I use a Mac, systems 9.2.2 and 10.2.3. When attempting to bid in a
"live" internet auction, where one sees the bids progressing in real
time, almost always my bid doesn't register, although I can see the
other bids progressing on the screen. I have been thinking of buying a
cheap PC, just to use in these auctions, but someone told me the
problem may be with the new Java update, and that a PC might not solve
anything.  What is the cheapest way for me to solve this problem? 
Also, I would like to play online poker, and can't find a poker site
that works with a Mac.  Is there one?  Are the main poker sites
working to soon support a Mac?

Dear PDQ, 

I am posting at least a partial answer to your second question: 

The Poker Room 
<http://www.pokerroom.com/> 
Is a poker room which supports Mac. 

The Mac Poker Gudie lists another Mac-Friendly site: 
<http://www.mygamblingdirectory.com/gambling/Poker_Games/mac_poker_freeware_macintosh/index.shtml>

As for the other question, there could be several answers: maybe, if
you tell us which site it is, we could inspect their Mac-support and
see if that is the problem. Since the question is about to expire,
consider re-posting it if you want it answered. As a tip, I'd say that
it could be that your question wasn't answered before, because you
posted two questions on the same posting (one about the auction,
another about the pocker), and if someone knows the answer to one,
they might not know the answer to another.