PokerTek Poker Pro Table Review

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Karma

Australia. Feb 19 2007 02:30. Posts 3538

EDIT: Ok apparently the word rap on the blog page doesn't work and I can't be fucked fixing it
so if you want to read this with proper word rap it's going to be easier to go to this link:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/blog/viewblog.php?id=157184

In case you don't know what I'm talking about you can read about it HERE
Last year we had a topic about this the general consensus was that it would suck, even I agreed with that sentiment
http://www.liquidpoker.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=62669

But I played at these tables the other night at Crown Casino (Where Aussie Millions is held so it's a decent poker room) and I think they are actually pretty good. The main complaints that people seemed to have in the previous thread was that it distracted from the atmosphere, that it might be easy to cheat by looking at the cards and that it was pointless, I'll address those in…

GOODKARMA'S OFFICIAL POKER PRO REVIEW!

I went with a few friends on Friday night and the immediate benefit was no waiting, normally at crown you usually have to wait for like 10-20 minutes and sometimes longer, at least on a Friday or Saturday night, but this time I was able to sit down almost straight away because you just look for a vacant seat and go and sit down. They give you this card thing that you put credit on at the cashier and you just insert it and buyin. One advantage (especially for lower limit players) was the limits at Crown went as low as .5/1$ with a 50bb max buyin, which is good compared to the normal buyins. For example you buyin for $50 max at the $1/2 dealer tables (emetique). They also had $2/4 FL as opposed to the lowest dealer tables being $5/10 FL. I would assume other casinos would adopt a similar policy of offering lower limits on the electronic tables

The coolest thing I found was that you get the opportunity to play shorthanded vs the casinofish, often at the Casino (At Crown anyway) you basically have to play high enough that there aren't enough players for a full table if you want to play shorthanded (like $10/20 or something). But there I was playing 3 handed vs the hilariously bad casinofish and BANKIN! (obv). So that was probably the coolest aspect of the technology

Also the hand rate is MUCH faster and no dealer fuckups (Like the dealer taking your cards when you open raise pf, it's happened to me

) or stringbetting etc to contend with which was a major bonus. Also I always get carpal tunnel at the casino from continuous shuffling so this helped me spare my precious wrist for more fruitful activities

. I was probably getting 60 hands an hour at the full tables (9 playaz) and obviously many more when playing shorthanded. Anyone who's played casino NL knows how mindgrindingly slow it is (Full ring hand rates in the teens if your dealer sucks and the game is loose) so this was a welcome change
The atmosphere was still good as well (Chatty players etc, probably depends on table, you get dead table with dealers too) and the play was equally as loose as the normal tables so no complaints there. People also didn’t seem to take losing nearly as badly and I didn’t here any “fucking rigged damn computer” complaints either so normal fish didn’t seem to mind it either

There are also a few cool features like showing high/low cards as well folding and show last to act and all that shit too so your actions aren't really limited compared to normal casino play. There are also functions to automuck and call a floor person over if someone is being a faggot so it’s all there

You can rebuy to the max easily, look at the previous hand and see the exact pot amount and stack sizes, which makes it a lot easier to make decisions in regards to bet/raise amounts which is sometimes a problem at the casino. Also there's a confirm button for actions so it’s difficult to make misclicks etc.

In regard to looking at the other player's hands it's really quite easy to prevent any cheating. The way to show you cards is you put your hand on the touchscreen in a cupping shape around the card animation and the cards kinda flip up so you see he corner like you would normally. Also the screens are covered with some substance which makes it impossible view them from an angle so there’s really only a cheating threat from the players directly next to you which is easy to negate if you use your hands in the normal way. It’s not like people and trying to cheat anyway so it’s not a big deal
Another problem is that one of the tables seemed to randomly lag a little, which was a rare occurrence but a little annoying nonetheless. Also my screen was a little screwy but that seemed to be only a problem with my screen. I used the card to touch the screen buttons as opposed to my hand and it worked fine, probably some aids ridden junkie had wiped his greasy hands on it causing it to not register my finger so it's all good

. The touch screens are generally pretty reactive though and don't fuck up much, hardly a major inconvenience.

So yeah overall I think they are cool, of course there is a slight loss of atmosphere without real cards and chips and dealer but I’m not a chip butterflyin’ card flickin’ dealer antagonisin’ balla so I don’t really care. If you’re going to the casino to make money and play some shorthanded low limit live pokah then these tables are the obvious choice. If you like chatting to other players about how gay the dealer is and doing chip tricks then you might want to stick to the normal dealer tables but otherwise poker pro is the way to go

1 votes

fish mentality

Last edit: 19/02/2007 02:50

PokerDoc88 Australia. Feb 19 2007 02:47. Posts 3527

The poker pro tables strike a perfect balance between live and online play. Fishes seem to not give a shit about clicking buttons to call their money off, they're even less frugal with the virtual numbers compared to the pretty chips you play with on a proper live table.

There are a few complaints I have about the system though. Firstly, it doesn't have a warning reminding you that you can check for free on the big blind: I accidentally folded my hand on the big blind numerous times, once which cost me the opportunity to flop trips and stack a noob fish.

Secondly, when you choose to bet, you press the 'bet/raise' button, and it automatically puts in the amount to call + the minimum re-raise, so for instance, just say the BB is $2 and you want to raise to $10, if you click 'bet', then it will put in $4 straight away. So, automatically pressing the $5 chip button twice will instead raise the bet to $14 instead of the $10 that you wanted, and this can be frustrating to adjust to at first. Of course, you can always cancel your raise amount and re-enter it as a $1 and a $5 chip (4 + 1 + 5 = 10), hence getting the desired $10 raise that you wanted.

So yeah, in total agreeance with Karma: The higher hand rate/hour, and presence of total fish make these poker pro tables a very good way to earn money if you have the patience and discipline to sit down for a couple of hours.

kantoiki Australia. Feb 19 2007 03:37. Posts 3818

yeah although it sounds quite bad intially i have to say after giving it a shot it was really quite an alright experience. Minor technical issues such as some random lag issues during games but nothing major.
Also players do seem more willing to call off their money with a push of a touch screen button as well as the added bonus of increase hands per hour and no poor dealing.
However, at crown anyway there is a higher rake than at the live tables although there is no "time charge" (at the live tables they charge 5 dollars an hour and 10 dollars for higher stakes).
All in all agreed with everything else mentioned above, and oh pokerdocs a nit.

muckv - i have an iq of 180 and i want someone to teach me how to take a shit IN the toilet.