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XPOKER

 Xpoker is an X11-based front-end for IRC poker games. It provides a visual front-end interface for playing most of the poker games over IRC using a dealer bot. This program still maintains the IRC client side interface where users write to each other by typing lines of input. The user still specifies game actions with messages to the dealer bot (often using special aliases).

Xpoker is a UNIX program, using X11 and the Motif toolkit. It attempts to display the action in a realistic manner, but is limited by the low resolution of most workstation monitors. However, it does provide a much improved interface over the regular IRC client programs (like ircII) and a prettier interface than the text-based front-ends (like Hold-em).

The Display

When xpoker is started, it presents an interface with four main areas. At the very top is the menu bar (as in most graphical applications). Most of the top half of the display is the ``playing area'' which displays a visual representation of play as a table with the players around it. At first, this is a start-up page with fixed content. When the next poker game is started, the display will change to the game display and track the action. Note that the current user need not be playing for the display to be active, however, he does need to be in an active poker channel.

Below the playing area is the message area. Messages sent on the channel are displayed in this scrolling area. Note that messages interpreted as game status are not displayed (they are represented visually).

At the bottom of the window is the type-in area where your commands to IRC are entered. Just like a normal IRC client, things you type are either IRC commands (beginning with /) or broadcast messages (any other line). Note that the type-in window has the keyboard focus initially and if you do nothing else, you can type IRC commands in as you would with any of the text-based front-ends (including ircII).

Some Screen Shots to Whet your Appetite

The game is Texas Hold-em. This first screen shot is of the whole window, showing all the elements you interact with while using the xpoker front-end. In the playing window, we see a game with ten players. MOost is the dealer, franzen and kul had blinds. Carney was first to act and folded. The action is now on elraiso. The user (JohnC) is looking at 5c 8d and has already mentally folded.

The rest of the screen shots are only of the playing area. This shows the showdown of the next hand. Kul has beaten two better starting hands with two pair (way to go!).

The game is lowball (5-card draw low), only two-handed (lowball doesn't seem to be very popular). JohnC has the big blind and the button and bozo has the small blind and is first to act (heads up is strange).

OK, the showdown of another hand of lowball. We can see here that a rough eight still beats a jack (well, he had a 1-card draw).

The game is 7-card stud high-low. Here kmunn has the button and JohnC has the single blind. Miyake is first to act.

Here we see the last round of betting hand before the showdown. JohnC is the button and it has been checked to him. He now has to decide what to do about the two obvious lows, possible flushes. But, we can assume he'll do the Right Thing and bet out with his two pair.

Getting Started

You need to get the xpoker source code and compile it for your platform. Currently, xpoker works on most UNIX platforms, but not on DOS or Windows (sorry about that).

You can download the compressed tar file through HTTP. Alternately, you can download it directly from www.jcsw.com. You should get the file poker/xpoker.tar.Z which is a compressed tar file. Once you have the archive and have unpacked it, see the README file for information on compilation plus solutions to common problems.

If you already play IRC poker, using xpoker is easy. Simply run xpoker instead of your usual IRC client. (Note that if you don't use ircII you will have to use the -i option or set up some environment. You can set up some environment variables to avoid having to use the -i option or enter the /server command. See the manual page for more information.

Xpoker was developed to work with the poker-dealing bots developed by Todd Mummert (mummert+@cs.cmu.edu) which run on the server vegas.scandal.cs.cmu.edu. See Info on poker 'bots.

It is strongly recommended that you run holdem on a color X display. If you are using black-and-white, there aren't enough colors to provide contrast for the cards.

For the original ``holdem'' front-end which only works for Texas and Omhaha Hold-em, see Holdem.

John Coker Software   ---- This site is maintained by John Coker and you can send mail to john@jcsw.com for more information.