Before casting that stone at any poker site and criticizing its attributes, it would pay very well to understand a little bit about what it actually entails and also the effort taken to actually build a poker software. Building a poker software is building what is referred to as an MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming) There are several MMOGs in existence today, especially online poker MMOGs and remember that they are also among the most intricate projects you will ever encounter.

Cut to Wiki and you would get - A massively multiplayer online game (also called MMOG or simply MMO) is a game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. Of course, they are played on the Internet, as far as this post is concerned. MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world.

In the last five years the popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) has exploded. Unfortunately, the demand has far outweighed the resources developers can provide. Many MMOGs are suffering from scalability issues, resulting in down time and server crashes. The Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) Server Framework has a modular architecture, which helps in rapid deployment of any kind of game logic. Typical online poker MMOG architecture looks like this:

When you combine the work required to create a stable client and server application with the cost of the hardware for a strong operating platform, it adds up to a simple truth: MMO games are EXPENSIVE! Hugely so. It takes years of patience and perseverance with the right team and invaluable hours of tough times spent in planning and software coding and documentation. When the aim of our project is to bring some of the unique pleasures of a virtual world to a mass audience, there are no cutting corners, every single algorithm has to be balanced, every single line of software code has to be written with the big picture in mind. I have seen a whole project in virtual jeopardy because of a bug someplace or a line of code messed up somewhere. The repercussions of the smallest mistake are costs that can run in millions.

Leaving aside the game design issues - creating and balancing a virtual world that can accommodate thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of players - the practical issues of developing and running an MMOG are extremely challenging to navigate. And like for all endeavors it is, sometimes, a disappointment too. Several programming corpses stud the path to MMOG glory, especially online poker MMOGs.