Mac-Friendly Online Poker Sites

You’ve drunk the Kool Aid and come over to the hipper and more awesome side of the world of computers.  You now have a poster of Steve Jobs in your room that replaced the blonde above your bed.  The problem now is that you wonder where on Earth you can actually play some online poker.  Never fear – we have the lowdown on the sites you can immediately fire up and play on your Mac.

Full Tilt Poker

The good news is that one of the largest sites in the world is Mac-friendly and has been longer than anyone else, which is why we’re listing them first.  Full Tilt Poker has its own Mac OS X compatible client that looks and operates just like the PC edition.  If you are savvy enough, there’s even a way to load files and replace artwork, but that takes a serious Mac sleuth to pull off.  Nevertheless, you can be playing against Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and Phil Ivey tonight from your Mac – assuming you have the bankroll to make it worth their while.

PokerStars

The world’s largest online poker site also has a Mac-friendly downloadable client.  It looks and acts the same as the PC edition of the software with a few minor differences in features.

UB.com

The third largest site that accepts players from the United States also just released a Mac-friendly poker client.  There’s a huge online tournament series coming soon at UB.com, so if you haven’t already checked the site out, it might be a good time to hit up the tables and get yourself ready.

Absolute Poker

This site shares traffic with UB.com on the CEREUS Network and offers fully downloadable and web-based versions of its Mac client.

Mac-Friendly, But No Client

Some sites claim that they are Mac-friendly, but do not have a downloadable client.  These sites use a web-play option that lets you log in via a browser and then load up the software using a Java program.

PartyPoker, for example, has a very impressive web-play option.  The lobby and the table software actually look really good in the browser and are very close to what you would see in the PC edition.

You should be careful, though, and not get your hopes too high, as these web-play options sometimes come with huge restrictions like the ability to play only at cash game tables.  Each of these web-play options is different from site to site, so be sure to check before committing yourself.

Other Software

PokerTracker has a functional version for the Mac.  We’ve used it over the course of what feels like almost a year and it’s top notch.  The stats and breakdowns that the program gives you are equivalent to that of the PC edition.  For Mac poker players, this program is an absolute must-have.