It seems like every second person you meet has a smart phone now and most of the major poker operators are looking to cash in on the smart phone revolution by developing iPhone and Android poker apps. These smart phone poker apps are usually a scaled down version of the site’s main poker client, typically allowing you to play one game at a time and most only offer cash game play at the moment. As usual, PokerStars are leading the way and are the first site to offer multi-tabling and tournament poker to mobile phone poker players.
Playing poker on your iPhone or Android is very much like playing on your PC. The poker app developers have integrated touch screen friendly controls which display large buttons on your screen when it’s your turn to act. They usually also include a bet size slider or +/- button to adjust your bet amounts for each action. When you first play at a new mobile poker site, it’s advisable to play for play money or at low stakes until you get used to the controls. You don’t want to make an expensive mis-click at higher stakes, as a result of touching the wrong part of the screen. Of course this is less likely if you’re using a bigger screened device such as an iPad or an Android based tablet PC.
You can use your phone’s mobile data plan to play poker on the go and even in areas where you only have 2G coverage you’ll find that it’s generally enough to play poker on, as poker doesn’t use too much data. Typically playing a single table of holdem on your phone will take up about 100 kb of data per hour, which won’t be too expensive even on the tightest of data plans. One thing to look out for is when you’re playing on a bus or train. Make sure you’ll have coverage all the way as if you drop completely out of coverage in the middle a hand, you’ll be folded and sat out of the game as soon as your time bank expires.