There is a new policy at the World Series of Poker this year. Well not so much a new policy, but a clarification of the current policy pertaining to electronics at the table, as the WSOP brass explained that electronic devices would be permitted during play at the table and that players would be allowed to play online poker (in their minds hopefully at WSOP.com) while participating in WSOP tournaments.
In fact, the WSOP will be encouraging players to do so, with unique cross-promotions and other live/online integrations including wi-fi access in the Rio.
In my opinion the WSOP is making a big mistake by not just allowing online play during live tournaments(or electronics in general), but actually urging people to play online during WSOP tournaments.
While I certainly understand the desire to really market and push their online poker room, this seems to be a case of prioritizing the appetizer over the entrée. The WSOP is the main course and we shouldn’t be taking away from it to make room for the appetizer.
Here are my three main complaints when it comes to this new policy.
It will make the game even less social
Can we stop allowing players to bury their faces in their iPhones or hide behind a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and sunglasses. But now it’s not simply that the WSOP is allowing the use of electronic devices at the table, they are actually encouraging their use!
Poker (live poker anyway) is meant to be a social game. If we truly want to bring all of those casual players from the early and mid-2000’s back into the fold we need appeal to them, and sitting at a table with eight stone-faced college kids playing online poker in between live hands is certainly not going to accomplish that.
If it was up to me, no phones, no electronics, no headphones. Sit down and play poker. If you want to play online poker go home and do it. If you don’t want to talk to anyone for a few hours go to the movie theatre by yourself.
It’s going to further slow down play
As if the pace of play wasn’t bad enough, and as if dealers didn’t have to remind players that the action is on them, now we are supposed to expect players will just time out of an online hand to act on their live hand?
We should be working on speeding up the game (once again, something casual players would appreciate) not finding new ways to slow it down and cause confusion. I can’t wait for the first time a player mumbles something about calling and when their opponent flips over the winner claims they were talking about their online hand.
Creates more potential cheating scenarios
As we’ve seen online, technology can be used to cheat, and there is no reason to think that some tech savvy players who are lacking in the morals department won’t be able to figure out a way to use a smart phone or laptop to cheat while they’re playing.
While I’m not smart enough or tech savvy enough to figure this out, I can easily see some unsavory players landing at the same table and creating and using a real time collusion code using some cell-phone signaling system. This will be near impossible to detect, especially if they are encouraged to use electronic devices at the table.
Some final thoughts
I do understand the want and desire to integrate the online and live experience, but allowing players to do both at the same time is only appealing to a very small constituency; a constituency you already have in your hip pocket by the way.
The other announcements made by the WSOP –Next Day Satellites, The Grind Room, and the online turbos scheduled for dinner breaks are all great ideas, but advocating for players to increase their usage of electronics at the tables is far from ideal.
I still want my live poker to be live poker. I want it to be social and I want it to be something of a throwback. If I wanted to play online I can stay in my hotel room and play online. I think far more people are like me and are at the WSOP for the experience, for the camaraderie with other poker aficionados, and to play some good old fashioned poker.
The smaller subset that is looking to maximize their hourly rate and don’t have time for useless wastes of time like talking and eating are not what is going to bring new players into the game: The new players the World Series of Poker wants and that WSOP.com wants.
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