Online poker has been a juggernaut since the early 2000s, when TV cameras brought Texas Hold’em tournaments to the masses, making household names of guys like Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Poker was showcased as a simple game that can be played by anyone, however access to casinos – never mind the bankroll involved – isn’t something everyone has. The solution was virtual as online poker quickly took off, with PokerStars alone having 60 million registered users by 2013. Fast-forward to 2021 and we can go online from pretty much anywhere in the world.
So what are some of the very best devices ideal for playing online poker?
Smartphone – Poco M3 Pro 5G
Some people like to play online poker market as a more casual experience, rather than the intense environment of a casino table. Many apps are geared toward these players, with easy to use controls and large cartoonish graphics.
Apps also let players dip in and out of hands and tables effortlessly – nobody online knows if you’ve decided to take a breather to stretch your legs or go make a cup of tea. A lot of sites and apps focus on Texas Hold’em, where smaller screen size matters less, as you only have five cards to concentrate on. The Poco M3 Pro 5G makes a great device for surfing the web; 5G enables a fast and stable connection and the 5000mAh battery means you can multitask without running out of charge quickly.
Tablet – Asus Transformer Book T100HA
Tablets for online poker offer the same advantages as smartphones – they’re portable and you can connect from anywhere – with a few more aces up their sleeve. Many poker sites are now offering different games, while Hold’em is the most common, there’s traditional draw and stud poker, and these days Omaha Poker is the second most played variant behind Texas Hold’em. Omaha is a little different and a little more intense – the basic rule differentiation is that instead of each player being dealt two (hole) cards of their own and making their best hand from a combination of those and the five community cards available to everyone, Omaha players are dealt four hole cards.
Similar to Texas Hold’em, five community cards are dealt, however players must make a hand from exactly two of their own cards and three of the community cards on the table. Tablets may be more use for Omaha, due to their bigger screens – with more going on at the table, it’s easier to miss things; more screen real estate means more skilful poker. The Asus Transformer Book T100HA makes an excellent choice for online poker. It’s 10.1 inch display is fully backlit, it’s 30 watt-hour battery charges to 80% in two hours and its Windows 10 environment gives you the choice of any poker site on the web, as well as in app stores.
Laptop – Lenovo Yogi 7i
Laptops for online poker make for even bigger screens than tablets, with the one catch that you can’t sign a laptop up for a phone contract, so you’ll be restricted to where you can pick up a Wi-Fi connection to play if you’re out and about. The Lenovo Yogi 7i is a great choice for poker websites specifically as well as general computing power. The touchscreen means using apps is easier to control that way than via a mouse or touchpad and the webcam has Lenovo’s famous shutter facility, so you can decide how much privacy you want at the table. The all metal chassis gives it increased durability – you can’t throw it out the window on a bad beat, but it’ll probably stand up to some banging of fists on the desk.
Desktop – AMD Ryzen 3 3100 Desktop Processor
For the dedicated online player, a desktop may be the way to go. The larger screen and ability to use a potentially more reliable wired connection make them the most reliable and immersive device for the game. Some folks find being static on the chair and having to stay in the one place helps recreate the casino experience. For others, it offers benefits over and above the physical casino.
Most poker websites and apps offer the player the ability to compete on multiple tables at once. While this offers the definitive internet gaming experience, it does take more processing power than one could typically find in a more portable device. Pairing a processor such as the AMD Ryzen 3 3100 with a graphics card with 2 HDMI ports offers players the ability to run two monitors straight out of the box for easy navigation of multiple tables at once.
