Master Poker's General Features
Once you've found software with a powerful, robust artificial
intelligence (rare in itself), you should next be looking for a program that is
visually pleasant, since once purchased, even a beginner is likely to spend many hours hunkered
down over the computer playing poker. Especially if the program's designer has done the job
right.
Multiple Cardroom Locations
It all begins with your playing environment. Most poker programs have a single type of generic wallpaper behind your table
that never changes. For
anyone who plays more than a few minutes at a time this can quickly become stale.
It's much more
interesting to escape that dark back room now and then to travel the world and
play in exotic locations. How about a friendly cash game
at your local country club?
Don't let the little text labels representing the AI players fool you into
thinking Master Poker is a second rate poker program. Designed by a poker
player, this high quality program is about
substance over
flash. You won't find fancy bells and whistles here, or personal avatars, or 3D
representations of your favorite pros pushing all-in. Though pretty, those constructs are only visual fluff and will not contribute to making you a better poker player. What
you will find is a truly strong AI and play so smooth and compelling
you'll be convinced you're facing online human adversaries with every card turned.
Now take a look at some of the other background screens Master Poker
has to offer. You can always
experience the quiet beauty of a
home game in Lake Tahoe.
Or perhaps you would be more interested in a game facing international players. How about a quaint little London pub overlooking
the city?
If you're not in the mood to face the Brits, or maybe you're just too hardcore for all these fluffy
locations, there's
always Vegas. Try a formal night game at a hotel suite overlooking
the City of Sin.
MP has (12) different
cardrooms (screen backgrounds) from which to
choose, each designed to give you a change of scenery and provide you with a pleasant playing
environment. If one location does not fit your current mood, pick another. It's always up to you.
One of my primary goals in development of this program was to make my users
WANT to play hours and hours of poker, day after day, month after month. I felt it
important to present a variety of cardroom locations around the world to keep
things fresh and ever-changing.
Multiple Table Colors
As you probably noticed above, MP also has several different table options
from which to choose as well. This allows people of different personalities to choose a color
conducive to their own personality or to simply chose a color in line with their
current mood today. Would you prefer a blue table at your Vegas night game? No
problem, just change the preferred table color for your next session.
   
The nice thing about this feature is that a different table color will give a
specific screen background (as exampled above) a whole new feel, resulting in 48
different looks for your playing pleasure.
Multiple Deck Styles
There are many card decks from which to choose as well. Assorted card colors offer
you some flexibility if the current deck colors blend too closely with the
chosen table
color, making them difficult to see. Or, perhaps you're just in the mood for
tiger-striped cards today.
      
Multiple Player Profiles and Personal Preferences
Master Poker allows you to create customized player profiles for each member of your
household, so each can have their own stored personal preferences, history
archives, etc.. Once you've established a new player profile you will want to make
adjustments to the way the software functions from game to game to suit your
specific needs or personality. For example, let’s say you create a new profile
named ‘Maverick’, and another family member wishes to create their own
profile, naming it ‘Drifter’. While playing under the Maverick profile you
may direct the software to deal the cards at a faster rate, to eliminate the
dealing animation, or to use specific buy-ins, chip levels and blind structures
when playing different types of events.
These adjustments are your personal
preferences, and will be saved from session to session so you don’t have to
constantly remind the program how you like to play. When your other family
member logs on and changes the active player back to ‘Drifter’ he/she will
not be straddled with your latest preferences, but rather those preferences they
last used. This allows all players in your household to maintain their own
personal preferences, each in their own personal profiles.
Students of the game can use multiple profiles to create several different
accounts, each using a different style of play. You might use one profile to
play hyper-aggressively, another to play tight, another somewhere in the middle.
By splitting your different styles up among profiles you can track the results
of each style separately to let you know which style is working best for you.
Multiple Event Types
The first decision for any session is in what type of event you wish to play
today. MP has several game options including:
Three of the four should be familiar to most players, but in case they're not,
here's a quick breakdown of MP's different event options.
Multi-table Tournaments may be played using anywhere from just 2 tables
(simulating a large Sit & Go/Satellite) to a maximum of 500 tables (a
massive tournament). Each table in your tournament can host from 2 players
(pure heads-up format), to as many as 10 players (a typical big tourney
format). This means you can play against as many as 5000 players in a
10-seat tournament.
Sit and Go's (also called Satellites, One-Table Tournaments, etc.) are a
single table tournament where you're objective is to be the last player
standing. Your S&G table can be adjusted to begin with anywhere from
2-10 players, with a typical format hosting 6-9-10 players.
Survivor is an MP exclusive game. It is similar to a one-table Sit and Go,
but instead of trying to win first place you're trying to 'survive' for as
long as possible against relentlessly rising antes/blinds, and an infinite
number of potential opponents (players are immediately replaced each time
they are busted). It is meant as a device to help you develop patience,
stamina and staying power under pressuring tournament conditions. Since you
always play for as many hands as possible you will face more high-blind
situations than you would expect to see in a normal S&G, forcing you to
adjust your play to changing conditions.
Cash Games are played at a single table, typically against familiar
players, where you buy-in just as you would in the real world and cash out
whenever you feel like quitting. You can set your table up with anywhere
from 2-10 players (including yourself). Antes and blinds are always fixed
(and can be set pre-game). As opponents go broke, or take their profits and
run, they will be replaced by new players aimed at separating you from your
money.
Once you've chosen an event type you can click the 'Change Structure' button
to customize the parameters of the chosen event to suit your specific needs.
Click the button below to move to the next feature section:
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