End of an era
Saturday, June 27, 2009 @ 10:26 AM
This would be better titled 'Failed Experiment' perhaps. Not surprisingly to me (and probably to many, many poker players), the PokerTek experiment on the Vegas Strip has thus far failed. It seems the execs at MGM have finally noticed that poker players prefer live play with flesh & blood dealers, actual cards, real chips, etc.
After my one session at the Excalibur shortly after they put the machines in, I have to say it was just a matter of time...
It is somewhat amusing, at least to me, that as recently as March, PokerTek was being lauded for their success in trade rags. The premise that as soon as Las Vegas casinos warmed to the idea of automatic poker tables, the rest of the world would follow...funny. Hopefully, it never happens.
Two months later, MGM announces that they are pulling the PokerTek tables from the Excalibur and returning the live-action tables that used to be there. Nice!
I honestly don't wish anyone to fail, but I honestly hope the PokerTek guys never succeed to the level that they originally envisioned. What an absolute boring environment an all-electronic room is. On SuperBowl weekend this year, Eeyore and I made a trip through the Excalibur. The poker room was a morgue at the same time of day that other casinos had five or six games. The players who were actually playing at the Excalibur looked like they were having as much fun as they would have been sitting alone in an empty room.
I do like the heads-up tables that PokerTek has put into bars across the country. Bars are good places for video games ;)
Speaking of video games, if you are visiting Vegas I have heard the Pinball Museum is moving closer to the Strip to get more tourist attention. That place is well worth a visit, and your quarters go to a good cause. I cannot find the link to the article where I read that though...sorry.
While I try to find said link, go spend your time reading some rare praise for poker dealers. Nice to see someone actually acknowledging the dealers for a change!
I thought it was doomed to fail and am also not surprized to hear of the decision to remove them, though I hear they don't have far to travel to their new location.
Its good to see attempts at innovation though Stripper Poker seems a distraction.
I recall something about a poker room manager who auditioned five candidates: four dealt quickly and without any mistkes whatsoever, the fifth was somewhat slow and made a few errors including failing to take the final rake. The only man hired that day was the slower and error-prone one. The manager knew he would eventually speed up and also knew that there is not a poker dealer alive who has failed to take a rake, but that manager also knew he was hiring poker dealers not robots. He hired the man who interacted with those who were playing. I just can't see some "dead man" given some money by his wife and let off the leash to go play poker ... and walking into a room filled with electronic machines!!!
Off topic, but curious how the first couple of days went with the new games and rule changes. You're probably going to write about it anyway, but just curious.
Tonight (July 2) is my first night working. I, blessfully, had last night off.
Working on some stories from the changeover, etc. I hope to get a post up in the next couple days!