IRC POKER ERA

IRC is normally used as a chat client but with the IRC poker chat players used the chat to type in their actions as commands and then a computer program managed the game. Instead of pressing buttons players wrote what they intended to do and the program acted accordingly. There were no graphics as we know it from today's poker rooms. It was free of use and people were playing for play money only which to date is still a possibility in every online card room.

 

The games offered were Texas Hold’em, Limit Omaha (Hi/Lo), No-limit Hold’em & Multi tournaments. There were no restrictions on how many accounts you could open per day but each new account held 1000 in chips. Players were not able to decide how many chips they would carry into a game. The software only allowed sitting down with the entire bankroll. Players then sat down with up to 1,000,000 in chips.

 

 

Today the maximum number of players at a table in a tournament is ten players. In IRC Poker it was not possible to play multi table tournaments. Up to 23 players which is the theoretical maximum (23 players with 2 cards + 5 community cards = 51) could sit at the same table. A tournament lasted about 1 hour or less. A poker playing program named r00lbot kept track of winning records and wrote funny quotes in the chat as well.¹

 

IRC Poker officially stopped operating with cash games in October 2003.