Online Poker Sites for Linux
As Windows continues to alienate many
power-users due to its high cost, restrictive rights management, and
lack of core command-line control, Linux continues to be a popular
alternative OS. Its open-source nature and abundance of free
distributions make Linux attractive to home PC builders trying to
keep costs down or power-users who want more control over their
computing experience. Plenty of those users are also poker players
and our goal for this article is to outline the best ways to play
online poker for Linux.
The first of two main options for
playing online poker for Linux is to find a site that offers
browser-based play. A growing number of poker rooms have been
offering no-download options to host real money poker for Linux,
Mac, or any user averse to installing software. Browser-based
solutions run almost exclusively on Flash or Java and thus will be or
to run the native poker software through Wine and hope that it has
been sufficiently ported to allow full functionality.
Below we'll detail the positives and
negatives of each option for playing poker on Linux, list the real
money poker rooms that support each method, and detail the
individual benefits of each poker room.
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1. Browser-Based "Instant Play"
A growing number of online poker rooms
are offering poker on Linux via browser-based "instant play". This
allows players to access a similar version of the standalone
software directly from any browser via either Java or Flash. The
exact same real-money tables and tournaments offered to software
players are available to instant play players. This is a quick,
easy, and, most importantly, 100% compatible way to play online
poker for Linux, Mac, or any other public computer with a web
browser.
Advantages of browser-based poker for
Linux
100% compatible within Linux browsers such as Firefox, Chrome,
Opera, and Konqueror.
Does not require installation.
Offers the same real-money tables as the standalone software.
Disadvantages:
Number of supporting poker rooms is limited.
Advanced software features and graphics may not be present.
Poker rooms supporting instant
play
•
ABSOLUTE POKER
(full review).
Visit the
Absolute Poker homepage and
scroll down to the bottom of the
page. Near the bottom you will find
a link to "free online poker no
download". This will take you to the
Java version of the poker room. Our
Linux players also earn a 150%
bonus.
•
ULTIMATE BET
(full review).
Visit the
Ultimate Bet homepage and find
the navigation text links under the
logos near the middle of the page.
Click "Instant Play" to be taken to
the Java-fueled version. The bonus
for our Linux players here is 111%.
•
888POKER
(full review).
Only available to non-US players.
Visit our custom link to
888Poker and you'll find an
extremely handy "Instant Play" icon
to be taken to the Flash version.
Our new Linux players earn a double
instant cash bonus of 50% and
another 75% play-through bonus.
•
TITAN POKER
(full review).
Only available to non-US players.
Visit the
Titan Poker homepage and scroll
down to the bottom of the page to
find the "Flash Poker" link. New
Linux players visiting from our site
receive an instant $20 cash bonus as
well as 150%.
•
PARTY POKER
(full review).
Only available to non-US players.
Visit the
Party Poker homepage and find
the "Instant Play" icon underneath
all of the large graphics to reach
the Java client. Our Linux
players receive a 100% bonus.
2. Emulation through Wine
Wine is an intermediary application used
to run ports of Windows applications on Unix-like systems and can be
used to open up online poker for Linux. It is not an emulator in the
classic sense and, in fact, the name of the software itself is an
acronym: Wine Is Not an Emulator. Wine is also not a pure virtual
machine as it does not require a full version of Windows to run.
Think of Wine as a database of instructions to make Windows
applications run natively in Linux. The Wine community actively
codes thousands of programs to work on Linux and, fortunately, this
includes the larger online poker room clients. This is currently the
best and only way have online poker for Linux installed on your
machine.
Advantages of Wine poker for
Linux
Allows many Windows applications, poker included, to be used on
Linux.
Direct installation of poker room software is supported.
Community continuously improves compatibility.
Disadvantages:
Only a few poker rooms have been ported to Wine.
Bugs and glitches may still be present in early releases.
Poker rooms with Wine
compatibility
•
SPORTSBOOK POKER
(full review).
After signing up with
Sportsbook Poker download the
Windows application executable file.
Visit
this page for Wine instructions.
Sportsbook Poker is a variation on the Carbon
client so the compatibility should
be very similar, if not identical.
This is currently our top-rated
poker room and our players receive
an increased 100% bonus with another
10% as instant cash.
•
FULL TILT POKER
(full review).
This is, by far, the most compatible
room for poker on Linux through Wine
and is actively updated to support
100% compatibility. After
downloading the Windows executable
file from
Full Tilt Poker visit
this page for Wine instructions.
For a player bonus, our new Linux
users receive 100% extra.
•
ABSOLUTE POKER
(full review).
There are varying reports of
compatibility for
Absolute Poker through Wine and
this page has the latest
details. Our new Linux players
receive an extra 150%.
•
CAKE POKER. Another poker room with varying compatibility is
Cake Poker,
which seems to depend on the latest version of the poker room.
This page has the details and our Linux players receive an extra
110% bonus.
3. Native Poker for Linux Software
Unfortunately, no online poker room
currently provides a direct poker for Linux software version. While
instant play and Wine are viable options, it's surprising that no
poker room has catered to Linux players directly. A poker room
offering a standalone Linux client would have a monopoly on the
market and despite the low market share of Linux (current estimates
are about 1-2%) there are thousands of Linux poker players who would
love the convenience of an installable client. We've seen the first
Mac-compatible poker room software in the past couple of years so
it's possible that a permanent poker on Linux solution is in the
works. We'll certainly update this page if and when it comes to
fruition.
•
Visit
our
US credit card page for a
selection of poker rooms that offer
block-free deposits from all US
cards.
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