Mark Bonington
The most affordable way to start your own online poker gaming business is to become a Licensee of an online poker software provider. This is a far less expensive option to start your own online poker room. It is also the most popular option for both licensed land-based establishments as well as entrepreneurs. Costs range from $10,000 to $60,000. Gambling is banned in my (Muslim/Islamic) country and carries a serious prison term and fine. Having said that, Poker has a huge popularity amongst the upper-class society here. I run an upscale poker room in such an Islamic country. How to Be Your Own Certificate Authority. Getting an SSL certificate from any of the major Certificate Authorities (CAs) can run $100 and up. Add to the mix, news stories which seem to indicate that not all of the established CAs can be. May 23, 2013 This project is a server designed to run a friendly game of Texas Holdem Poker. This is the server only, not the front-end or User Interface. The server exposes a REST API for client side functionality. This software is for use with friendly games of. Your own poker server software is here! Using a client-server model in your online poker room, you need to pay a special attention to poker software. Being in gambling software development business for more than ten years, we understand its importance and develop game server in C language, that produces dramatically better throughput while using far less memory. Poker @ VCFrontline offers 'pokerstats', a free web-based poker tracker, plus various other on line poker resources. Software for Home Poker Players and League Organisers. Home Poker Tour have published free web-based software to help organize your own poker league, schedule games, record results and keep track of statistics.
Starting your own online poker room website. As we’ve sat shuffling the digital chips on the tables of PokerStars, PKR or Partypoker, how many of us have entertained the thought, albeit briefly, that we could create our own online card haven?
Would we make it 3D? Would we set it in space? Could you play poker as a character from Lord of the Rings? The possibilities are endless.
The harsh reality, on the other hand, is a little different. What does it actually take? One man took a brave next step and decided to find out.
Karl Mahrenholz, a celebrated English player and member of the Hitsquad, founded a room named Poker Encore. But creating that chip-shuffling dream was not without its challenges.
'It takes a clear vision of where your players are going to come from,' says Mahrenholz. 'What are you doing to do differently that isn't already well covered? I think people think it’s a lot easier than it is. Also, players aren’t going to come to play for you just as a favor. Everyone needs to be offered something, or else they will just play where they are already.'
But when taking on the sizeable challenge of online poker’s big names, which boast thousands of users and healthy marketing budgets, Mahrenholz utilized already being a known member of the poker circuit to his advantage.
'It gave us a fair bit of visibility and I was able to build on my reputation to encourage players that they would be well looked after with us,' he recalls. 'That wasn't enough on its own though and we've always tried to run our own promotions on top of those offered by the network. The most popular of these has been our Las Vegas Team Challenge where we have sent three groups of friends to Vegas to play at the WSOP.'
But building a poker room of even moderate means is a lengthy process, and Mahrenholz is quick to issue a warning to those who think it’ll be as easy as playing pocket aces.
What does a casino cage supervisor do you know. This job starts early and finishes early, which is a plus, especially in the summer months.
'To be honest, in the current market, I don’t think it’s really possible for small players. When we started, iPoker was more open to smaller operators, and people like ourselves and Black Belt Poker were able to take advantage of that. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible anymore. I don’t see any of the smaller networks as viable alternatives. It’s a shame to see, but I guess it's the natural evolution of the market. If you have a genuine idea for how to attract players in volume then there may still be opportunities for partnerships but if you think you can set up and start offering huge rakeback, those days are gone.'
But with such a crowded space, and with so much choice on offer for players, how does a poker room without a leviathan budget make themselves heard in the market?
The key, claims Mahrenholz, is to offer them something more; to set yourself apart with differentiation and deeper understanding of your players.
'As part of a network you can't differentiate on product,' explains Mahrenholz. The key, for what his experience is teaching him, is to act at a promotional and service level - as that's where one can really make a difference.
According to Mahrenholz it is important 'to run independent promotions and additional leaderboards' that can offer some extras to the players, as well as 'to offer a very personal service to the players rather than to deal with them with a series of generic automated support response.'
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The first thing you need to do is make sure that you have enough players to hold a poker tournament. You also must decide how big the event will be.
Any group of buddies can hold a small sit and go with 4-5 players. But you’ll want more participants if you’re envisioning a grand event.
I suggest recruiting anywhere from 10-20 players if you’re aiming for a high-caliber home tournament.
You should also consider other factors when deciding how many players to invite, including the buy-in size and what type of people will be playing.
These factors go together because you don’t want to hold a $500 buy-in home tournament and invite players who’ll be telling everybody they know. This creates security issues and can lead to thegame being robbed.
This sounds extreme, but home poker robberies do happen when the wrong people catch wind that there’s a large prize pool involved.
Most home poker tournaments don’t have buy-ins worth more than $50 to $100. But if you’re hosting a high-stakes event, you should consider hiring security.
This also seems extreme, but it’s a good precaution when you’re holding a larger tournament with big buy-ins involved.
I recommended inviting as many high-character individuals as you can. Some players tend to get out of hand and cause controversy during a poker tourney.
You’ve likely seen World Series of Poker clips where a player is acting unreasonably.The good news for WSOP officials is that they have plenty of security in case anything goes too far.
This is enough deterrent to keep WSOP players in line. But the same instances can lead to fights in a home game where there’s no security personnel to back up the tournament director.
Make Your Own Server
This is another area where hiring one or two security guards can help. Security ensures that you don’t have to deal with unreasonable, drunken players yourself.