When it comes to online poker in 2007, the only thing more abundant than the number of sites offering gameplay and a "$600 free deposit bonus!!!" is the number of people griping about the direction that the game is taking.

Just to put things in perspective: an average cross-section of Internet poker forums will allow you a peek into the shadowy side of allowing anyone and everyone to play for huge sums of money - without the benefit of having to show your face to the sheriff across the table.

It's an old players' complaint: poker software providers such as PartyPoker, 888, Paradise, Full Tilt, and most recently Sky Poker have been inundated with accusations of the house favouring employees and allowing "bots" - programs disguised as computers - to rake in inordinate amounts of cash at the expense of the ignorant.

No doubt. Where there is gambling, there is cheating. Especially when we're talking about an industry which, in 2005 was estimated to rake in US$ 200 million per month.

Closer to the ground, however, is a new generation of poker accessories, which can be used equally anonymously to aid calculate your odds in real time, dictate favourable play and generally give you an edge over the unequipped player.

Oddschecker Poker Calculator will allow you to enter your cards as they appear and, and follows by calculating the exact odds of a specific hand.

Poker Ghost 2.0 performs the same operation, but uses speech-recognition, meaning you need not even click anything. Because clicking has become too difficult now, you see.

Such is the state of play, at this point, and that's not even bringing the fraud-heavy, dead-horse topic of the U.S. government's involvement in the whole affair. Oops, too late.

At this rate, we'll all be begging our iMacs and PCs to calculate our odds of getting food on the table.

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