I have a very dual feeling towards the Microgaming client. Some of the best games on the Internet take place using this software on the Prima Poker network and the software works but it has a lot of mildly irritating “features”. There is nothing major wrong with the software and you definitely shouldn’t avoid a poker room for using it but neither should you choose one because of it.
As far as the lobby, everything about the Microgaming client is excellent. It has the typical tabbed list of tables and tournaments seen in almost all clients and it works great: you get all the information you need in the way that you expect. Actually, you even have some additional useful features, at least in some versions, such as that you can filter out the structures and tournament types that you are not interested in.
If you are lucky, your client is not default configured to use the multi table mode where all tables are fit in one window and you have to change tables by pushing little buttons. I don’t know who thought this out but he or she surely can not have planned to play on the thing because it’s completely useless: at least in my own humble opinion. The only good thing about this feature is that it can be turned off, and once turned off multi table play is quite survivable using the Microgaming client. It’s not a dream but if the games are good you can live with its shortcomings. The shortcomings all come in the form of unnecessary little irritating “things”. First of all: the slider. If you just drag the slider a bit you will probably end up betting something like $43.32 which is aesthetically very unpleasing and there are no occasions where a bet like that makes sense except as an all-in bet. The figure is uneven and the long row of different chip denomination you’ll see in front of you is nothing short of ridiculous: from $1000 to $0.01 chips. Why? Secondly: bringing in more chips. Although it has improved from how it used to be, this is still also an irritating and frustrating experience. If you attempt to top off your stack while playing it will simply (and with a loud something-bad-happened sound) present you with the information that you are currently in a hand and cannot bring in chips. Then, when you have folded, you can bring in chips but only up to the allowed amount relative to your stack prior to entering the last hand. This will of course only be a problem if you are playing big bet games. Third, if you type in the bet amount it appears as if you have to hit return for the software to accept your input – it is only then the amount appears in the right place. However, which I found out by mistake, you in fact don’t have to hit return, it will bet the typed amount anyway regardless of what the button reads. I don’t know if this is good or bad. It makes my life easier but it is slightly misleading. Note that all the complaints I have presented are things that wouldn’t be hard to do something about!
Apart from all these little shortcomings, as I have said, the client is actually fairly usable. It takes some getting used to but you learn to live with its sometimes weird behaviours and I have even done so to the point where I actually enjoy playing on it. You see who’s turn it is, focus moves between the tables in an acceptable way, you can read your hole cards and what’s on the board and you can act accurately and quickly enough once you get used to the controls. The graphics, like most other things with the Microgaming software, are functional but lack finish in any meaningful sense of the word.
The tournaments work well and you will probably have no problems finding tournaments, registering for them and playing them. You have all the information that you need and even some rather useful features in the tournament lobbies such as lists that are sortable after several criteria, your current chip rank and so on.
To sum it up, it would be hard to give Microgaming very high marks and it is only grudgingly that I give it a 7 in overall rating. But, if you like the games on the Prima Network it is worth it to get used to the client. It doesn’t have any catastrophic shortcomings and it will let you do everything that you will likely want to do. |
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