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I remember a couple of years ago there was talk of installing poker tables that did not require dealers.
Players would "cover" the hole card icons on the table, which would reveal the cards to them only, and then place bets accordingly ala online poker.
Did these ever take off?
Do they get much play?
The Excalibur in Vegas tried this for a few months a couple of years ago. I think they were called "PokerTek" tables. No, apparently it never caught on, and Excalibur got rid of them.
I've heard of a few other rooms across the country with them, but no noteworthy successes.
It just wasn't a good substitute for the real 'live poker experience', with actual chips, cards, etc.
Ive seen them on cruise ships, honestly thats probably the best avenue for them
Mohegan Sun had a handful of these tables with a couple of HU tables before the opened the poker room back up. I personally LOVED them as people played terrible and would give off so many tells if as they thought they were just at a slot machine. Was great to get in many more hands per hour while still getting to play with people in person. They attracted a lot of on lookers that wanted to just try them out that weren't poker players, but they usually bought in short and would be lucky if they played more than an hour. Was nice seeing peoples exact chip count like online but for cash games it was usually 60 bb play on avg.
HU action sucked, but I had a few epic matches ill never forget.
-Vegas Jim
I played these both at the Excalibur (very briefly) and on two different cruise ships.
I don't remember the Excalibur rake, but the rake on the cruise ships was RIDICULOUS, to the point where I wasn't even sure I was +EV in the game despite being against some of the worst NL players ever.
I played at one of these on a cruise ship a few years back and paid for the entire trip, plus alcohol, and excursions. It was only a $1/$2 game but the players were absolutely horrible. There were 4 of us at the table every night just picking off the fish. I think 3 of us won pretty big and guy #4 was a lot worse then us and a little unlucky.
The table did freeze up a few times and the floor had to come over and switch out the whole unit which they were pretty used to and did it fairly quickly.
Didn't the rake absolutely eat up a lot of the profits though?Quote:
Originally Posted by jsearles22
The players were horrendous on my cruises, and I busted so many of them, but I only made a little bit of money thanks to the rake.
Maybe I'm just a retarded player, but I've never paid much attention to the rake at a $1/$2 NL cash game. I think max rake is like $4 and a standard pot was $40-$50 and often pots reached $200+. Plus at these tables you aren't tipping a dealer. Drinks are tip free also.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan DruffDidn't the rake absolutely eat up a lot of the profits though?Quote:
Originally Posted by jsearles22
The players were horrendous on my cruises, and I busted so many of them, but I only made a little bit of money thanks to the rake.
Everyone here thinks I'm a retarded donk, but I won $2000+ in 5 total sessions at the dealer less table. The players were that bad. Many literally were old drunk guys who sat with $200 and didn't even know the game, hand ranks, etc
I play on these on a weekly basis. They are installed in a casino only 10 miles away. They ran a Madison Poker Championship in april and that was the first time I played there, I have been going to the tuesday and thursday tournaments ever since. I have had some decent results so far in the tournaments. I refuse to play the cash games there as they only offer 1/2 nl and 2/4 limit most nights with a rare 1/2 PLO game going. Rake is 10% 60 to 5. They will go into the .5 of rakes so 45 dollar pot 4.50 the games are normally terrible with 1 main 1/2 table and feeder table, youll get to the main table with 300 and everyone else will have 800 plus. 6 or 7 good cash game regs that play the tournaments who are just terrible in the tournament games. They have a limit hold em tournament on saturdays that normally gets 20-40 runners midday and was thinking of trying that out because its noon tournament and its all the 2/4 limit donks. 100 buy in, 10 entry fee. I am going to try and find the structure for it to see if its even worth it. They run a tournament each day but only two are worth playing the others just have horrible structure.