Media Center

First Duplicate Poker Event Held- Is it a Skill Game?

A clever new interpretation of poker called 'Duplicate Poker' made its debut at the Oklahoma State Poker Championships at the Cherokee Casino in Tulsa this week.

Duplicate Poker has a good chance of getting around the 'chance versus skill' debate surrounding the legality of poker, since it mimics how duplicate bridge is played.

In duplicate poker the cards are set-up so that each table and each seat at each table gets exactly the same cards: Duplicate hole cards, duplicate flop, turn and river.

It takes 'chance' out of poker and transforms it into a game of skill by the competition being between players in the same seat on different tables who start each hand with identical cards and the same number of chips. So it is how well you play the same hand that counts.

That is the up side. The down side is the amount of handling required to set up and tally results on a hand to hand basis. Each hand has to be duplicated at each participating table, and the results scored after every hand. Chip count needs to be reset at each table after each hand too. The results of many hands then need to be compared against players in the same seat at different participating tables to determine a winner.

This form of poker may be too cumbersome for any live casino unless it has a PokerTek or other similar electronic poker table to automate the card dealing and chip counting (click here to read an article about PokerTek).

Another solution is for live casinos to use specialized card readers of Radio Frequency Imbedded Devices (RFID) in casino chips to accelerate chip counting to make the game run more smoothly and accurately.

Because of the amount of setup and ongoing handling, duplicate poker is much easier when played online. e-PokerUSA is such an online site that already offers duplicate poker. You can test the duplicate poker concept for yourself for free by visiting e-PokerUSA.

The 'skill versus luck' argument of duplicate poker appears to be sound. So it could be an exciting new way for both online and live poker rooms to avoid the legal headaches about playing poker in countries and states with laws against games of chance, which regular poker is considered.