1) i said that PS has to use the GPU to render, or it can't be so fast. Old managed code (.Net in particular) isn't using the GPU to render, except WPF, that is quite a new framework and also not that good for games.

Any language that can use the DirectDraw API could achieve equal graphical performance.

Like I said, C++ is most probable, but it could have been written in a multitude of languages. C++ is not the only option. And where on earth did you get this idea about 2D graphical performance being hard to achieve in any other language? Any language that can use the DirectDraw API could achieve equal graphical performance. And how do you know PS isn't using the GPU?

And most of all - why does it matter?

Like I said, C++ is most probable, but it could have been written in a multitude of languages. C++ is not the only option. And where on earth did you get this idea about 2D graphical performance being hard to achieve in any other language? Any language that can use the DirectDraw API could achieve equal graphical performance. And how do you know PS isn't using the GPU?

And most of all - why does it matter?

I strongly doubt that Pokerstars can be written in any .Net language or Java, because the graphic performance are not as good as native applications: Windows Forms use GDI and the rendering was made only by the CPU and not GPU. WPF is quite new, newer than Pokerstars, and also the performance are even worst than Windows Forms in some cases.
Also when i installed Pokerstars i don't remember that he required installation of Java or .Net, but i can be wrong.
Also since it's a game, and all games for Windows are coded in c++ to obtain good performance, and Pokerstars has very good performance and very low weight, i would say that the only way to have such an optimization and graphic performance is with a native applications written in C++.
Same as many other software of that age of course, like Microsoft Office, Visual Studio 2005-2008, Adobe PhotoShop, etc...

I'm fairly competent, or better in C#, C++, Delphi, VB.NET, and have experience of Java, MATLAB and Ada... and I'm pretty sure PokerStars could have been written in any of those.

While I suspect that C++ is a best guess, it's certainly not the case that there's no other possible language it could have been written in - that's just a moronic statement, I strongly suspect coming from a young male with very little programming experience... am I right?

Nice find, but how many of them are good enough to obtain a Windows UI program with the graphic performance of Pokerstars?
I would say 1.

But, really, what else can they use ?

Any link for that statement?

PS uses C++ I know for sure. I dunno about the others.