PokerStars Launches UK Mobile Version

Brand new from the world’s largest online poker site this week was a U.K. mobile version of PokerStars. Now, players from across the United Kingdom, a hotbed of online poker talent, can participate in PokerStars games on the go. Plus, there are multi-tabling possibilities as well as a slew of bells and whistles.

A variety of phones are supported in the U.K. mobile release from PokerStars, including iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, and any device with an Android platform. Players from across the United Kingdom, sans Northern Ireland, will have access to the release and be able to play real money games from the comfort of their cell phones. PokerStars has a partial list of supported phones at PokerStarsMobile.com.

Jeffrey Haas, PokerStars’ Director of New Platforms, commented in a press release, “PokerStars Mobile is more than just the migration of the existing PokerStars game product to the mobile platform. It’s an intentional product designed specifically for the form factors of mobile and tablet devices, and the different ways people play games on them. This is the best authentic poker experience available for mobile devices today.”

Last year, PokerStars rolled out mobile gaming to Italy, which went over quite well and continued to assert PokerStars’ status as the big dog of the online poker world. Now, it enters a U.K. market that features burgeoning smartphone growth. Plus, it’s one of the most popular nations for poker in general, adding even more fuel to the PokerStars fire.

The same PokerStars press release outlined, “43% of U.K. mobile users now have smartphones… Today, there are 25,338,700 smartphone connections and 780,000 tablet PC connections in the U.K., and as the market segment grows (expected to surpass 50% this year), so does the demand for great games that are optimized for these increasingly sophisticated devices.”

Ten percent of Italian PokerStars players use the room’s mobile client to connect. When players sign on via a mobile phone, they’ll be treated to Hold’em and Omaha games, real money and play money tables, the familiar “Play Now” button to get them seated faster, multi-tabling, and the ability to search for others. Plus, mobile players will be connected to the greater PokerStars player pool, so there will almost always be a game to suit your fancy.

Note that the PokerStars Mobile client does not have a cashier. Instead, you’ll need to use your computer in order to perform any monetary transactions. Also, PokerStars Home Games are not available on your smartphone. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, you can open up to four tables at a time. On the iPad, you can open up to five tables at a time. On any Android device, you can play on up to four real money and three play money tables. That should be more than enough action for you to handle while you’re on the go.

You’ll definitely want to watch your data usage while on PokerStars Mobile. Text found on PokerStars’ website cautions, “If you play one table for an hour, you will likely use a bit less than 1 MB download and 500 KB upload.” However, despite the data volume, you’ll have the convenience of being able to play in a car, at a park, or on a train. You can also enable your phone’s wireless internet and play that way.

On the popular poker forum PocketFives, posters weighed in on the PokerStars Mobile experience. One U.K. player shared, “Pretty awesome first impression. Can play anything you would on the normal site and can multi-table pretty easily. Just going to have to get a battery extension. At the moment, I will run out of juice after at most an hour playing.”

Another PocketFives poster lauded the PokerStars Mobile client as a backup in case of internet outages or other unforeseen circumstances: “My home WiFi went down for like two minutes last night, but within 30 seconds, I was on my phone and didn’t miss a hand.”

Visit PokerStars for more details on the new mobile client for U.K. customers.