Having a good computer setup for online poker is crucial. You can get away with playing poker on nearly any computer, but a good setup will increase your comfort, productivity, ROI, and not to mention, style. Here’s a few tips on what to look for when setting up your computer for serious poker play.
The computer
When you’re playing online poker, you need to make sure your computer is running fast and smooth. There’s nothing worse then losing a $1,000 pot because the software froze and you couldn’t click the call button with your nut flush. You need a computer that can handle multi-tabling, playing on multiple sites at once, running poker tracker with PokerAce Hud, and other applications at the same time without any lag.
Most new computers are set to a standard that would be able to handle this, so if you’re buying a new computer it’s pretty much up to you. However, this being a Mac poker site and all, i’d have to suggest the MacBook Pro. It’s portable, powerful, has a high resolution monitor, can run both windows and OS X, and it’s competitively priced to similar PC laptops.
The monitor
A dual monitor setup is a must for serious online poker players. The extra screen real estate will give you a lot more room to get your poker software organized and increase your ROI while playing.
Usually players have 4 poker tables running on one monitor, while putting the lobbies and poker tracker on the other. Some of the more advanced multi-tablers will run 8 tables across the two monitors and make back the cost of the monitor in no time.
I’d recommend any LCD monitor with a 1600×1200 resolution or higher, so you can run four poker tables without any overlap. The Dell monitors are really peopular among poker players.
The computer chair
A high-end computer chair is one of the best investments you can make as an online poker pro. If you’re sitting in front of a computer for 40 hours a week, you should do it in a comfortable ergonomic chair, not a cheap office chair from staples that hurts to sit on and kills your back.
Hands down, the most popular computer chair for computer professionals is the Herman Miller Aeron chair. It’s ergonomically designed to give you superior support and comfort. It has an adjustable tilt that allows you to lean forward and back while supporting your posture and a mesh style fabric to keep your butt cool during those long summer sessions.
The Aeron chair costs about $650. It’s a big price tag for a computer chair, but your back will thank you.
The mouse
The mouse is usually an after thought to your computer set up, but there are a few things to be said about it.
First of all, don’t get a wireless mouse. It’s not worth it. You need to make sure the batteries are charged all the time, they’re heavier then the corded versions, and you need to have a wireless receiver plugged into your computer, which gets in the way more then a cord.
I recommend the logitech MX 518 gaming-grade mouse for $50. It’s ergonomically contoured to the shape of your hand for comfort and control, it’s precise and allows you to change the tracking speed on the fly, and it has multiple buttons that you can program to do common online poker tasks, like betting or folding.
Stylish Poker Setups
Here’s a few really nice online poker setups. If you want to post yours, you can leave a comment with a link to your computer setup.
The Rapdurrrr house
This photo was taken shortly after rapter517 and Durrrr bought a house with their online poker winnings. They have since bought real desks and chairs. Durrrr (on the right) is most likely six-tabling $40,000 NL holdem and PLO tables in this picture.
Tillerman’s old poker setup
Tillerman is a professional gamer and poker player. You can find him multi-tabling the high stakes NL games on pokerstars.
Tillerman’s new poker setup
This is a photo from Tillerman’s new house. I hear that his poker winnings paid for it.
My online poker setup
This is where I play poker and work on this website. I’m running a 17″ Macbook pro, a Dell 2004fp monitor, and a logitech mouse that sits on an icemat mouse pad.
I actually had an ergonomist visit my home office to help me rid my aches and pains from many, many hours of cards. She got me an adjustable keyboard tray, a monitor riser for my multi-panels and even a laptop holder that just rocks. She said the MOST IMPORTANT thing was going to be my new chair. She would only recommend the Aeron Chair by Herman Miller. All of the other stuff she got me is spot on so i thought would take a look at chairs. I shopped long and hard for this new chair and considered many possibilites for this investment. I went to a place called Homeofficesolutions.com and guess what I got…an Aeron Chair. This thing blows my mind. I don’t understand why all chairs are not this comfortable. IT”S MAGIC!!! If you even play a one hand a week, get the chair!
Yeah, the Aeron chair spoils you. Sitting in any other computer chair becomes torture.
durr is sooo cool.
but most of these guys aren’t playing on a mac. and mac’s don’t have pokertracker!
i might buy an intel mac, and use bootcamp to play poker.
this site is so sweet. i love the layout and the content. i just hope the content continues to be this good.
Thanks elie, I do my best 🙂
This setup is the dope……The only thing missing under the mouse is the poker table mouse pad where you can shuffle your chips while you are playing…….
I would like to add that some nice customized table layouts can make a huge difference on your play – especially over a long session.
here is a Ultimate Bet example
(link removed)
For those of you still hanging on to the Aeron chair, let me tell you that it is OLD technology. The same guy who designed the Aeron chair – Don Chadwick – has trumped the Aeron with the “Chadwick Chair” by Knoll. Less adjustments, more comfort and a smaller footprint. I have been sitting in mine for over a year and I can’t tell you how much more comfortable it is than my old Aeron.
Enjoy!
Ellis
I would just like to say that I would recommend the Wireless Mighty Mouse from Apple which does not have the disadvantages stated in the article above. It connects with Bluetooth, so you don’t need to plug anything into your computer. Batteries last for five months under normal use. It also allows scrolling left-to-right as well as up and down, but that doesn’t really affect poker play. But anyway, I’ve been quite content using this mouse to play online poker… The roughest part is its price tag at $69, but I think it’s worth it.
Does anyone recommend using a widescreen television in your poker setup as David Benyamine does at home? I was watching a AOL video of his house and his setup looks good with his tv mounted on the wall. The only problem is it looked like he could only 4 table on it… does anyone know if you could fit 6-9 tables on it or is that just wishful thinking?
The Aeron chair, a wireless mouse, and the Aerpad mouse pad attachment from ergophilia has changed my back and neck issues. You really can sit back in your chair.
Ol_dirtyy, widescreen HDTVs are actually lower resolution than modern computer monitors, so you can’t fit as many tables. A 1080i/p HDTV is 1920×1080 resolution. Compare that to a modern 24″ widescreen monitor which has 1920×1200 and you’re actually getting more space on the monitor. If you have a 720p HDTV, the resolution is even lower. You are just getting bigger pixels with HDTV, so it’s a good choice if you have bad vision and need a very big picture.
On that point, for poker, widescreen seems to buy you no extra table space. Getting a cheap, square monitor gives you 1600×1200 resolution, which fits four tables just as well as the more expensive widescreens, without a strip of unused space on each monitor. If you purely play poker and want to save money, consider a bunch of square (4:3) monitors. If you are ultra-player, go for the ultra-high resolution monitors like the Dell 30WFP (2560×1600).