December 3rd, 2006
Ben Mackay

As I live in Sydney, I don't have much opportunity to head down to the unofficial poker capital of Australia, Melbourne. I did however, get the opportunity this weekend to head down for a night, to check up on things. In all my previous visits to Melbourne I hadn't had the chance to test out the electronic poker table that I've been hearing about. That is, until this weekend.

For those of you who don't know the electronic table or have had the opportunity to test it in Melbourne, I'm talking about the Pokerpro automated poker table at the Crown Casino, Melbourne. No dealer, just people and a table with screens. It sounds logical, the way technology is going it seems obvious that it is the next step in poker. I for one, was a little skeptical about the whole idea, but open to it at the same time.

"Did you come here to play with your chips, or did you come here to play poker?"

 

The way it works is a supervisor inputs a card (just play use at this stage at Crown, but I assume personalized cards would be used in the future) into the screen you are sitting at and your ready to go. The cards are dealt much the same as online poker. To see your your hole cards, you must put you hand over the cards on the screen and the corners of each lift to reveal the cards in the same way you would see your cards as if they were real. Play runs fairly smoothly without much table chatter (due mostly to the fact that you don't need to announce your actions at all, as a simple press of a button does this for you. I first wondered whether incorrect button presses would be a problem, such as a accidental fold or similar but was quickly told to fold you must press the button twice to confirm your folding action. Timers can be pre-set to ensure the action flows promptly.

The game set-up was 4/8 Limit Hold'em, along with $1000 in chips I found no major glitches in the general play. The play itself was irregular as it was only play money, and no-one wanted to fold their hand, but rather play-on to play with the machine a little more. I remember holding pocket Kings first hand at the table and there already was major action before me. The flop game me a set and with all the betting going it was perfect for me. I ended up losing the hand to 60-odd year old man who held 37 for runner runner straight. Mind you there were 6 others who came to the showdown with me just to see if their 10 high was good.

The table provides quite a few benefits to poker. The faster dealing, the lack of dealer mistakes and possibly a cheaper rake as no dealer wage is required. The table roughly works out about 50% faster than normal table would usually for hands per hour. The table also has options for tournament play as well as the cash table play. It allows online players to feel a little more comfortable at the table, without having the initial intimidated feeling that online players usually have when they first sit down at a table.

All in all, I found this new piece of technology to be a great innovation. I still prefer to play with real cards and flip chips around, but as someone said "Did you come here to play with your chips, or did you come here to play poker?". I definitely wouldn't say no to a few more of these tables being introduced in more casinos for real money.

If you have used these tables before (or even if you haven't) and would like to send me a comment please do so, as I'm interested in knowing what the feedback of the general poker public is on this subject.

  Contact Us  

-BM

  Back to Articles