# SDMB Poker: Dead in the water? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 14, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796 "2009-10-14T16:03:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/1 "2009-10-14T16:03:20Z")
No thread for this quarter, some players unable to access the game. Last week it was just **Dag** and myself registered to play. Are we dead? Does anyone know of a place where we can play? What will I do with open Thursday nights? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/2 "2009-10-14T18:44:03Z")
If not dead, can I get in on this? ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/3 "2009-10-15T08:21:17Z")
Last week I had a pre-game crash that took too long to reboot for me to register in time. But, really, I’m not much interested in continuing play with only three players. **Really Not All That Bright** : The biggest problem now is funding for USA players. Some of us got our money in on Crazy Poker before the UEIGA (or whatever) took hold. Our game _might_ be available on other MicroGaming sites, but you would need to verify that, and that you could fund your account. Months ago, I heard some chat that Doyle’s Room, another MG site, is fundable for US players, but I can’t verify that or whether our private game shows up there. I created a game for Thursday night if you want to see if it is available to you. I’m contemplating posting on the 2+2 forums to see if there is a solution that is workable. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/4 "2009-10-15T16:43:46Z")
I hope it’s not dead. I’ve sent a query to Doyle’s Room to see if I can get back in the game that way. Even if I can’t, I’ll show up to chat on Thursday evenings. Last Thursday, something came up, though. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/5 "2009-10-15T18:35:42Z")
Doyle’s Room does accept U.S. players (at least, they do from Massachusetts), but they’re not on Microgaming anymore. I sent another question asking if they support private tournaments, in case we want to move the whole game there. (The reply said they’re on the “Cake Network platform”, so there may be other options, as well.) ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/6 "2009-10-15T19:02:47Z")
I’d love to join the resurrection, but the timing just doesn’t fit, especially on weekdays - I don’t think the SO would appreciate me playing net poker at 3AM 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/7 "2009-10-16T02:53:19Z")
Only Mostly Dead tonight’s results: 1. Dag 2. Missy 3. Oslo 4. Root (sidelined) ---
**Author:** ![peekercpa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/8 "2009-10-16T03:16:12Z")
i’d love to play but funding does become an issue. however, if you were to give me some details i’d give it a shot. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/9 "2009-10-16T05:42:44Z")
To all concerned: we are giving a balls-out effort to get this going again. OK, maybe not all that, but some of us are looking into finding a USA-friendly site that will enable private, micro-stake games. Keep looking here until we find a viable solution. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/10 "2009-10-21T03:01:05Z")
We could always do Fold Em again, … or rather, someone else could host a game. ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/11 "2009-10-21T04:18:44Z")
I really enjoyed playing back before I picked up a bar shift on Thursday nights. That is actually the only reason that I stopped. Admittedly, the money issue was somewhat of a difficulty but I remember it being not entirely impossible to work out. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/12 "2009-10-21T04:38:04Z")
Well, what are the most viable options? ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/13 "2009-10-21T12:25:33Z")
i’d probably be up for this if it gets going again. you’ll need to refresh me on details - i only played once previously. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/14 "2009-10-21T17:15:49Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > To all concerned: we are giving a balls-out effort to get this going again. > > OK, maybe not all that, but some of us are looking into finding a USA-friendly site that will enable private, micro-stake games. Keep looking here until we find a viable solution. Well, we could always go back to a hosted game like we were looking at in the wake of the UIGEA passing. The software was pretty cheap, though it looks like they’ve gotten fancier. I’m pretty sure I still have a copy of Poker Mavens on my hard drive. On the plus side, they’ve got it set up now so that it all runs in the browser, so it would be OS-agnostic. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/15 "2009-10-21T19:01:02Z")
It surprises me that none of the IM programs have a poker game add-on that can be used within chat sessions. You can play all sorts of games with buddies, it’s amazing that this has been left out. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/16 "2009-10-21T19:01:59Z")
I’ll play poker against anyone… ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/17 "2009-10-23T02:44:44Z")
We just tried the Poker Mavens- it works pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/18 "2009-10-23T02:55:56Z")
Okay, I’ve done some research and Dag, Oslo, and I tried it out tonight. I can run the new, flashy version of the Poker Mavens server off my computer. It’s got lots of nice options, including the ability to get the game off automatically at a set time so I don’t have to be there watching the server as long as I have it running. Not only could there be the weekly tournament that we’ve been running since 2004? (has it really been that long?) but I could conceivably set up multiple tournaments, a standing ring game, heads-up games, you name it. Complete with fake money tracking of wins and losses to make it more like a commercial site. The two versions we’d be interested in are $29.95 and $99.95. Unless we get more than 10 people wanting to play (and playing regularly), the cheaper version will be enough. If all you guys are serious, I’ll buy the $99.95 version but will ask for a few bucks to help defray the cost of the software. The player client is Flash-based, so it should be usable from any computer running any OS that supports Flash. I know we’ve had interest in the past from Mac users that couldn’t get on. My plan is to setup a trial room with a ring game at least once in this next week so that people can look at it and decide if this is something they are interested in. I’ll post with more information later after I get some feedback to this post. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Red\_Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/19 "2009-10-23T03:06:48Z")
Asterion, I’m interested in playing, and would be probably be willing to kick in, but I have on calls so I might not be able to play every time there is a game. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796/20 "2009-10-23T07:16:13Z")
Back in the old world of online poker… I posted a question on the twoplustwo forums about USA-player-friendly sites with private games, and the only suggestion I got was PokerStars. It seems that USA players are able to get money on for real money private tourneys, but the games can only be set up by people with 2000 FPP’s. I myself have only 662, so a Doper with at least 2000 would have to be willing to set up the games, and we still would have to jump through whatever hoops to get our money there. I don’t recall (if I ever heard) what minimum buy-ins were available for MTT’s - $1 would probably be a deal breaker AFAIAC. If any Doper with 2000 FPP’s wants to set up a theoretical game and report back, that would be great. (Paging **Senor Beef** …) Anyway, if play money games are acceptable, PokerMavens seems workable. **Asterion** : are real money games doable on PokerMavens? How would the banking work if they are? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-poker-dead-in-the-water/513796.md?page=2)