The MicroPower software is used by the poker rooms in the Power Poker Network. The lobby looks good and you have a good overview in the typical tabbed list view with an information panel on the right hand side. The list can be sorted according to any of the column values and you have most information available in the list. The is a semi-drop down main menu where some of the entries work like buttons and other produce a sub menu. This works well however and you have access to all the features collected in one place here in a convenient way. You also have a higher level of control than in most poker rooms: a selection between “Main menu”, “Account tools” and “Play Poker”. This is good since it allows for the inclusion of quite a bit of functionality and information without making the interface cluttered. The main menu gives you access to some web information (a web reader is launched). The account tools let you customize your settings, access the cashier functions, change your info and request hand histories. Play Poker, not surprisingly, brings you to the list of games. The window doesn’t have the large bar at the top of the window but on the other hand you can drag the window by clicking anywhere within it (except clickable elements such as buttons of course). The arrangement of the buttons appears to differ between the rooms that use this software but the functionality appears to be rather constant.
If you select the “Tournaments” button you are given a further choice between single- and multi table tourneys. Single table tournaments are all sit’n’go and you get most of the information you could ask for in the list and in the information panel when you select a tournament. You register for sit’n’go tournaments by launching them and then sitting in at a free seat. The tournament then starts when all seats are taken. You can see who is seated and, if the tournament is going, the amounts of chips that they command. Pay-outs are only displayed in percentages of the prize pool which is, I think, a bit unnecessary: it would have been easy to also display the amounts. For the multi-table tournaments you get an appropriate level of information in the list and to register and get more info you have to launch the tournament’s lobby. The lobby could have contained a great deal of more information such as blind levels, breaks and so on. You can however see a list of tables, a list of players and a list of players for the selected table. You can also watch a table by double clicking it. You don’t launch a table by double clicking a player but you do position the table list cursor at the table at which the player sits. This is maybe even better than actually launching the tables.
The graphics are not great but they work and the controls are not bad at all. The sound effects are good and focus passing is almost perfect except that it shifts focus to table sometime before it’s your turn to act. This becomes extremely irritating if you are sitting out to do something else with your computer: the tables come flying from time to time even though your are not participating in the game. The controls are a bit small but they are so well designed that this is not a big issue in any case. The slider is not as good as it could have been. You can’t quickly position it be clicking in the interval but the type-in option works very well with bet amounts updating dynamically in the buttons. You can access the settings from a button in the top left hand corner of the screen and you can select whether you want to view chat (you can set levels), player notes or statistics. There are ad banners at the table which I think is not a big problem really. They occupy the space where the controls are and they disappear whenever any control needs to be displayed.
The MicroPower client is very good in my opinion although they should work a little bit on the focus shifting between the tables. Usually poker rooms fail here by not passing focus often enough but here it is done too much. |
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