Duplicate Poker - Interesting But Stupid Concept
I was suffering from a case of insomnia last week so I turned on NBC and watched Poker After Dark. During the broadcast there was a commercial for a poker site I had never heard of. The setting was a funeral, where the deceased had died of "too many bad beats". Then a spokesman came on and said, "Don't let this happen to you" and gave the plug for Duplicate Poker.
The next day I went online, downloaded the software and checked it out. There was a short video explaining how the site worked. There are different games and tournaments, but the basic format is the same. You get into a game and sit at a table. At the same time other players take their seats at other tables, but in the same game or tournament. All of the tables have the same number of players. For the duration of the game every table gets dealt the same cards. So if you're on the button and get A
J
, the player on the button at the other table or tables are looking at the exact same hand. And then the flop, turn and river at all of the tables are going to be exactly the same. How you win is by doing better than the other player(s) with the same hand as you at the opposite tables. So if there's 3 tables, all three players with AJ could lose the hand, but the one who loses the least will win the hand. It goes based on chip count, in which a running count is calculated throughout the game, but the betting remains fixed for each hand with everyone having 1000 chips with 20/40 blinds. For a more detailed explanation of the format, go here.
The whole point of the concept though is to try and remove bad beats and get rid of the luck element in poker. Because of the format, Duplicate Poker is considered "legal" in the United States. The whole idea that this removes luck is completely flawed. First of all, the luck factor still exists. It all comes down to who you have sitting at your table. So if you have that same AJ hand OTB, you could open raise to 60 preflop, and have a donkey in the BB who calls with 73. The player at the other table OTB could have a good player in the BB who folds that 73. If the flop comes J77, the player at table A is in trouble, and even if he escapes with minimal damage is still behind the player on table B, who picked up the blinds. So the idea that this concept gets rid of the luck factor is ridiculous.
Also, another thing I hate about this site is that you can't track your progress. You find out at the end of the tournament or round whether you won or not. It makes sense to do that I suppose, because the strategy would completely change, but it still sucks. Furthermore, games are scarse. Your best bet to play is to join a quick 4-player game with 6 total hands dealt. It's two tables of heads up play. Just about all of the games on the site are short handed. And then there's the issue of hand for hand every deal because you have to wait for the other tables. It's slow and with the small selection of games it's not going to be an option for serious players.
If you want to reduce the luck factor the best feature to have is to run it twice. Carbon Poker has added that feature, and hopefully some other sites will offer it soon as well. I'd actually like to see this experimented with for tournaments as well. It would take longer to eliminate players, but since there's tournaments for split pot games, this would be no different.
The next day I went online, downloaded the software and checked it out. There was a short video explaining how the site worked. There are different games and tournaments, but the basic format is the same. You get into a game and sit at a table. At the same time other players take their seats at other tables, but in the same game or tournament. All of the tables have the same number of players. For the duration of the game every table gets dealt the same cards. So if you're on the button and get A
J, the player on the button at the other table or tables are looking at the exact same hand. And then the flop, turn and river at all of the tables are going to be exactly the same. How you win is by doing better than the other player(s) with the same hand as you at the opposite tables. So if there's 3 tables, all three players with AJ could lose the hand, but the one who loses the least will win the hand. It goes based on chip count, in which a running count is calculated throughout the game, but the betting remains fixed for each hand with everyone having 1000 chips with 20/40 blinds. For a more detailed explanation of the format, go here.The whole point of the concept though is to try and remove bad beats and get rid of the luck element in poker. Because of the format, Duplicate Poker is considered "legal" in the United States. The whole idea that this removes luck is completely flawed. First of all, the luck factor still exists. It all comes down to who you have sitting at your table. So if you have that same AJ hand OTB, you could open raise to 60 preflop, and have a donkey in the BB who calls with 73. The player at the other table OTB could have a good player in the BB who folds that 73. If the flop comes J77, the player at table A is in trouble, and even if he escapes with minimal damage is still behind the player on table B, who picked up the blinds. So the idea that this concept gets rid of the luck factor is ridiculous.
Also, another thing I hate about this site is that you can't track your progress. You find out at the end of the tournament or round whether you won or not. It makes sense to do that I suppose, because the strategy would completely change, but it still sucks. Furthermore, games are scarse. Your best bet to play is to join a quick 4-player game with 6 total hands dealt. It's two tables of heads up play. Just about all of the games on the site are short handed. And then there's the issue of hand for hand every deal because you have to wait for the other tables. It's slow and with the small selection of games it's not going to be an option for serious players.
If you want to reduce the luck factor the best feature to have is to run it twice. Carbon Poker has added that feature, and hopefully some other sites will offer it soon as well. I'd actually like to see this experimented with for tournaments as well. It would take longer to eliminate players, but since there's tournaments for split pot games, this would be no different.
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