
It has become proficient at updating too, as they’ve emulated Google Chrome’s trend of releasing versions almost weekly. 100% approved clients – rather than betas – are typically available every six months, and offer the security and reliability that many Mozilla Firefox users have grown accustom to.
We should mention that although Mozilla Firefox is quick, it doesn’t always match up to Google Chrome in terms of overall speed. Arguably one of the most essential components poker players seek, you won’t be losing a ton of function by playing on Firefox, but you won’t achieve the highest data speeds either.
Google Chrome
Google as a whole has always been praised for its brilliance, and their rapport was extended with the release of their world-class browser in 2008. In nearly four years time, Google Chrome has emitted 19 browsers, all of which are more capable and powerful than the last. Google Chrome has truly become the pinnacle for software updates, famous for its rapid-release cycle in which it drops multiple browser updates within a very short time span. They’ve built their own operating system, Chrome OS, and its implementation allows Google to produce some of the fastest and most visually stunning content on the web.
But while all of the admiration is deserved, because of their focus on improvement they may tend to hurry over some of the fine-tuning that other browsers have integrated.
Let’s not skew the review, however, Google Chrome is probably 1.5 in terms of available browsers. But if it does have a fault, it is their focus on the future, rather than executing the here and now. Users of browsers such as Firefox and IE want the complete package, and many of the bells and whistles that those browsers have incorporated have spoiled them. With Chrome you get a minimalistic, yet uber-efficient platform that’s standards compliant and ready to use for the next generation. It executes poker and flash-based applications without hesitation, and synchronizes page history, bookmarks and recent-viewed web site in an instant. The customary options are visible such as JavaScript, plug-ins, pop-ups, and notifications, and mimicking Mozilla Firefox also has a selection for built-in Flash which you may activate.
Many critics seem to joke that Chrome is evolving so swiftly, that it’s hard to determine whether or not the browser or its consumer base is growing faster. That may be the case, but regardless of its validity what is undeniable is Google devotion to evolution and innovation in the world of web browsing.
In a way, both browsers produce content at such alarming rates, that it may not matter which you choose, but instead depends on personal preference. If you’re more keen on downloading a browser that you’ll use for more than just multi-tabling, Firefox should be your go-to option. On the other end, if you truly want to experience a browser that let’s you do just what it intends – browse the web – then you can’t exclude Chrome’s ability to perform in that respect. Each offering is unparalleled, and regardless of your decision you may have to experience both to understand everything online poker, and the Internet can present.