The Grand Virtual software is used by Everest Poker. It is not a bad client and it has a lot of features – with some more work it could become very good.
The lobby of the Grand Virtual client is bristling with features and information. It is a bit cluttered and the graphics are not the best I have seen but it works and it gives the impression that this is a client that designers and developers are putting an effort into. You browse tables and tournaments using a tabbed list view and some buttons. Like in most other clients you get some additional information about games in an information panel to the right of the list view when you select the game in the list. You have all information you need here and it appears where you expect it to. The overview is not bad: 15 tables fit vertically into on page of the list view and you can sort the tables according to any of the eight columns. The software can support a large number of languages but unfortunately you end up getting a mix of languages: for me, the dialogs are in Swedish, the interface in English and when I looked at the “How to play” section in was in Portuguese. At this time, most of the tabs or disabled and it appears that only Texas Hold’em is spread – the presence of more tabs suggests that this will change soon though. There is no drop down main menu in the lobby and I think that given the large number of features this would have been of help. Some options are a little bit hard to find such as the settings which are accessed from a tiny button in the bottom right corner.
You have some nice features in this software, some of which are specifically designed for novice players. For example, the have a “training room” where you can play without even being logged in. Here, you play against robots (calling stations) and this has a number of advantages: the robots can be designed not to ruin the game by moving all in every hand, you don’t have to feel any pressure if you haven’t played before, you will always get a seat and your opponents won’t be holding up the game. Furthermore, they also have “Poker Tutorial” that takes you step by step through a game of hold’em: from sitting down at the table to using the controls and understanding the game rules. This is excellent for novice players!
Only single table tournaments appear to be offered at this point. To join a tournament you double click it and then just sit down in an empty seat. The list works great. You get most information you want to have already in the list and by selecting a tournament in the list you get information about the players that are seated in the panel to the right of the list view.
I haven’t completely decided whether I like or dislike the small tables in this software. On the one hand, the interface is a bit cluttered but on the other hand, the graphics and controls are clear and distinct and you can fit more tables on a screen without overlapping. There are avatars in the seats around the table and although they don’t appear to be identical between the tables I haven’t found a way to set the avatar of my player so I assume that they are not connected to accounts The table is of the kind where the table is rotated such that you are always seated in the centre bottom. The chat has small text but it is quite readable and if you don’t like it you can actually set the size of the font. You can also set the amount of detail you want from dealer messages. In the top right corner you can shift between statistics and two levels of summary of the last hand – a good feature. The buttons are large (compared with the small size of the tables) and have mouse-over effects. This makes game play smoother than on many clients with much larger tables and controls. The slider in big bet games is very good: it is smooth, it can be set by clicking in its interval and it doesn’t produce weird fractions. In addition, the type-in option is very good. Playing many tables works reasonably well I think although the tables do not always receive focus when it is your turn. The player turn is indicated with a visible timer but I think something blinking would have been useful here.
The GrandVirtual software isn’t bad at all. It isn’t the best software by any means but it has some nice features, pretty good graphics and good controls. |
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