Technology Is The Answer

While the title of this post is cliche, there is a reason people point to technology as the solution to the problems that we face - it is powerful and allows for creative disruption in ways never before imagined.Surprisingly though, online poker in its current form is simply an imitation of the offline game. Sure the flexibility of online poker allows the truly committed to play at multiple tables at the same time, and maybe those hacker-minded players can use their programing skills to build a bot or a calculator. But for all intents and purposes, online poker today is simply offline poker with a cool gui.

But why can't online poker be something more than offline poker?

As I started thinking about solutions to the challenges that addiction presents to the game, I thought - why not change the structure of the game? Or at least use the Internet and technology to present creative solutions to the time-sink problems the game presents.

As noted on http://pokertimesink.blogspot.com/www.pokertimesink.pages.google.com/solutions, using the power of technology, one could create poker-simulations where the hardest and most exciting elements of the game could be simulated for users. One could imagine this variation taking different forms - perhaps players could join a final table with varying stack sizes with different payoffs awarded to the winners. Anything is possible with a little imagination and some programmers with creative skills.

Technology truly is the future of our world today, and it may even be the answer that allows us to keep playing poker without the fear of addiction keeping big brother looking over our shoulder.

Speed Poker: An Innovative Solution

It may not be a coincidence that an innovative solution to some of the challenges of poker addiction was developed in Australia, a nation that has grappled with the definition of gambling addiction with a nationally mandated attempt at defining the problem.The solution, as discussed at the Wikipedia post is Speed Poker.

Speed poker is a live variant of Texas hold 'em inspired by online poker. A relatively new variant, it is the format of two major televised tournaments, the World Speed Poker Open and the Poker Dome Challenge, as well as the Asia-Pacific Speed Poker Championship. Card Player Magazine credits Australian Keith "Bendigo" Sloan with developing the speed poker variant. Although theoretically any poker variant could be played in a speed format, to date only Texas hold 'em has been widely played.

Here is the official website of the game, Speed Poker with a description:

Speed Poker™ is quite simply the most exciting development in the game for 30 years. A perfect marriage between the fast action of online play and the adrenalin pumping atmosphere of a live tournament.The concept is simple, six players, two dealers and a hand-rate of over 70 hands an hour. Wave goodbye to the 10-minute wait while a player decides what to do - there's just 15 seconds to act or the hand is declared dead. With a much quicker hand rate, players are afforded greater hand selection.

Hand Groupings = Slow Play

The "hand-groupings" of Texas Hold-Em Poker create a slow-play long-time environment.

As discussed at Learn Texas Hold 'em.com, one is advised in a tournament environment especially to wait for good hands in good positions. Given the limited quantity of good hands, it is a logical necessity that it will take a good deal of time to finish such a tournament.One solution is to speed up tournaments using a "turbo" format, which accellerates the speed of play by reducing the amount of time between increases in blinds. However, as discussed below, this is not always a popular solution.

Some Don't Like Turbo

The following link discusses the challenges of Turbo Tournaments

I do not like speed tournaments where the blinds escalate at a fast pace. This structure requires you to take a lot of chances from the beginning in order to keep ahead of the blinds. It leaves very little room for error or bad luck. It also makes it more difficult for the better players to survive. Even though the structure and limit was not one I am used to playing, I played the same game as I usually try to, which is very tight early in the tournament. I did get lucky twice, winning hands that I was not favored to win before the flop, and was able to squeak by the blinds a few times before finally being eliminated. The important thing to point out though, is that I was favored on the hand I finished on, and if I had won it I would have been one of the top three chip stacks and probably easily into the money. The mistake I made was not adjusting my play to slightly looser and more aggressive earlier in the tournament.