Gee, this is a WOPR of a good game!

There goes the college fund!

It’s been nearly 20 years and online poker hasn’t really changed much.

Most of the action happens on the server(s) — remote computer(s) controlled by the gaming company — where players are introduced, cards are dealt, escrow is provided, and so on.

The software that you run on your device is really just a sort of thin client, a limited interface to show you what’s happening on the server(s), not unlike old-timey mainframe computing.

Basically, without the server the client won’t do much.

This is one of the fundamental differences between CypherPoker and traditional online poker.

CypherPoker combines, as much as possible, both the server and the client in a single piece of software. This is a requirement of any peer-to-peer software but it makes the entire thing way more complicated, kinda like modelling a Global Thermonuclear War simulation.

For example, dealing in the traditional online poker way requires only that you randomly distribute and track virtual cards for players. In CypherPoker, cards must be mathematically generated, encrypted, and then selectively decrypted before the first bet ever hits the table.

There’s obviously more to online poker than just dealing cards and placing bets but it would make for a pretty crappy game without this functionality being in place first. So this functionality is in place first.

Specs on starting a game, dealing cards, and betting in CypherPoker.JS are available online with enough detail enough to hopefully satisfy even the most exacting technology-oriented individual.

This pleases me.

Suffice it to say that the complexity of CypherPoker.JS is accessible but hidden behind a handful of commands; everything is managed (mostly) automatically.

This makes it easy to mess around with the code and eventually to splice in a nice user interface but there a couple of other topics that need to be addressed first.

So for the next little while these posts will be getting a bit more philosophical and abstract as we discuss how the “more to online poker than just dealing cards and placing bets” parts work.

Next time: Smart Contracts and Thinking Machines