This page is dedicated to providing information on the top Mac friendly poker rooms for those of you that have the pleasure of owning an iMac, Macbook or something along those lines.

Not all poker rooms offer a Mac version of their poker client, which means that your choice is slightly limited when it comes to choosing a poker room.

Jan 10, 2020  Most poker sites have yet to add a Mac-compatible version of their poker software. The poker sites on this list all offer stand alone Mac software that runs just as smoothly as the individual site's Windows software. Oct 08, 2014  Find Mac compatible poker sites and play poker for Mac with our free guide to playing Texas Holdem for Mac OS.

Nonetheless, all of the Mac OS X compatible poker rooms below are great to play at and work well with Apple Mac computers.

Best Mac friendly rooms for 2020.

RoomReviewRatingNetworkAppBrowser
888 PokerA+-
Ignition PokerA+PWL
Betsafe PokerB+OnGame
Betcoin.agB
Sky PokerB-
Poker HeavenCIPN
Compatible

Why aren't all poker rooms Mac friendly?

The majority of poker rooms offer a .exe file of their poker room client for players to download and install on their computers. Unfortunately, Mac computers are unable to work with .exe files and so cannot install the rooms (this is the exactly the same problem for Ubuntu poker players).

This means that the poker rooms will have to make a separate version of the poker room client specifically for Mac computers. However, the disappointing fact is that not all poker rooms take the time to create a Mac-friendly poker room client (which is their loss more than anything).

What's the difference between download and no download?

Online Poker Sites For Us Players

There are two ways for poker rooms to create Mac friendly poker rooms:

  • No download - An instant-play poker room that can be played in your browser.
  • Download - A fully installable poker client that works with Mac computers.

The Mac friendly poker rooms that offer a downloadable client (see .dmg poker sites) have the advantage over the no download rooms as they have better graphics and have more in-game features available. You can play for real money just as easily at both of these types of Mac poker rooms, but the download ones are better overall.

If you are a serious player, I would recommend that you choose the downloadable Mac friendly rooms over the instant play rooms.

Mac poker apps.

Here's a list of all the poker apps I know of that you can install for free on your Mac. All of these Mac poker apps allow you to play for fun or for real money.

RankRoomRatingNetworkMac AppBonusMatchVisit
Betsafe PokerB+OnGame$1,000100%Visit

Can I run non-Mac friendly poker rooms on my Mac?

It is possible to run Windows on your Mac computer. If you do that, you should have no trouble downloading and installing all of the online poker rooms designed for Windows.

  • Parallels - This software allows you to run Windows inside of the Mac OS, which is the easiest way to play at poker rooms that will only run on Windows within your current OS.
  • Boot Camp - This is a free utility that actually comes with your Mac. It allows you to run Windows on your Mac, but you have to reboot your Mac to run Windows each time you want to play at a non-Mac poker room.

However, with a Mac OS X computer I would be more than happy playing at either PokerStars or Party Poker, which are two great poker rooms in the world of online poker anyway. Best of luck with whichever option you choose.

More Mac poker room information.

Does this page not quite cut the mustard? Check out my friend Roger's Mac poker website for a bunch more reviews on Mac compatible poker rooms (he also has a poker Mac section for French poker players).

Roger's site is dedicated to providing tips and guides for Mac and Linux friendly poker sites. All of the information on his website is also regularly updated.

Go back to the Texas Hold'em rooms.


By
April 26th, 2018 | Last updated on November 17th, 2018
Mac Online Poker Sites

To put it in poker terms, Mac poker sites in the US are running pretty good right now. USA players using a Mac can basically have their pick from any poker room online, meaning that Mac poker players no longer have to settle just for whatever room offers Mac-compatibility. In fact, with just a handful of minor exceptions, playing online poker on a Mac is now indistinguishable from playing online poker using Windows.

Choosing the Best Mac Poker Site for USA Players

Since compatibility for Mac isn’t really an issue any longer for United States poker players, choosing the top Mac poker site for USA players comes down to other factors: How secure is the room? How generous are the promotions? How soft are the games? Based on those questions and others, here are our top Mac online poker sites for players from the US.

#US Poker SiteLicensedStates Not AcceptedBonusVisit Site
NY, MD, and WA
NY, MD, and WA
No Banned States! Accepts Everyone!
LA, NJ, ML, NY, KY, MO, WA
No Banned States! Accepts Everyone!
LA, KY, MI, NJ, NV, DW, WA
Delaware, Washington, Nevada

Choices For Playing US Poker on Mac

Online poker sites free play

Online Poker Sites Free Play

When we say that compatibility isn’t an issue, we mean it in a literal sense. You can play at any online poker room you want using a Mac. However, depending on the room, you may have to employ a specific program in order to play there using the Mac operating system. Here are your major options if you’re from the United States and want to play legal online poker for the Mac.

  1. Online Poker With Mac Desktop Client – This is obviously the best option for most players – if the poker room has a dedicated Mac poker client, you should simply download and install that. After all, there’s no reason to employ a fancy or complicated solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
  2. Using Boot Camp to Run Poker Programs – Boot Camp is the internal program provided by Mac that lets you run a “computer within a computer,” meaning you can have Windows running inside your Mac. While generally well-designed, Boot Camp has one nasty feature: You have to reboot every time you want to switch from Windows to Mac (and vice versa). That could be a deal breaker for online poker players who want to be able to move between the two operating systems seamlessly.
  3. Using Parallels to Play Online Poker – If Boot Camp doesn’t meet your needs, Parallels Desktop could be your answer. Parallels allows you to run programs for Windows and programs for Mac simultaneously. You never have to reboot to run one system or the other, and you can easily move files from one system to the next.
  4. Using VWware Fusion for Online Poker Sites – Fusion is a product similar in many ways to Parallels. People who prefer Fusion to Parallels cite ease of installation, a slightly lower price and tighter integration of Windows programs. Most reviews seem to agree that Fusion and Parallels are programs of roughly equal quality – it’s really a matter of which you prefer personally, so it’s tough to go wrong choosing either for playing online poker on your Mac.
  5. Play No Download Versions – Many online poker sites offer browser-based versions of their rooms that aren’t tied to any one operating system. By playing using no download poker software, US Mac players can avoid purchasing any software and can get straight to playing online. While no download poker sites are often a bit stripped down in terms of features, they’ve evolved to the point of offering a stable and credible way to play online poker players for Mac users and other poker players from the US who would prefer not to download poker software.

There are a number of other options for playing online poker using a Mac, but the above list should cover the overwhelming majority of online poker players from the US. Armed with those options and out top picks for legal US Mac poker, it shouldn’t be much trouble at all to get a game up and running on your Mac within a few minutes.

Best Online Poker Sites

Apple: Company History and Interesting Facts

Apple, the parent company behind Mac, is one of the most valuable companies in the world. While the value of a publicly-traded company shifts from day to day along with the stock price, Apple has ridden the popularity of its desktop and mobile devices to a valuation in the hundreds of billions.

Online Poker Sites

Speaking of hundreds of billions, that’s an almost-accurate description of just how much cash Apple has on hand – and this is cash, not assets or other intangible goods – a staggering $117 billion. As a few sources have pointed out, that’s enough cash to buy Facebook twice and still have enough left over to buy Twitter.

The company, which trades on the NASDAQ as APPL, was founded in 1976. Until 2007, the name of the company was actually “Apple Computer,” but the “computer” was dropped that year as mobile devices eclipsed the more traditional computer hardware that had been the original focus of Apple.