Before I start complaining too much I want to start out by saying that the B2B software isn’t all that bad considering it’s written in Java. It has some annoying features and it’s not very pleasing to look at but overall it’s better than many other clients and will not cause you more grief than you will be able to overcome if you like the games. In fact it doesn’t really fail in any critical functionality and because of this I gave it a slightly higher overall rating than the individual ratings indicate. In some sense, the overall impression is still ok although there is little to get excited about in the B2B client. That said, let me start out by noting an extremely irritating feature that I’m not sure whether it might only exist for some users (I can’t imagine how it’s been released that way): the vertical slider of the table list pops to the position of the currently selected table every time the list reloads, which is about once every 2 seconds. This makes it hard to navigate the list before you figure this out and even then it can be irritating.
Furthermore, there is that “Java feel” to the client. The “Java feel”, if you can’t immediately relate to it, is brought about by that simplistic and very Java-specific interface with simple flat buttons, blocky fonts, weird cursors and sometimes a bit jumpy reaction to input. Comparing a Java client to a Windows client is kind of like comparing a Chevrolet to a Mercedes: the finish is poor and the whole thing looks like it was put together in haste (I might add here, for completeness, that I drive a Chevrolet myself). What irritates me the most is however not that it’s written in Java it is that it runs only on Windows computers! The only valid excuse for writing something in Java in the first place is that you want a platform independent program: a program that can be run on any computer regardless of make or operative system. For example, some poker rooms use Java clients that can be run in a web browser to be able to attract players that are behind firewalls or do not use Windows computers: this is a good reason, the only reason, to use Java. The presentation capabilities of Java are limited because it could not include any fancy things that would only work on some platforms and as a result, programs written in Java are slow and look horrible in general. Don’t get me wrong though, I have nothing against Java as such. The awful presentation and slow execution is a price that you pay for the portability. But, since you don’t get the portability here the question is: what do you get? You get the “Java feel”… no more, no less. Again, the client is not bad, but it could have been a lot better if it had been a Windows program.
The tournament section is not bad at all and there is a wide variety of tournament types supported. The tournament area launches in a new window and you get a tabbed list view where you can select between seeing all tournaments, scheduled, sit’n’go, one-table and completed. You get a lot of information about the tournaments in the list and all types of tournaments have lobbies where you can look at all thinkable information about the tournament as well as registering and unregistering. You can also register directly from the list. In the tournament lobby you have a number of tabs under which you can see a description of the tournament in words, the player list, the results and prizes, the tables that are running, the blind and breaks schedule, the purchases that have been made and a list of other info. This is probably the best tournament handling that I have seen in an online poker room and it is very obvious that it has been designed by people who play a lot of tournaments themselves (just imagine how good it would be if it was written for Windows!). Furthermore, you have a clock on the tournament tables that counts down to the next blind level. Very good!
You can play as many tables as you please at the B2B clients that I have tried out. This is probably in any event not a feature of the software but a parameter that the poker rooms can set at their discretion. The graphics are bordering to horrible but at least the interface is reasonably clean. The focus shift is unfortunately not optimal; if you have a lot of tables active all you will hear if you have some other application open is a page sound and you will have to guess which table it came from. It seems as if the focus shifts correctly sometimes but not always. But, as long as you don’t check your email, try to chat on the messenger or even do something productive while you’re playing the focus shift is adequate. The big bet sliders work really well with the possible exception that you can’t click where you want the slider, it will just inch up or down with every click. You can also conveniently type in bet amounts which is a functionality that I value but others might not use at all. Whose turn it is, is indicated by a different colour of the frame around the player’s name and this works well. Again, nothing fancy but quite functional. The actions are displayed when they occur but after that you will have to look at the bets to find out who did what. This is fairly common but it really helps, at least in my opinion, if the last action remains indicated even when the action has passed on. All basic functionality work smoothly and is self explaining (if you know that you usually click the dealer tray to bring in more chips) such as bringing in more money, sitting out, joining waiting lists and so on. Well, maybe it would be useful if one could join the waiting list from the table windows too but that is not overly important. To set the chat window preferences you have to do this in the lobby drop-down menus however. The options available are bare bone: everything that should be there is there but very little extra. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is up to you to decide. |
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