Poker Download or Not, That is The Question
When you arrive at an online poker room you will see that you have got a choice to make - Poker Download or no-download. No-download breed of gaming is usually pretty straightforward because you connect to the site, select your game, wait a minute while it loads and you are in business. Unless you have got an ancient computer, are running an old or non-standard browser, or are connecting to the web through a proxy or firewall you will likely have no problems. No-download games used to be a little more graphically challenged than their Poker Download counterparts and theoretically somewhat less secure, but times have changed. The former is easy to verify for yourself and the later is totally open to debate. No-download systems include the old-school, feature-poor HTML-based games, JAVA, the standard in no-download games, and the newer Flash and Shockwave games, as the latter can be very nice looking but the rumor is that the developers are still ironing out the security issues. Download systems take a very different approach. In this case you download and install an application –just like any other piece of software - and it communicates with the server web site for transactions. Theoretically a Poker Download package could use all the vast graphics, sound and communications resources of your computer to deliver a breathtaking and totally secure play experience but in practice a strong software team - the guys that built the stuff in the first place - can make great no-download games and a poor software team can make lousy Poker Download games, as one is not inherently better than the other.
Poker Download Advantages
Other than the theoretical Poker Download advantages, there are a few boons they typically bring the player. Once it is downloaded, installed, up and running, that is it. You are less subject to Internet lags, will almost always have greater player configurability and multimedia options, and they will often run full-screen whereas the no-download guys are usually confined to a small window. The downside with Poker Download is that you have to accept the responsibility of installing the software in the first place. Also, the poker game application will have to peacefully coexist with the rest of your applications and generally speaking, none of this is very demanding and all should go well if not, call Customer Service. As to the Poker Download packages themselves, be warned that they can get pretty large. The modest ones are 2 to 4 MB. Others can get up to 10 to 15 MB, or even as high as 20 MB, depending on the options you choose, and that is a pretty hefty Poker Download. Once installed they can occupy as much as 30 or 40 MB on your harddrive so be sure you have got the disk space to spare.
Poker Download Limitations
Play at the online poker room is available only to people older than eighteen years of age, or the legal age of majority in their jurisdiction, whichever is the greater. Minors may not play at the online poker rooms under any circumstances. Any and all play by any ineligible person shall be voided, including any winnings accruing to any ineligible player. Another Poker Download limitation are your software requirements. Some of these are - Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000 or XP, 400MHz Pentium or faster CPU, 128MB of RAM or more, Screen resolution of at least 800×600 or 1024×768 screen resolution with 16-bit color depth (High color), Broadband connection, At least 15MB of free disk space, etc.
