Re: NEW Poker Room - Play for cash and prizes
Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:59 am
I note that most of the comments about the VideoPoker room at Zen have been negative , with only a few positive.
I did not have any problems downloading the program or getting it to run. I think that it is a good concept and format, and hope that it will be given a chance to succeed. I have been playing in the videopoker tournaments all week, so I have some experience with using it. I admit that there have been some problems, especially with screen freeze-up, but there is a workaround for that.
As Webman has noted, the Poker Room is not accessed by connecting to a website through your web browser as we do with videopoker.com. You download a program and install it on your computer. Then to access the Poker Room, you run the program on your computer, which goes out over your internet connection and connects directly to the Zen servers. You are not using your web browser to connect to some website such as a hypothetical Zen.com website.
As with any program that runs on your computer, you should verify that your computer meets the minimum requirements to run the program. This includes processor speed, memory, operating system version, and internet connection type and speed. If I recall, the requirements are available in the FAQS which are available for reading before you download the program. They claim that the Poker program will work with dialup, but I am skeptical that a real-time program will work correctly with dialup. Note that there are potential problems if you are running Windows Vista, and they give instructions on how to solve them.
There is a workaround for the screen freeze-up problem. I call it a screen freeze-up when all the buttons grey out and nothing happens expept the clock keeps ticking downward. Provisions were made apparently in the hold-em room for players to reenter if the internet connection was lost. This is also the case in the VideoPoker room. So the thing to do if the screen freezes up is to wait a few seconds in case it is just slow, and then close the program Then restart the program, log back in, and then restart your tournament session (you should get back your totals and number of hands played as well as your ticking clock ( don't dawdle, the clock is ticking while you are gone ). It can be annoying when it happens when you first click the max bet button to start the session, or when it happens more that once in a session. Some time is lost, but at least you still have a chance. You are no longer disqualified for failure to complete the maximum number of hands except in the Turbo ( speed poker ) tournaments. I stop the program by closing the main Poker Room window. I do not know if it works correctly if you close just the session window for your tournament. However, the main Poker Room window is smaller than the Tournament session window, so it is normally hidden by the session window. You can probably bring it on top by clicking on the proper icon on the task bar. I like to expose the window by moving it to the upper left hand corner of the screen before I first check in to a tournament. Then when the Check-in window opens, I move that window to the lower right of the screen. So if the session window freezes up, I click on the exposed top of the main window to bring it on top of the session window, then exit the main window, which also closes the session window. Then double click on the PokerRoom icon on your desktop to restart the program and log back in. Then click on the Tournaments tab and click on the Restart button for your tournament.
One problem which has been mentioned here is getting an error message when you try to start the program that says the program is already running. This indicates a Zombie program is running, which means that the interface window has been closed somehow, but the program keeps running with no way to access it. You need to use the task manager to find the running process ( something like PlayPoker.exe ) and exit it.
I did not have any problems downloading the program or getting it to run. I think that it is a good concept and format, and hope that it will be given a chance to succeed. I have been playing in the videopoker tournaments all week, so I have some experience with using it. I admit that there have been some problems, especially with screen freeze-up, but there is a workaround for that.
As Webman has noted, the Poker Room is not accessed by connecting to a website through your web browser as we do with videopoker.com. You download a program and install it on your computer. Then to access the Poker Room, you run the program on your computer, which goes out over your internet connection and connects directly to the Zen servers. You are not using your web browser to connect to some website such as a hypothetical Zen.com website.
As with any program that runs on your computer, you should verify that your computer meets the minimum requirements to run the program. This includes processor speed, memory, operating system version, and internet connection type and speed. If I recall, the requirements are available in the FAQS which are available for reading before you download the program. They claim that the Poker program will work with dialup, but I am skeptical that a real-time program will work correctly with dialup. Note that there are potential problems if you are running Windows Vista, and they give instructions on how to solve them.
There is a workaround for the screen freeze-up problem. I call it a screen freeze-up when all the buttons grey out and nothing happens expept the clock keeps ticking downward. Provisions were made apparently in the hold-em room for players to reenter if the internet connection was lost. This is also the case in the VideoPoker room. So the thing to do if the screen freezes up is to wait a few seconds in case it is just slow, and then close the program Then restart the program, log back in, and then restart your tournament session (you should get back your totals and number of hands played as well as your ticking clock ( don't dawdle, the clock is ticking while you are gone ). It can be annoying when it happens when you first click the max bet button to start the session, or when it happens more that once in a session. Some time is lost, but at least you still have a chance. You are no longer disqualified for failure to complete the maximum number of hands except in the Turbo ( speed poker ) tournaments. I stop the program by closing the main Poker Room window. I do not know if it works correctly if you close just the session window for your tournament. However, the main Poker Room window is smaller than the Tournament session window, so it is normally hidden by the session window. You can probably bring it on top by clicking on the proper icon on the task bar. I like to expose the window by moving it to the upper left hand corner of the screen before I first check in to a tournament. Then when the Check-in window opens, I move that window to the lower right of the screen. So if the session window freezes up, I click on the exposed top of the main window to bring it on top of the session window, then exit the main window, which also closes the session window. Then double click on the PokerRoom icon on your desktop to restart the program and log back in. Then click on the Tournaments tab and click on the Restart button for your tournament.
One problem which has been mentioned here is getting an error message when you try to start the program that says the program is already running. This indicates a Zombie program is running, which means that the interface window has been closed somehow, but the program keeps running with no way to access it. You need to use the task manager to find the running process ( something like PlayPoker.exe ) and exit it.