Electronic Poker Tables

Recently, a Las Vegas cardroom began a grand experiment in using electronic poker tables. It removed all 12 of its live-action tables and replaced them with electronic versions.

This has major implications for casino management, dealers, chip runners, and other industry-related people, but how does it affect players? As is the case with most changes, there are pros and cons for players. Let's look at some.

Pros:
• Faster game
• No tipping
• No dealer errors
• More sanitary
• Accurate player tracking
• Uniform rules

Cons:
• Less socializing
• No hand tells
• Some player training involved
• Less room for player excuses
• Profit-and-loss tracking

Let's take the pros first.

Faster game: Most players enjoy faster games. Electronic tables certainly provide that. They eliminate shuffling, card distribution, pot pushing, pot division, change making, and side-pot delays. Even more useful to me, they eliminate that dreadful delay at the showdown when either no one shows his cards or, worse, the winning hand is turned over and a player holding a loser takes a full minute to mournfully say goodbye to his once-promising holding.

Electronic tables have preset time limits and countdown clocks on every player's screen that begin to flash when they are running low on time. If a player times out, the hand is folded. There are provisions for players to get a time extension if the game warrants.

No tipping: Players tip dealers for a number of reasons, but no one really looks forward to an evening of tipping. Let's say you are playing at a live table, seeing 30 hands per hour, and you win one hand in 12 (because you are tighter than the others). Assuming that you tip $1 per win, and you play 500 hours per year, your tips add up to $1,250. Many professionals play far more hours, and can pocket a significant annual sum by playing at electronic tables and saving the tips.

No dealer errors: Electronic tables have no accidentally exposed cards, skipped players, boxed cards, misread boards, misplaced side pots, or any other mistakes that humans sometimes make. This not only contributes to a faster game, it also prevents arguments from happening.

More sanitary: Everyone has been in a cardroom when a player has a cold, coughs and sneezes all over his chips, and then tosses them into a pot. You don't even know whether you want to win the dirty mess. Electronic tables can be a boon to many players who are susceptible to catching colds.

Accurate player tracking: Many cardrooms have adopted player-tracking systems to reward frequent players with earned comps. Player cards are swiped when they enter a game, and again when they leave. However, sometimes players forget to bring their card or forget to give it to the proper authority. Others forget to clock out, losing the credit they deserve. Electronic tables automatically track all of a player's interactions with the game, thus ensuring that all players get all of the credit and comps they deserve.

Uniform rules: Electronic tables are a real blessing on cruise ships. While organized poker cruises (like those of Card Player Cruises) are wonderful and feature well-run cardrooms, many other cruises offer poker that's dealt at one or two tables. Sometimes the dealers have not been trained properly for poker, and are occasionally supervised by an inexperienced manager. I have played on a few of these, and the procedures and rules interpretations vary wildly from one ship's casino to another. I also have played at electronic tables on some ships, and since the rules and procedures are built in and standardized, play is far smoother and more uniform.

As with any innovation, there are also some negatives. Let's explore some of them.

Less socializing: Poker is a social game. Most people play live poker for relaxation, conversation, and fun. In typical live games, after a player receives his cards, he takes a peek, and then starts looking around, often while continuing conversations with his neighbors. Furthermore, there is a reason that cardrooms advertise friendly dealers. Players expect a warm, convivial environment, as they are, after all, playing a game. Players using electronic tables tend to keep their eyes focused on their screens and converse less.

No hand tells: Observing and acting on opponents' tells is an important part of the arsenal of many live-action players, particularly professionals. Watching how opponents handle their cards and chips can provide countless clues about their holdings and intentions. Clearly, players staring at and tapping screens do not offer any such information. Electronic tables remove this critical factor in making the best decision on a hand.

Some player training involved: Everyone who has seen poker on TV or played it in a home game can sit down at a live table and get involved. No special orientation is required. Electronic tables require some hands-on training from a staff member before a new player can sit down. This may be minimal, but it is still there and can discourage some from participating. In fact, at the Las Vegas cardroom mentioned above, several dealers have been converted to greeters and trainers, getting players accustomed to the new technology.

Less room for player excuses: Some losing players find ways to avoid personal responsibility for their losses by blaming dealers or decks. They berate dealers and ask for frequent deck changes and scrambles, even at tables with random-shuffle machines. At electronic tables, there is no one to yell at, and no decks to change. While this may sound like a good thing to you, anything that enables losers to realize that it is their fault cannot be good for the winners.

Profit-and-loss tracking: Live-action players buy chips from the cage, from chip runners, and from other players, and even use cash for betting in many places. Currently, there is no way for a cardroom to know how much any player is winning or losing. With electronic tables, all of this changes. Your buy-ins are all tracked, as you must purchase credits with a magnetic card that is swiped into the table. Likewise, your cash-outs are electronically recorded and then paid when you present your card for collection. Thus, your net for each session is completely trackable by the table software. Many players are not anxious to have others know what their poker financial status is, for several reasons, including privacy and pride. Of course, you can elect to be anonymous, although one friend of mine playing at an electronic cardroom was asked for his driver's license before he could play.

Conclusion: The Las Vegas casino is using the tables on a six-month trial basis. We will see if players accept them like slot players adapted to ticket-in, ticket-out machines. I definitely would like to see these tables become standard for venues like cruise ships and perhaps bars, where there are no trained dealers, and therefore, sometimes no poker is offered. I am sure that you will be seeing more of them, and you can discover for yourself if the pros outweigh the cons.

Barry Tanenbaum is the author of Advanced Limit Hold'em Strategy, and collaborator on Limit Hold'em: Winning Short-Handed Strategies, both available at www.CardPlayer.com. Barry offers private lessons tailored to the individual student. Please see his website, www.barrytanenbaum.com, or write to him at [email protected].