Poker Sites. Toolbar Update

If your question isn't answered in the FAQ, please send an email to Ian at the address "webmaster" at this site with your specific question. Be polite, get a quicker answer, savvy? ;-)

General Questions #01: What does the toolbar do? #02: Does the toolbar pass information from my PC to the server? #03: It's free, but is there a catch? #04: Can I configure the tournaments or toolbar to suit me? #05: Which poker rooms are included in the toolbar? #06: Can I add more poker rooms to the toolbar ticker? #07: Do I have to join a poker room to see the tournaments? #08: Can I distribute the toolbar myself? #09: Can I see a full feature list for the toolbar? #10: Is it easy to uninstall the toolbar if I don't like it? #11: Where can I download the toolbar from?

Technical Questions #01: What are the technical requirements? #02: How do I install the toolbar? #03: My PC says the file is potentially harmful. What should I do? #04: I get a javascript error in a popup dialogue #05: Why do I have no tournaments showing in the ticker? #06: How, and how often, does the toolbar update? #07: How do I play a tournament I see in the toolbar? #08: I find the ticker distracting. Are there alternatives? #09: Are there differences between the IE and Firefox versions? #10: Tournaments from a poker room I selected are not showing #11: How do I apply filters when I have set/changed them?

The toolbar runs on either Internet Explorer or Firefox (download here) and does two things: it provides a ticker of upcoming poker tournaments at a variety of online poker rooms that scrolls (or otherwise) across your browser toolbar area. These can be configured to show tournaments meeting your own criteria and/or from specific poker rooms if you so wish - plus you can change the toolbar colour schemes and highlight options.

As each tournament ticks across, you can click the title to see more details on each specific tournament or to visit the poker room, or you can click the small calendar icon alongside each tournament title to view a complete schedule of tournaments. The toolbar also provides a dropdown menu containing access to a searchable tournament schedule, poker links and information for the player. More information and screenshots are available on the Toolbar Homepage. [top]

No. No data is required by, or stored on the server. There is no registration requirement to use the toolbar nor any need for personal information to be provided. In fact, the only data that is stored are your configuration options should you use them, and these are stored in cookies locally on your PC. [top]

No catch. It's free because I have set up individual affiliate deals with each poker room represented on the toolbar so they give me a small rake from each hand you play, if you sign up to the poker room through one of the links on this site. I'm hopefull that will provide me with enough leeway to support and enhance the toolbar so please use my links wherever you can - it costs you nothing. This means there is no need to run advertising, popups or any other annoying intrusions on the toolbar. Wysiwyg. [top]

Absolutely. There are a number of options you can set, either via the Toolbar dropdown menu, or from the configuration page (the configuration options are also shown immediately following the installation of the toolbar). You can change the layout of the toolbar ticker (colours, options, clock etc) and you can filter tournaments to view only certain poker rooms, tournaments that contain certain keywords of your choosing, set buy-in ranges and various other odds n sods. I'm always open to more ideas on this if you email me at "webmaster" at this site. [top]

At launch (December 2025) there were 12 poker rooms included in the feed, with two more imminent. These include Titan Poker, Pacific Poker, Party Poker, Virgin, Bodog, Pokerroom, Poker Heaven, Everest Poker and various others. For an up-to-date list of all rooms in the toolbar tournament feed, check out the toolbar homepage. [top]

I can add new poker rooms, but this is dependent on the poker room providing a tournament feed in XML format that I can add to the automated system pickup. If you have any requirements to add a poker room that isn't currently accessible, email me details (to "webmaster" at this site) and I'll see what I can do. Here's one final hint: if you know the network your poker room uses, and the toolbar already contains a feed from a poker room on the same network, chances are a number of the tournaments will map over so you could add that as an interim solution. There are currently rooms on the iPoker, Boss Media, Grand Virtual, Microgaming and Ongame networks in the toolbar. [top]

No. You can view tournaments from any poker room supported by the toolbar. There is also a freeroll filter that optionally allows you to show all freerolls irrespective of the poker room, even if you have chosen to exclude that poker room from your toolbar ticker. You can see more information on each tournament and download the poker room if you are not already a member by clicking the tournament title as it scrolls across the ticker. [top]

I have no problem with that, although I state elsewhere that I cannot guarantee to players that a download from another site has not been tampered with, so it may be better to link to the download page here. But by all means send it to friends or recommend it - that would be great :-) [top]

Yes. You can see a complete list of everything the toolbar does, or that you can do to the toolbar and tournament list here. [top]

Very. You can simply click the toolbar dropdown menu, select "Toolbar Options" and then click the "Uninstall" option. There is also a "Hide" option which hides the toolbar temporarily - simply show it again via the Internet Explorer "View / Toolbars" menu. You can also uninstall it through the normal Windows Control Panel in "Add/Remove Programs". [top]

Grab the free toolbar from the download page. For your security, please ensure you only download it from this site. [top]

All you need is Internet Explorer or Firefox with cookies and javacscript enabled which should be standard for both browsers. The cookies are only used if you set your own configuration options and are not used to hold any personal information. [top]

Visit the download page and choose either the Internet Explorer version or the Firefox version. For IE, download the zip file, open it and run the .exe file inside (Windows Vista users may need to see the next FAQ question). This will add the toolbar to your IE. For firefox users, click the Firefox download link, choose to save it, then when saved, click the file to install it. Both processes are very simple and allow you to choose a location on your hard drive. No other information is required. You will need to restart the browser after install if this is not done automatically. [top]

Windows Vista in particular is strict on security certificates and may refuse to install the toolbar as it currently does not have one. Once the toolbar has bedded down, I will buy one, but for now it's up to you to decide if you want to install it. I will add that, assuming you download it from this site, there is no virus, spyware, adware or otherwise malicious material in the toolbar. If you find the toolbar on other sites, I cannot guarantee that it hasn't been tampered with. [top]

There is a very rare occurence when the toolbar tries to load at the same time as the new feed is being created causing a javascript error box to popup on your browser in Internet Explorer. The timeframe for this is a fraction of a second, and I've only seen it twice in 2 months of intensive testing, but if it happens, simply close the browser and restart it. No other errors have been reported (yet!) so please email me at "webmaster" at this site if you do find one, with as much detail as you can and ideally a screenshot (ALT+PrtScrn). [top]

The most common reason for this is that the configuration filters you have set are too strict, perhaps you have included filter keywords which aren't being used? You can check the full tournament schedule here - if you see tournaments here then it is probably a filter thing, so change your filters here and reload the toolbar (right click on the ticker or restart your browser). Failing that, ensure your browser accepts cookies and javascript is turned on.

If there are no tournaments showing in the full schedule, then there may be a temporary outage. If the problem is only affecting one or two poker rooms, see FAQ technical question 10. Otherwise, try refreshing the toolbar with a right-click on the ticker in 15/30 minutes. [top]

This is in two parts: the actual toolbar software itself and the tournaments. Regarding the toolbar itself, when I create a new version, you should receive a prompt to update your version. This is automated and just requires you to say "yes" to the prompt. The tournaments are updated frequently, but how frequently depends on your configuration setings. It is programmed to ensure that your tournament schedule is always updated before the feed reaches the end of the time setting you select (30 minutes - 4 hours) on the configuration page. Tournaments are updated silently and there is no need for you to do anything. This should ensure your tournament schedule never reaches the end and a constant ticker is maintained. [top]

Each tournament that ticks across your toolbar takes the form of a clickable link. Simply click that link to view more information on that specific tournament and you will also see a link to download the poker room software. [top]

Yes. On the configuration page you can choose the "instant refresh" option which stops the scrolling and simply refreshes to each new tournament using the "pause" setting you select. [top]

No - there shouldn't be. If you install both versions of the toolbar, the configuration options are stored seperately for each version, so you will need to set up your filters for each one independently. This is more by accident than design as the filters are stored in "cookies" on your PC and each browser has a seperate cookie store. [top]

Ensure your filters are set correctly, that the poker room with a problem is selected and any keywords you have used in filters are not overly fussy. You can view the full unfiltered schedule here and if you see the poker room in that list then it is down to your filter settings. If not, then it is probably a temporary break in the feed: every now and again, a poker room removes it's feed or has technical issues supplying it. This normally rectifies itself, but if it persists beyond a day, email me ("webmaster" at this site) and I'll investigate further. [top]

You can do this one of two ways: either right-click on the ticker on your toolbar or close and restart your browser. Also, because the ticker refreshes itself every now and again, you can just wait until it does it next - this could be anywhere between 5 minutes and 2 hours depending on how many hours ahead your tournament schedule is set to. [top]