I really like poker. Partly as an interesting artificial intelligence problem, but mostly as a fun way to spend time with a group of friends. Now that I’ve finished travelling the problem is finding people to play with!
There are a couple of reasons why I don’t like online poker. The first is an issue of trust. Between bots, collusion, and poor security, I just don’t believe that all the players in a game are on an equal footing. The second reason is that I think of poker as a social game. I like to be able to see the people I’m playing against!
PokerTH is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac OS X & Linux) Texas Hold ‘em poker application, released under the GPL. It includes the option of a local game against AI opponents, as well as a free online setting, allowing the player to join a public table or create a private one to play with friends. I still can’t see the other people at the table, but it’s a great way to learn the game or just play for fun!
My only complaint so far is that the minimum window size is too big for the Eee 701. It’s easy to get around by moving the window every so often, but it would be nice to have the ability to scale the window down for smaller screens.
Download PokerTH (Currently version 0.62)
PokerTH version 0.60 is currently available in the Ubuntu 8.04 repositories.