Hotpoker is a suite of programs that allow you to play poker (currently only 2-4 Limit Hold'em ) over the internet. It is still under development, but it is stable enough to provide hours of entertainment. It might even improve your poker game.
The idea is that a 'dealer' or 'server' runs somewhere on the net and you connect to it with a 'client'. Your opponents may be other humans, or they may be computer 'robots'. The robots that exist now are rather poor players, but they can certainly be improved with some programming effort (hint! hint!).
Hotpoker is different from most other internet poker programs because it allows you to actually compete interactively against human opponents. This is not Vid-poker. It's Hold'em, with intelligent opponents, raises, bluffs, and all the rest.
Hotpoker is NOT an interface to the IRC poker channel. It is a completely separate package. Why not?
If your WWW browser supports java, e.g., Netscape, MS Internet Explorer,
then you should try the
java client.
After entering your
name and
password,
your browser will
automatically download the software and connect to the game.
I try to keep a server running at hotpoker.com
more-or-less all the time. As of July, 1999 the computers are
in a transitional period so there may be some downtime as the
game is switched over to the new machine.
The netpoker software knows you by two distinct names. The first is
the name that appear on screens (both yours and your opponents) near your
cards.
The second is an Account ID
that is used to keep track of
your winnings
so that when you return, you have the same stake you left with.
The accoundtid's will be replaced by passwords in the new hotpoker
to enable a player's stake to move between tables.
The important thing to keep
in mind is that your Account ID is "permanent", and is remembered from
one session to the next. If you expect to come back
again, you might want to set it to be something that you can easily
remember.
No matter how low your account balance falls,
the "house" will always extend you credit up to 200 units,
or enough so that you can buy in for 40 units, whichever is more.
I have done very little to address "security" concerns. If you are
the paranoid type, you can choose an Account ID the same way you
choose a password on a real machine. However, you should be aware
that the text is stored unencrypted on the server, and there is really
very little preventing someone from accessing your account. DO NOT
USE YOUR REAL PASSWORD AS AN ACCOUNT ID.
Collusion between players or control of multiple players by one
person is trivially easy and is grossly unfair. It is cheating.
Don't do it! It does not demonstrate any cleverness whatsoever to
"beat" the game in this way. The obvious situation is one where two
players are sharing information about the cards they hold. In hold'em
this isn't a show-stopper, but it does provide some advantage. More
insidious is the possibility that two players (or one player with two
seats at the table) will re-raise one another to extract the maximum
bets from the other players at the table. There is very little I can
do to address this problem technologically. Remember, it's not real
money! We must rely on people's good will, sense of fair play, and on
the general acceptance of the notion that we are playing for fun. I
hope that there will be very few people who derive satisfaction from
beating the game by cheating.
Hotpoker is free of charge.
Nevertheless, it's always nice to know that people are actually
enjoying it. So in lieu of any shareware "fee",
please send me an interesting postcard from your
home town, university or someplace you've travelled to.
Send those cards to:
Where can I find a game?
What's this Account ID thing?
Collusion and cheating
How to say thank you
John Salmon
47 Quaker Bridge Road
Ossining, NY 10562
USA
Thanks and enjoy!
Enjoy,
John Salmon