INTERNET POKER PROMPTS ELECTRONIC TABLES

11 January 2008

Fast pace of online poker spurs land technology


The advent of fast-action Internet poker is one of the factors that has spurred the development of automated poker tables for operators with a broader spectrum of modern players in their sights.

The automated tables, which combine the up close and personal ambience of land poker with the speed and excitement of Internet versions of the game are becoming increasingly popular at land gambling venues in the United States, Australia and Germany, and are now beginning to appear in UK establishments like Aspers Casino, Newcastle and Ladbrokes Casino and Sports Bar in the Paddington London Hilton.

The tables are currently in use on cruise ships and in Canada, Australia, Macau, Germany, Australia, Bulgaria, Romania and Lebanon among other countries.

The founder of one of the two companies supplying the electronic tables, Brian Haveson, says the goal was to capitalise on the speed of Internet poker play combined with the face-to-face interaction of a live table game, resulting in increased profitability for land casino poker rooms.

Haveson, who heads Lightning Poker says a younger demographic of mainly Internet players used to the speed of Internet poker is attracted to the high tech automated table concept. He observes that such players find traditional dealered table action markedly slower in hands per hour, once they have sampled the electronic version of the game.

"It's the online audience's need for speed that makes the automated tables preferable to dealered ones for many players," he comments.

"Our tables are much faster. You don't have the dealer mistakes, the dealer changeovers, the splitting of pots, dealing with the chips, or changing the decks. You get a lot more hands, so the younger players who are used to the Internet really seem to gravitate to the tables."

The tables are also noted for their accuracy. No more misread hands or accidentally flipped or mucked cards. Pots, even side pots, are quickly and precisely calculated.

There have been mixed reactions from the player community. Some players prefer the automated tables to playing online because they can read the tells better and like the more socially interactive atmosphere. Others say they miss holding their cards and physically handling their chips. And others prefer the speed, convenience and multi-tabling action they can find at major websites on the Internet.

Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari was enthusiastic last year when he used the tables in an exhibition single table tournament with Mike Sexton, Clonie Gowen and Scott Fishman at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. He said he didn't feel he was playing on a computer at all...and he was relieved of the obligation to tip dealers, thereby increasing his overall income.

Pennsylvania-based Lightning Poker, Inc., is one of the two largest makers of electronic poker tables for use in live-action casinos, and holds patents in this regard. The 10-seat Lightning Poker tables are distributed under an agreement signed last year with leading casino-equipment supplier Shuffle Master, Inc. and offer both Texas Hold'em and Omaha gaming options.

Lightning recently announced its acquisition of Poker Automation, formerly the third largest maker of automated, live-play electronic poker tables with its FastDeal branded tables. The North Carolina firm PokerTek is another company competing in this market.

According to PokerTek CEO Lou White, there are 50 percent more hands played per hour at one of the company’s poker pro tables during a Texas Holdem game than is possible at a dealer roundtable. This brings the number of hands played per hour closer to that which is the norm online. And casinos might find the automated tables more profitable because the concept eliminates the need for a dealer and increases the amount of rakes taken per hour.

Land casino poker directors are cautious in their assessment, suggesting that automated tables are currently best suited to a niche application in low-limit, single-table tournaments. Henry Funke, a poker manager at a Florida land casino told Casino City Times in an interview last year that he thought the tables were 'the wave of the future'.

Funke said the threat to live dealers may not be as serious as has been suggested: "What we're running on them now are things that dealers don't mind not having to deal. These tables are very efficient at running low-limit, single-table tournaments, and they're not really affecting the dealers in their take-home pay."

Kathy Raymond, former Director of Poker at Foxwoods, and now Director of Poker at The Venetian, agrees the single table use is currently the most practical. "I had considered the purchase of a few of these tables while still at Foxwoods Casino," Raymond commented in the same interview. "My thought being that they would work very well when spreading satellites or single table sit and gos"

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