For most people, playing online poker is as easy as click, download, and login. But for Macintosh users, it's a different story. Those interested in playing Mac online poker are challenged by obstacles such as file type conflict, graphics overload, and incompatibility of the most popular sites.

First, Macintosh Poker players are not able to download .exe files. .exe was specifically created for the Microsoft Windows operating system and therefore Mac users cannot download .exe online poker rooms.

There are several Macintosh Poker Sites that provide Mac users with a native download and obviously the client is not a .exe file. Instead, these native Mac online poker rooms use a .bin file that is directly readable on the Macintosh Operating system. Examples of such Macintosh Poker Sites are illustrated at this Mac Online Poker website.

Second, Mac computers tend to not be able to handle the graphics load that Windows based computers can in terms of Java based poker rooms. Mac online poker players cannot play graphics intensive games at sites such as Stacks Poker. Instead, they can play no-download poker games that are run by a browser based version of either Java or Flash. Such Macintosh Poker Sites include that of PacificPoker, PokerRoom, and EuroPoker.

Finally, Mac users have been neglected by most of the common poker sites. The largest online poker sites such as Party Poker and PokerStars have neglected to create either a native Mac Online Poker client or a no-download Macintosh Poker client. The only major Mac online poker room to have done this is PokerRoom. Other solutions to this problem have been presented. A popular mac online poker site has written a useful guide to playing poker at the major online poker sites using software known as a PC Emulator.

So as you can see, Mac Online Poker players have been neglected. The hurdles might be high and long, but there certainly is hope for Mac Online Poker.