Amid demand in the online gaming industry, it has taken years for online poker rooms and casinos such as Bodog to hear the demands of customers and develop software applications for mobile platforms. With popular operating systems such as the iPhone OS, Blackberry OS, and Windows Mobile OS, there has never been a better time for companies to develop gaming applications. Cake Poker, the flagship site of the 10th busiest network in the industry, has released a fully-functioning mobile software application for the Windows Mobile OS allowing any player to compete for real money from anywhere their cell phone gets an internet connection.
Currently, major online poker rooms Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars have no such mobile client available, meaning Cake Poker has a leg up on the untapped market of mobile gaming. This one-of-a-kind application is a free download from the Cake Poker Mobile website and requires that Windows Mobile 5.0 be installed on the cell phone. If you find that the application fails to install, you might require a download of Microsoft’s .NET Compact Framework. An internet connection via 2G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, or a direct connect to a PC for access is required.
Cake Poker has stated that accessing and interfacing with Cake Poker Mobile is, in theory, the same as if you had logged into the site via a regular PC. Gold Chips and Gold Cards are accumulated just as they are on the regular client and Cake Poker does not add on any extra fees for playing via the mobile software. They do warn users that your wireless provider might have restrictions on its data plan, so extra charges might come in the form of data overages. As a guide to estimate the amount of data transferred, the site said that the mobile client will transfer about 10MB of data per hour on a full ring table.
Cake Poker Mobile edition looks and acts just like a poker room should, only on a limited platform. The first window that pop-ups after launch is a login screen that requires your e-mail address and password. This information is not cached or stored on your cell phone, so if someone were to steal it, they would have no way to access your Cake Poker account. Interfacing with the software itself during game play is a fairly smooth and largely automated. Cards are set to automatically muck and blinds are posted without input from the user. The software supports a stylus for those phones that use one and employs arrow and number keys to make decisions such as folding, betting or raising (and to what amount). Although the layout is truncated and avatars are missing in order for the table to operate smoothly, the experience in itself is fun and definitely beats not having any mobile poker platform.
Bodog, which also offers full sports wagering, has also released a mobile client with bodogMobile. The mobile casino for Bodog is offered on phones like the Motorola Razr, Palm SmartPhones, and Blackberrys. Like the Cake Poker Mobile client, this software is free and links to your existing account. The software supports slot machines, video poker, or blackjack for real money, making it a full-fledged mobile gambling casino. On top of that, other table games are offered such as Craps, Bingo, Light Speed, Super 21 and Caribbean Stud Poker. It should be noted that the popular Bodog Poker Room is not supported via the mobile client. Not to be outdone, the Ongame Network has been developing its poker room software, focusing on heads-up action for a number of years. The company has routinely showed off advances at the yearly International Casino Exhibition in London.
For platforms like the Windows Mobile OS and Blackberry, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before all of the major poker rooms and online casinos get in on the potential action of mobile gaming. The mobile application and gaming industry has seen a widespread boom in 2009, one of the few segments of the tech industry actually experiencing growth. For Apple iPhone users, unfortunately, companies including Cake Poker have gone on the record saying that no iPhone application is on its way until Apple lessens its restrictions on application development or allows for Flash applications via its Safari browser. Until then, Cake Poker players on Windows Mobile OS phones will be enjoying poker, for real money, from anywhere they take their cell phone.