Inside the Microgaming Redesign

Microgaming is a trusted online poker network with many different skins.  It is popular among European online poker players since all of its games are offered in Euros instead of U.S. Dollars.  Among cash game and tournament players alike, the play on Microgaming is much softer than the industry leaders, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Earlier this month, Microgaming released a sleek new update on some of its skins.

My favorite skin, 32Red, has yet to adopt the design, but there are plans to have all of the skins update their platforms soon.  Other popular skins such as Betsson have already switched to the newly designed interface.

One major complaint with Microgaming used to be that its navigation was clunkier than other sites.  The new design makes the poker playing experience for new and existing players more enjoyable with larger buttons.

Most players should love that Microgaming removed the left-hand sidebar for finding games, which wasn’t pretty to the eye.  The large navigational buttons allow players to find what they are looking for more easily.

Across the top of the new site, there are big menu options for Cash Games, Sit and Gos, Tournaments, and Casino.  Under Cash Games, it is easy to find what you are looking for by selecting Hold’em, Omaha, Blaze, Other Games, or Private.  Within each setting, you can further refine your results similar to the old client by using filters or sorting by stakes, limits, seats, average pots, and hands per hour.

Blaze is a relatively new feature on Microgaming that allows you to play a faster-paced style of poker.  When you fold a hand, you are automatically brought to a new table.  Although there are fewer players on Blaze tables compared to the similar Zoom Poker on PokerStars and Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker, the players seem to be less experienced on Microgaming’s Blaze.

Also in the update is the bad beat jackpot amount being displayed in the top center of the lobby.  As a cash game player myself, I always avoid these tables because of the extra rake involved and do not see this as an inviting addition, as I might be tempted to play as the jackpot amounts grow large.  Microgaming is one of the few online poker networks still offering bad beat jackpots now that PartyPoker and the Merge Gaming Network removed them earlier this year.

Unfortunately, the table designs remain unchanged.  Although it is easy to navigate when playing, I always found Microgaming tables to be a little more cumbersome than other sites I play on.  I also found I timed out more often playing on Microgaming than anywhere else.  Perhaps this is something they will address in a future update.

The positive side to this, however, is that the poker software you were using before on Microgaming will still work on the updated client.  It is simple to format your software such as PokerTracker and Holdem Manager to work in sync with Microgaming.  Your HUD, however, will not work on Microgaming's anonymous tables.

All in all, I welcome this new client and look forward to it being available on the skin I play.  I am glad that Microgaming is investing resources on a sleek design and hope this extends to other parts of the network, including increased poker offerings and sleeker tables.