Poker Manager - Invite Style to Your Poker Nights

very good
key review info
application features
  • Manage tournament
  • (2 more, see all...)

Supposedly originating from the Persian game of As Nas, Poker has become over the centuries one of the most popular card games. Famous for the adrenaline rush that it can generate due to the consistent amount of money won/lost during a single hand but also for the calm required to master the game, Poker can be very dangerous especially if you are a gambling addict.

Lately, casinos all over the world are trying to control the phenomenon by organizing tournaments that require a registration fee and numerous prizes for ordinary people, but many professional gamers and “high rollers” still win or lose a lot of money at the poker table.

Due to its glamorous aura, many of us enjoy the game in the commodity of our home, playing with virtual chips or small amounts of money on the traditional Poker Night. And to make things even more amusing, Romain Cosentino has developed Poker Manager, a very efficient application that allows you to easily organize and monitor tournaments from your seat by using your Apple remote or iPhone.

The Looks

Poker Manager has a very stylish interface, which tries to remind you that even if you are in your basement or in your living room, the game does not lose its charm. This way, you get the chance to feel like playing in a real casino while easily monitoring the entire game, so at the end, you will only have to check the Price Pool and Stats&Events tabs in order to see the winners, rankings and so on.

Poker Manager has two main windows: the Tournament window and the Play Screen. The former is designed to help you organize your tournament and your players while the other allows you to monitor the actual game. It is mainly focused on efficient management of the data and it is split in two different panels: on the left, you can see the tournament settings and the follow up tools, while on the right, you can see the available features for each selected tab.

The latter, on the other hand, is a lot more esthetic. Usually, it looks a lot nicer if you choose to make it fit the screen (the option is available through the buttons bar situated on the top left corner) and you are supposed to navigate through its menus using your Apple remote or iPhone although it does respond to mouse clicks as well. If you do not like the black/grey combination provided by default, you can easily customize its design via the Preferences window and change the background image, gradient colors, font color and shadow type for the remaining players and average stack, tournament title and price pool, but you may also disable the animated resizing of the window.

The Works

In order to start playing, you must define your own tournament: set a name, a buy-in cost (you can set the value in chips manually or choose to be automatically calculated), decide if you allow rebuys or add-ons (for each, you can set the amount, value in chips, the limit round and the commission) and even choose to share the tournament over your local network. On the bottom right corner, you can see the Restart and the Play Screen buttons at all times but before actually playing, you have to complete the tournament settings by accessing the other tabs.

The Players tab gives you the possibility to add new players manually or via your Address Book but also permits you to monitor the payment status through the buttons situated on the top of the panel: pay selected player, pay all or pay none. The features are extremely useful if you are trying to organize large tournaments and you can even use Address Book to store your usual poker contacts and easily add them for a new game.

When it comes to the chips values, you can create your own template by assigning the chip color, value, the quantity per player/available/left (assigned manually or calculated automatically) and choose to display them on the screen. Poker Manager is also offering template chips but you may save your own to use it at a later time. By default, Poker Manager uses the system’s currency unit, so if you want to change it, you must make the adjustment for the entire system.

The same area enables you to access the Rounds tab in order to set the rounds number, the paying time for each one, the ante, little and big blind amounts, if you allow a pause and for how long. As in the case of the chips, you can save your own template or use one of the predefined ones.

The Tables tab permits you to specify the number of players allowed at one table and helps you generate a seating plan randomly, alphabetically or by registration. Once the plan is done, you can preview it in list mode, grid or coverflow. The table color can be changed in the Preferences window and you can also adjust the images resolution quality in coverflow mode.

Like any other game, each poker session must have a winner and a prize and you will have them automatically generated by rank, but you can specify the winning value for each place in percentage of the global amount available or in real money. As usual, you can save your own distribution or employ one of the available templates.

The Stats&Events tab allows you to easily monitor both the players and the tournament and gives you the possibility to print the results or export them in HTML format. The Statistic Sheet design can be quickly customized from the Preferences panel that enables you to change the font colors and styles for the tournament name, the general information and for the tab cells.

Once you activate the Play Screen, the fun can begin and you will be able to start each round at the press of a button, see the chips amount, the players’ rank and winnings. The menu button helps you place rebuys or add-ons for each player if it is the case or simply eliminate them (to avoid mistakes, you can enable the elimination confirmation feature in the Preferences), preview the tables plan but also offers access to your iTunes playlist. If a player takes too much time to make a decision, you can easily start the timer to rush them in (the countdown duration is 1 minute by default but can be changed in the Preferences).

To keep your players focused, you may also enable the sound alerts to punctuate different stages of the game, using the default messages or creating new ones that better suit your group. To avoid confusion, you may choose to automatically reduce the iTunes volume during the announcements as well.

The whole point of the application is to allow you to manage your game without leaving your seat and to do that, you can use your Apple remote, although, in some systems, it might not work properly, requiring an alternative driver. Poker Manager’s Preferences window displays the functions assigned for each button in the Apple Remote panel and offers to check if your system is compatible. You can find out more about this issue on the developer’s support webpage.

The developer also provides the Poker Manager Remote application that permits you to replace the Apple remote with your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, and the Devices panel in the Preferences window allows you to grant or remove authorization to each device.


The Good

Poker Manages is a great application that enables you to make the most of your devices when it comes to managing your poker games.

The Bad

Although the application is rather user-friendly, it provides many features and I believe that a manual or a more detailed video tutorial would be very helpful. Also, to push things a little further, I would like Poker Manager to generate a real-time visual representation of the tables and the players’ status, so you could be able to see what happens even if you are not at that particular table.

The Truth

With the help of Poker Manager, you can deliver a lot of style to your poker games and a great number of efficient solutions.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 4
pricing / value 3


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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