About Maestrospoker

Maestrospoker welcomes poker players from around the world. Here you'll find the most luxurious gaming experience with the best chances to win a lot of money when you are playing online poker. Our goal is to provide our poker players with the best poker games that can be played, and our poker players should always have access to the best poker offers that are available when they play online poker at Maestrospoker.

Maestrospoker.com belongs to the recently launched Diamondace network that also has developed the software. Together we open the gates to the future in online poker and we want you to be with us on the journey.

In order to take care of our customers, we have a professional support team that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year.

Maestrospoker is licensed in the Netherlands Antilles.

Mac/Linux

Maestrospoker.com works exactly the same on Linux and MacOS X as it does on Windows, opening up secure on-line poker to everyone. That does not mean we are excluding the computer elite that use one of the BSDs or even Solaris, because the Maestrospoker.com poker room is written using Java(TM), so it will run on most operating systems.

Feedback

Poker is a people game. Maestrospoker.com is the peoples' game. At the top right of all major windows is a 'Feedback' button. We invite you to send any thoughts, comments, sentiments and even criticisms to us through this window. You are the people that make Maestrospoker.com. We are listening.

Quick Mode

When you first open Maestrospoker.com, you will immediately see the difference from other poker rooms. You are looking at our quick mode. This screen is to help those who are new to on-line poker to find a table quickly. But even for seasoned pros that want to quickly find themselves a game, it can be very handy. All you do is select the game type you want and the average bet per hand, and the system will find a suitable game for you. That's it; super simple. But fear not: if you want the full power of a traditional grid view, just switch to the 'Traditional View'.

Game Filters

Within traditional view, there are still more tools to enable you to find just the right table quickly. Just below the grid of tables, there are four game filters for number seats, Ante/Blind, Limit type and Real/Play Money. Use these to select the type of game you are looking for and only these games will be shown. Your selections are stored on your computer so that your favourite type of game is always shown when you log in.

Best Hand Definition

Beginners may find it hard to tell what their best hand is, particularly in complicated games like Omaha. As an option, we will show your your best hand in the bottom left of the game window. We will even tell you what you would have had when you have folded (even if you might not want to hear it!). If a hand you folded in a river game goes to showdown, you will be told what hand would be made with the visible river cards and the cards you folded.

Poker Face

At a real table, you get to read the faces of the people you are playing against. We wanted to recreate this element of the game, but the restrictions of computer technology at the moment prevent us from being able to point a camera at members' faces. So we have given you a chance to express your emotions quickly and easily, with the Poker Face smilies. You can select the face you want to show by clicking on the drop down face. You can use these faces to bluff or reverse bluff your opponents.

Always At The Head

When you are playing more than one table, it can be quite confusing to be sat in different positions on each one. As the most important person at your table, we think you should be at the head. So you're always the player at the bottom of the screen, saving confusion. You can still pick the seat that you want – we all know how important position is, but once seated, the table will rotate to put you at the head.

Game Lister

Again, when playing more than one table, you need to have your eye on what is happening in each game. We offer you the 'Game Lister': this is the bar on the bottom left of each window. It tells you what cards you have on each table and alerts you with a flash when it is your turn. You can switch between tables by just clicking on that table in the Game Lister.

Contacts

You know who you like, and who you want to play against (even if you don't like them!). With Maestrospoker.com, you have a contact list of friends that you can invite to games and tournaments. You can also find which games they are currently playing in with the 'Contacts and Search' button. Just double click a friend from your contact list and it will tell you their current games. Double click a game and, Voila! The game opens.

Safety Features

Sometimes we all think we should have more control over what we spend in life, besides just will power. You may not have a problem with gambling, but still not trust yourself. That is why we have added some safety features that can be found under the Account window. You can exclude yourself for a week if you think you need a bit of time away from poker. Once you do this, you cannot log in for a week, try as you like. You can set yourself a monthly buy in limit. This means that within a month, if you are tempted to go just a little bit over your budget, we will not let you. And last, but certainly not least, you can have someone you trust set a password that is needed to buy chips. So you can play poker with the money in your account using your normal password, but to buy more chips, you need to have this trusted person enter their 'Partner Password' to allow you to spend more. At Maestrospoker.com, we take the issue of problem gambling very seriously. We want all our members to be happy and have fun, and you cannot do that if you are worried about losing money you need. If you think you have a gambling problem, we suggest you seek professional advice.

Game and Tournament Creation

What if the game you want is just not available? Well, simple: you can create it. You can create games with your choice of blinds, limit and seats. Call it what you want, and if you like: set a password and invite friends so that only people you know can play at it. The same goes for tournaments.

We like to think of Maestrospoker.com as a revolution in on-line poker rooms. That doesn't mean we've left out all the features you are used to from other rooms. Here are some of the highlights:

Opponent Notes
Poker is all about knowing your opponents, and with Maestrospoker.com, you can keep notes on your opponents so that you will know what you are up against when you play against them again. The notes you take are stored on your computer so that they will be there when you log in again later. Just double click a player's name plate and the notes window will open.

Statistics
Most of us have a system, even if we don't know it. If you know your system and you need to keep track of how you play, you will need statistics. You can see a quick summary of how many hands you are folding, how often you are seeing the flop, among other things. If you are used to using this tool, you will be glad to know it is here, ready for you.

Hand History
If you want to review how you played one of the hands you have just played in or watched, just click the Hand History button, and you get a list of recent hands, where you can review how the play went.
For older hands, or for games you have closed, use our statistics window to request hand histories for the last hour, day or week.

Table Sorting
Our lobby has a lot of unique ways to help you find the table you are looking for, but one that you are probably used to is sorting by different criteria, such as blinds, seats or average pot. You can do this in the traditional way: just click the column heading and the lobby is sorted by that field for you.

Play Money
Not ready to play with real money? Well, don't worry. We have play money games that are every bit as exciting as the real money games. You get 1000 play money chips, and you can top these up several times in a day, so don't worry too much about losing them.

More Time
Sometimes you just need time to consider your options. When its your turn, you can use an extra 60 seconds to think for a bit longer, if you need it. But don't worry, people can't use this to slow the game down: once the 60 seconds is used up, it will not be refilled for a few rounds.

Chat
Poker is about playing against other real people. We all enjoy the banter at a table, and our chat gives the same atmosphere as a real table. Chat bubbles drop beneath the player that spoke, so you can follow conversations. The chat is automatically censored to avoid anyone causing offence, and if someone upsets you, you can block their chat so you never have to listen to them again. Just double click their name plate and click 'Mute Chat'. Only players actually playing can chat, so that your play is not interrupted by casual chatters.

Multiple Tables
Like most poker rooms, we let you play several tables at once. This is limited to five games, so that you are not playing against anyone that is slowing your game down because they are not concentrating.

Security
All connections in Maestrospoker.com are over TLS (SSL v3), the internet standard for secure communication. This is the same method that you will use for logging into an internet bank, or buying from an on-line store. This level of encryption will stop people from listening in on your communications.
Our shuffle uses a Mersenne-Twister PRNG with a seed of 4992 bytes. This can perform all 52! permutations of a deck shuffle, so that cards cannot be predicted on the basis of cards already dealt. Further to this, the seed is periodically modified with truly random entropy from several sources, including data sent from member usage patterns.

Maestrospoker.com has most of the games and tournaments you will be used to seeing on other poker rooms, and some that we hope will surprise you. What's more, you can create your own tables and tournaments, either open to all or just for your friends.

Games

Texas Hold'em:
The most popular form of poker, Hold'em is a form of poker with two hole cards and a five card river. You make your best hand of five cards with any combination of hole and river cards.

Omaha:
A river game with four hole cards and five river cards. You have to form your best hand of five cards by using exactly two from your hand and three from the table.

Omaha Hi-Lo
Played the same as Omaha, except at the end, two hands can win. If any player has a hand of five cards all below 9, with no pairs, then there is a low hand. The lowest low hand splits the pot with the highest high hand.

5 Card Draw
A rarity in on-line poker, five card draw is considered by many to be the purist form of poker. You are dealt five cards that no one else can see. You make a bet, and then have the opportunity to swap up to three of your cards for fresh deals from the deck. You then bet again before the show down. Highest hand wins.

5 Card Stud
A game popular in Europe, this form of poker gives a tantalizing insight into your opponents' hand by revealing four of their cards. Each player is dealt one card down and one card face up. Then bet, then one up, bet, one up and so on until each player has five cards, four of which can be seen by other players. The highest hand wins. If you're gifted with a mathematical brain, you should have a good chance of figuring the odds in this game.

7 Card Stud
A game very similar to 5 Card Stud, but with seven cards. The order of play is two cards down and one up, then bet. Then one up, bet, one up, bet, one up, bet and then finally one card face down before a final bet. Each player makes his best five card hand out of their seven cards; highest hand wins. As you can see, there are a lot of betting rounds, so the power of play can swing on the turn of a card.

7 Card Stud Hi-Lo
Played exactly the same as 7 Card Stud, but the pot can be split between the lowest low hand (8 or lower) and the highest hand, as with Omaha Hi-Lo

Tournaments

1 Round
Your traditional 'sit and go' tournament. This is a tournament of only one table, that starts when all the seats are filled. Each player starts with the same number of chips, and gets knocked out when they have no chips left. The number of positions paid depends on the size of the tournament.

2 Round
A variation on the 'sit and go' tournaments, where the tournament starts as two tables, and gets narrowed down to one when enough players have been eliminated. These tournaments start when enough players have registered. There's more players than your ordinary 'sit and go', so there's more to win.

Special Events
These are scheduled tournaments. They may be hourly, daily, to mark a special occasion or just because we feel like it. These tournaments start at a specified time and run until only one player has any chips left. They can be quite large, and run over many tables. As seats become available, players are shuffled around tables to keep the game play coming. These tournaments have scheduled breaks and ante/blind raises.

Maestrospoker operates by charging a rake on all cash hands and fees for entrance into tournaments. The fees for tournaments are always shown in their information windows, and are typically 10%.

For cash games, a rake is taken from the pot, before it is handed to the winner. This rake is 5%, to a maximum of €3. These conditions also apply:

1.    No Flop, No Drop - no rake is taken from hands that don't get as far as the 'flop' in games with community cards.

2.    Un-called raises - if a player makes a raise that all other players fold to, the rake is calculated on the pot before that raise was made.
       So, only called bets are raked.

3.    Half-cap in Heads-Up - if there are only two active players at a table, the maximum rake is reduced to €1.50