Poker on a Tablet

Tablet PC’s are becoming increasingly popular and coffee tables around the world are now adorned with iPads, Google Nexus 7s, Asus Transfomers, Samsung Galaxys and Motorola Xooms. A tablet is basically a simplified laptop that’s mostly used for web browsing and playing games. Unlike a regular PC, almost all of these devices (except for the iPad of course) run on Google’s hugely popular Android operating system, so if you want to play poker on a tablet PC, you’re going to need to find a poker room that has Android compatible software.

Finding the Best Tablet Poker Software

Poker companies have approached bringing online poker to tablet users in two different ways. The first approach is to have a dedicated app, or piece of software, which the user downloads to the tablet and runs as a standalone program. The app will prompt them to log in to their account and allow them choose the table they want to play at from the lobby and the table will pop up, with touch screen controls allowing the player to control their actions and bet size amounts and all of the data is sent and received from the poker site using the tablet’s WiFi or 3G connectivity. At the moment, only a few companies offer dedicated tablet poker apps which run on the Android operating system.

Best Tablet Poker Site

The second way which companies have tackled bringing online poker to tablet players is through the device’s internet browser. Instead of coding different software for Apple’s iOS and Android and Windows Mobile, many of the big online poker companies have opted to adapt their PC based ‘in browser’ applet for mobile devices. If you want to play on one of these sites, you open your browser and type in the web address of the site and look for the instant-play option. A new browser window will open, prompting you to log in with your account details and then you will be able to pick the game you want to play for the lobby. Though the browser based games still work well, the graphics and game play aren’t as smooth as the app based offerings which are specifically designed for touch screen play.

Best Browser Based Tablet Software: Bet365 Poker

Bet365 poker is the best option for playing in your browser and has the most the most user friendly tablet software and very fishy games too, so if you’re looking for a browser-based poker game, this is the way to go.

Differences Playing Poker on a Tablet to a PC

The main difference with playing poker on a tablet is that at the moment you’re restricted to playing on a single table, whereas on a PC you can play as many tables as you can handle. This isn’t a problem for most players, as when they’re using a tablet to play, its mostly to have some fun on the go or to pass a bit of time rather than to have a marathon session of grinding. It’s also quite difficult to use other apps while your poker game is running and for the most part you’re better off just leaving the poker game on the screen, rather than trying to browse the web and flick between it and the poker table.

You also have to be a little bit more careful when using touch screen controls. It’s a lot easier to mis-click with your finger than it is with a mouse, particularly if your tablet has a small screen, so pay attention to what you’re doing and if you’re not familiar with the site and its controls, you’re better off playing low stakes for a while so a misclick doesn’t cost you a lot of money!

The last thing you need to think about when firing up a game of poker on your tablet pc is your data connection. A lot of people worry about how much data online poker will eat up from their 3G data plan, but there’s nothing to worry about. Playing online poker will only use up about 100kB of data per hour, so you’re very unlikely to do major damage to your bill by playing poker. One thing you DO need to be concerned about is the strength of your connection, particularly if you’re not playing in a WiFi area. Mobile data connections are notoriously temperamental and even moving around the room can see a big variation in your signal. If you’re playing for big money, be sure that you’re going to be in a well covered area for the duration of your poker session.

Take a look at our online poker strategy section if you want to learn some new tips and tricks!