First electronic poker room to open in Vegas

The Excalibur Casino will be offering only electronic poker tables from 22nd of August. On the 18th of August, the room will close down for the renovation and they will reopen on the 22nd, becoming the first electronic poker room in Las Vegas.

You won't see any dealers or chips anymore on these tables. The new system has its advantages and disadvantages. No more dealers means no more tipping, and less rake (because they need less staff, rake is going down). Other advantages one can think of are that it speeds up the game, makes chipcounts easier and there will be no more discussions about flashing cards or acting out of turn (although these can be pretty entertaining). Also, if a casino wants to cheat (for example, making sure more people hit the board to increase rake), it would be easier to reprogram the software rather than to get dealers to cheat without people noticing. Let's just hope they don't and everything is protected enough

But this also means there will be fewer physical tells for the players, maybe less emotion at the table and the feeling of having a pile of chips in front of you will be missed. This might mean less fish will be drawn to these tables, because they'll miss the enthusiasm and excitement of real poker and prefer to brag about their pile of money or chips instead of just digital money.

The picture on the right shows how it works when getting cards dealt, you just hold your hand to prevent others from seeing your cards, after you've seen them you can flip them over again. Community cards will be shown in the middle of the table on the central screen as you can see above.


This system has been up and running in a few places around the world so far, Montreal and Atlantic City to name a few, but now it's finally coming down to Las Vegas as well.

What do you think? Is it an improvement or not? And would you play there rather than in a normal casino?

hrm i might try it out. They should link these to Pokerstars money =]

well internet guys wont have trouble playing live anymore :D

I haven't played live (yet) but it seems like it would be much less exciting/interesting.. :/

i agree with night it will almost the same as playing online

i think this will be highly unpopular with the internet players

if you are looking for this you might as well stay at home and sit behind your own comp in comfort. i guess a bunch of people visiting vegas but looking not to spend too much money might be interested in it. after all lots of people play the slotmachines too tho i cant see why,

that that would suck so much

its like you are there in your own world, sounds pretty bad imo
I think the regular experience, with a dealer, cards and chips, are much more natural and cooler than playing on a computer =]

I would not play on these tables.

I prefer the classic live poker.

this sucks.... you can better stay home.

If i want to play digital poker i'll play online.....at home...in my chair....by my fridge....etc.

Thats sad that poker is taking this turn. I also feel sorry for the all the dealers that will be out of work in the next 10 or so years after the 80% conversion. The only REAL poker games will probably be found in the older vegas casinos. I think it would be refreshing to chill at a table with your homies and play some good ol REAL poker, while doing some chip tricks and hanging out with a drink.

i think it will be cool, nice option to have as long as all of the casinos dont do this

this is a terible idea

The tables are called PokerPro and are actually pretty popular... Or alteast they are here in Bulgaria. I don't think it would attract less fish to the tables because all the fish will see is just another slot machine to gamble on. I've played many times on these and they're okay, although live poker is way cooler with all the chips and stuff. I don't think the digital poker stands any chance to the live poker tables, even if it's faster and more convinient for the players.

Btw the reason they are so popular and spread in Bulgaria is our legislation, which treats them as slot machines and casino's have to pay less taxes, compared to the expensive live tables (high taxes).

On August 14 2008 13:54 TalentedTom wrote: this is a terible idea

Agreed

I am interested in seeing the long term affect because short term I saw that fish love poker and these tables didn't stop them, waiting list in the 100s in montreal for 30+ tables

they have these at crown casino in melbourne.
the electronic tables cater for the lower limits (50c/$1NLHE, $1/$2NLHE and $2/3PLO) but any limit higher than that is all genuinely live ^

and btw the fish absolutely LOVE these tables

On August 14 2008 15:16 chessjerk wrote: Show nested quote + On August 14 2008 13:54 TalentedTom wrote: this is a terible idea Agreed

i mean, every once in a while the feel of live chips, live dealer and the atmosphere of live poker is fun. digitalizing everything is kind of frugal, if they are doing it for costs only. like some others said if you wanna play this, you might as well set up webcams for pokerstars. no more chips tricks. no more fancy shuffles from dealer. no more 'dealer/fate' correlation. fish are probably less prone to tilt as bad since they see exact amounts instead of chip stack sizes...

its like, a good idea, in theory, but i like the regular live poker better than the idea of this, and internet poker is the best, obv

If the casino let's me multi-table against tables full of fish then I think it's worth it. I think it takes away from the experience of physical cards, chips, the dealer, the shuffling of chips, and other stuff that make live poker fun. Sure the math might get a bit easier with the the number more readily accessible to you but then it's so quiet and boring cause everyone is just looking at their screen.

Btw I'm waiting for pokertracker/PAHUD to somehow strike a deal to have their services on these electronic poker tables =P