Betfair Official Blog

Betfair Poker Update

If you've logged into Betfair Poker today you may have noticed a few new changes...

New icons in the lobby

To improve the clarity of the lobbies to make it easier for you to find the game that you want to play, we've added icons defining the speed of the tables for ring games and for tournaments, the icons reflect the type of tournament.

Remembering your defined preferences

In the navigation we've added a brand new area where you can determine your preferred playing preferences. This area comprises some of the options that you would have found in the "Control Panel" (previously in the bottom right corner of your table view) but we've also added some nice additional features. The preferences that you set will be saved to your computer and therefore will apply each time that you load Betfair Poker.

• Key Player notification - Keep track on your friends, foes and fish.
• Force window to front - Useful when you're multi-tasking on your computer.
• Remember folded cards - Check if you would have won the hand had you not folded.
• Use 4-colour deck - Each suit is a different colour, easier to spot the flush draws.
• Show hand strength - Highlights what your best current hand is.
• Centred seat view - Sit at the top seat at every table for multi-tabling ease.
• NEW! Appearance - Set the table colour of the tables that you like to play on.
• NEW! Preview tournament announcements - Choose whether or not to see upcoming tourney info.
• Mute observer chat - Don't want to listen to the railbirds? Just turn them off here.
• Save hand history - Reflect on and analyse your plays.

New Action Buttons and a new area for your table options

We've listened to your feedback and have developed a new range of betting options available to you while you're playing. These allow you to easily control the amount you want to bet at any point. The table options have moved from the control panel to below the action buttons in order to remove the control panel from the table completely, de-cluttering the table view in the process.

New Timebank functionality

We've added a new Timebank button that you can choose to press in any situation when you could do with a little extra thinking time. In tournaments, the amount of time in your timebank varies in relation to the structure and remains unchanged from before. We've also introduced a Timebank to cash tables of $0.50/$1.00 and above at a maximum of 30 seconds per hour.

New Stand up button

When you are sitting on a cash table and want to leave the game-play but retain the view of the table, you now can by clicking on the aptly-named "Stand up" button situated next to the "Leave table" button.


Preventing table squatting

Another problem that was highlighted in your feedback and one we have subsequently rectified in this round of improvements is "Table squatting". To avoid players "squatting" on heads up cash tables (and refusing to play), if you enter a heads up cash game and post your blind, the other player will have 30 seconds to post their blind or they will be removed from the table and the seat will become available again.

Join the waiting list

Keen to get on a specific cash table but it's full? You can now join a waiting list on any full cash table and when a seat becomes free we will send you an alert, allowing you to get in on the action. You can choose to join a specific table or alternatively the next available table at a specific staking level. You can also define the minimum number of players that you wish to play against.

Name explosions

The final table of any MTT is an exciting affair, but now we've given it an extra bit of spice. As players are knocked out their alias will explode in a shower of missed opportunities. Get to the final table to see what we mean!

• Poker