Having once used PowerPoker on System 7 for about a year before the program was lost/erased, I expected iPoker to perform very much the same. That got me to use the newer version, iPoker (3.3), despite having to pay for the $30 charge to play more than one game. The sound effects and visual animations almost all throughout the game have either stayed the same or improved, even if slightly. But I don't remember the program ever strongly depending on large monitor resolutions or a high-speed connection to access the Help items. It is a huge pet peeve of mine when programs require larger than the monitor size I have, much less, a larger size than I work with on a regular basis, which is 800 x 600. (My iBook can't even go higher than that.) In particular, the developer of iPoker has programmed the application such that you are very much encouraged to use 1024 x 768, or something higher than 800 x 600, leaving users with access to lower-resolution monitors with somewhat limited functionality.

iPoker adds a lot of frustration in certain areas that I don't remember PowerPoker ever having. For one thing, anytime you play a game that involves less than 6 cards for a hand, you have limited opening options. Your options are to check, fold, bet the minimum, or bet the maximum (the third and fourth options available through the Action menu or through key commands). You can't bet anywhere in between, because for such games in 800 x 600, the Bet textfield is cut off by the right side of the application window, and you can't tab or click to it. (here is a screenshot.) Whereas, you need to boot the game while you are using 1024 x 768 resolution in order to get that GUI element in its correct position (see here).

In 800 x 600, you are limited to only 6 out of 11 possible players and only 5 if you have the Dock hide option unchecked. In 1024 x 768, you are limited to 8 out of 11 with the Dock hide option on. You need to have a big monitor to get all 11 players into the game.

For games involving 8 or more cards, in 800 x 600 resolution, you will not be able to view the entire width of the game board. There are no scroll bars or window resizing GUI elements anywhere on the window. Since the application determines, based on how many cards each hand will have, the width of the application window, you are stuck with that size throughout the whole game.

The Help menu item links to the developer's website, which is even more frustrating to use. Now, I never hold the website of the developer of any app. to any level of credibility of just the software alone, since those two entities are separate, but when part of the software totally depends on the website, then I take both things into account. The site is very difficult to use in 800 x 600 and is only slightly less so at 1024 x 768. The site is laid out in a form related to any preference pane inside of System Preferences in which the pane uses multiple tabs, except [1] above the tabs are an image and an animation that takes at minimum a minute to load on dial-up uncached, [2] below the tabs is a section split left and right, and [3] you click on items in the left column to change the content of what is on the right. When you do [3], the right column displays the appropriate information, including graphics that put a bit of a load on any dial-up connection, in such a great quantity that any little scrolling you do for the column drastically changes the content that gets displayed in it. You need a monitor with a high screen resolution to be able to go through the online help contents without easily losing track of the position of the scroll bar in the column. You also need a high-speed connection, or a dial-up connection with many of the graphics and the animation cached, if you want to get to the help item/additional information you need in less than 60 seconds.

(I tested the help menu using my default browser, Firefox 1.0 final, and I was unable to keep that site open while loading all the graphics before it crashed. I did this test twice, and I have not been able to use the site for more than three minutes using Firefox before I get a crash message. Internet Explorer 5.2.3 had no stability issues with the site.)

Despite such occasional frustrations with the software or the site, iPoker has barely changed since PowerPoker. The hand and card movements are still fast and straightforward. The sound effects, including bets, shuffling, and speech, all seem about the same as they did in PowerPoker, except of course "see aae ell ell" is now spoken as "call." Statistical information, such as the amount of cash in chips each player had for X games ago, remains in the application. The total newbie to iPoker will need to take a while to get used to the placement of the preferences and statistical information, as they are much more scattered about in menu items and within preference tabs than they are organized into a single preference panel, like System Preferences. But aside from the operability of the software under low resolutions, the total newbie should get a chance to experience the way the games are played in iPoker, even if the application is run using only computer players.

That leaves most of the frustrations with iPoker in the appearance and placement of GUI elements. Gamblers who regularly use higher monitor resolutions with iPoker will barely be affected by these problems, though the resize options/dragging capabilities for the game window will still allow only the application to determine its width and height.

For future revisions of iPoker, I would like to see far more compatibility with screen size options, the addition of resize and scrolling options, such as the ability to scroll up and down the game window, as well as left/right scrolling options for smaller monitors, and having all the Help features be able to be accessed without requiring an internet connection altogether.

In conclusion, users who operate with 800 x 600 on a regular basis, or can't use anything higher, should either find a version of the software that does will in lower resolution situations than iPoker 3.3, or wait until a more monitor resolution-friendly version come out.

VT ratings:
Ease of use: 4.0 out of 5
Support: 2.2 out of 5
Features: 4.1 out of 5
Quality/Stability: 4.6 out of 5
Price: 2.8 out of 5

Additional ratings:
Appearance: 4.5 out of 5
Speed: 4.2 out of 5
Responsitiveness: 4.0 out of 5

Overall: Around 3.8 out of 5. Recommended software.