Full Tilt Poker Linux

Full Tilt Poker Linux - FullTiltPoker.com

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Full Tilt Poker is one of the biggest and best online poker sites in the world, and offers native support for a wide range of computer platforms, including all flavors of Microsoft Windows systems and even Apple Mac. So what about other platforms? Specifically, is there any support for Full Tilt Poker Linux clients?

The answer depends on how you look at it. If we are brutally honest, then no, there isn't. Certainly there isn't a native Linux client lurking anywhere. Frankly, there isn't likely to be any time soon, primarily because there simply aren't enough Linux users playing at Full Tilt Poker, and if there are, then they're not being sufficiently vocal about their needs.

But if you're a Linux user, you shouldn't assume that this means you can't use Full Tilt Poker Linux software. You can, but it requires you to be a little resourceful. In this article, we'll explain how to go about installing and using one of the world's best poker clients in your Linux distribution.

We Have the Technology

How easy it is to install Full Tilt Poker software really depends on what distribution of Linux you're currently using, and how comfortable you are compiling code from source. If you're using one of the major distributions such as Red Hat, Debian or Ubuntu - or anything with a decent repository, really - then it's a fairly simple process that can be achieved with only a few mouse clicks.

If, however, you are using something a little more obscure or streamlined for a specific purpose, you may have to put in a certain amount of legwork yourself. But then, if you're the sort of person who is running a custom kernel, this will be neither news nor difficult.

A Nice Glass of Wine

Running a Full Tilt Poker Linux client is only possible because of a library called Wine Is Not an Emulator (WINE). Wine is a complete reimplementation of the entirety of the Windows core DLL files. Put simply, it makes it possible to run Windows software under Linux without running in emulator.

How well it works varies greatly from application to application, but it just so happens that the Full Tilt Poker client for Windows runs easily in Wine with only a few small tweaks. You begin, therefore, by installing the latest Wine package for your version of Linux.

This could be as simple as launching your package manager and choosing Wine, or opening a command-line and using apt-get. In some cases, however, you'll need to visit the Wine HQ website, download the source, and compile it yourself.

Required Tweaks

Tweaking Wine to work with Full Tilt Poker is extremely simple: make sure you have the Windows font pack installed. Some Linux users are ideological opposed to this, as it taints and otherwise completely "free" installation, but the fact is that having these fonts installed is a prerequisite.

If you wish to view your hand data in the Full Tilt Poker clients, you will also need to install the latest Flash Player - at least version 10. If you don't care about hand data, you can skip this step.

And just like that, Full Tilt Poker Linux is good to go.