X10 automated Poker / Blackjack table is decidedly drool-worthy
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 2nd 2008 6:37PM
posted Jun 2nd 2008 6:37PM
[Via OhGizmo]
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Cool!
awesome! now i can call over Charles Barkley to help me set this thing up!
What happens when you spill your drink on the table?
This has RIGGED written all over it. House wins! What's that..? You want a re-match? HOUSE WINS AGAIN! Haha.
I demand to see the source code.
E71 you God damned nerd.
Looks like some of the machines I had to maintain as a tech in a casino...
Can't others see your cards? i mean if they are on the touchscreen then its there for everyone to see, so poker wouldnt really work.
I saw these in a casino a year ago (I think they were beta testing), and they looked pretty slick. Plus, the electronic table is much faster then human dealers, so you get more hands in.
@ E71, the "house" doesn't play poker and has no reason to rig it. Casinos take a small cut of every pot (called "the rake"), so they make money no matter how they deal the cards (and as I said above, this table allows more hands per hour, they rake a lot more money here).
@JJV, the cards on your screen are face down until you put your hands on the screen in front of the cards. Then the touch screen "peels" the cards enough so you can see what you have.
@ Mikey:
Perhaps you missed the "/Blackjack", but it appears E71 didn't. The house does play blackjack, in case you didn't know. I agree with E71, no way would I trust this. Plus, I would be worried about people seeing my "cards" if I did something wrong. High stakes + user error = me crying in my beer...
I think its more efficient to just go out and buy cards.
3 bucks for a deck & you're ready to play virtually anywhere.
However, if you're looking for $30k to buy this thing- then maybe spending $50 & going to Las Vegas to hit the real blackjack tables could help.
Exactly what i was gonna to say. Cards are popular because they are cheap and you can hold them. This table is expensive and all you can do i tap it.
I'd also expect people to buy real cards, but if people buy card games for the DS... Common sense is becoming too spare to keep that name.
Elora: Most software card games are different. They allow you to play against people or bots who are not physically close to you as well as being a bit neater/more convenient than a regular card game. Have fun trying to play solitaire on a bus with real cards.
@Matt
have fun playing this thing on the bus...
@hiko36
That's his point you dumb twat. How that got High Ranked is beyond me. He's saying people buy electronic card games (e.g. for the DS) because they offer something over real cards. This does not -- it's huge, and you still have to play with people in the same room.
@xerxesdaphat
What's with the hostility... I was just making a comment...
I'm suspecting some really hard-core 3M screens are involved in keeping your cards yourself. I still prefer the real thing though. I want to really throw my cards into the muck, not just touch a screen. What do you do when you're waiting for your turn, can you play video poker?
You play a mini-game of video Black Jack while waiting for your turn... during your video Black Jack tournament.
head to Crown Casino in Melbourne...these have been in use for years
i wonder if the screens are invisible from any position besides the person in the seat. thatd be sweet
yeah...with this "clever" table, it suddenly becomes very difficult to conceal what you're holding from the other players.
of course, if you own the table, you might be able to hack its software to make sure you win!!! Wheeeee!
Wouldn't this table effectively eliminate any possibility of card counters cheating casinos? That would be a big draw if so.
That's already taken care of by the continuous shuffle machines:
http://casinogambling.about.com/od/blackjack/a/shuffler.htm
If you don't have money to buy a card shuffle machine, you probably don't have money to buy one of these tables either...
couldn't it also be hacked and/or the dealing pattern figured out?
Played on something like this on a cruise ship. Your screen shows the action around the table (who has cards left, bet amount, pot amount, etc), it also has the check/bet/raise/fold options when it is your turn to play, and your two cards are shown on the screen face down - you touch them and one corner of each curls up to reveal what cards you have. You simply cup one hand to protect the screen from other eyes and touch it at the same time. When you stop touching the "cards," the corners go back down and nobody can see what you have.
You'd think for 30 large they'd have a few more details on their website. Pretty sparse on the specs if you ask me.
Have we learned nothing from electronics voting machines?
Its been done, in a shitty card room or cruise ship casino near you!
http://playpokerpro.com/
In PA, table games are not allowed. They get away with higher stakes blackjack by having a table like this, where the dealer is always incredibly hot and on a large plasma TV, and each player has a screen in front of them. I suspect something like this would be a way to get away with having poker for states that allow machines but not tables.
I would never trust my money to a computer. Being a programmer, I know what you can do with them. Give me real cards or give me death. Well, I don't know about death... just give me real cards.
Just wait until e-ink displays are indistinguishable from regular cards. Then you're pretty much screwed (if you want to gamble at card games, anyway).
I've actually played on these already. I thought they were old news? A new Casino here in New Buffalo, Michigan has about a dozen of these tables. That's all they have in their poker rooms. No Dealers. Just a bunch of employees walking around, making sure you know what's going on. They use key cards (like a credit card or hotel room key). You go up to the money cage, put on an amount to yer card, then sit down at a table, swipe, then play. To see yer cards you cup yer hands like there are normal cards in front of you, and the screen cards raise up like they're actual cards.
It makes the game go by so quick. It's a mixture of Online and Real Life IMO. Has the pace of Online, but you actually interact with the people yer playing with.
Plus: My friends can longer cheat and steal my money
Negative: That point is moot cuz I spent thirty grand on a table
Instead of tapping on the LCD I'll be tapping my girl on that table.
And by 'tapping my girl' you mean 'crimping the wire'
Although I think this wouldn't be that great for poker and blackjack...like most people here think. It would really cool for stuff like Risk and Settlers or any other complicated board games.
Damn. I found it's rather hard to fit a few ace screens up my sleeve.
I'm pretty sure PokerPro tables have been around longer than this one and do the same thing...
Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia has these in their poker room which people can buy prepaid cards for to play Texas on.
They fill in the time while people are waiting for live tables to open up.
Bjarcs? That you old friend?
temp@tazron.com
I'm sure all the major casinos and their card room managers are waiting for these things to prove themselves out.
Faster dealing, no mistakes, no dealer overhead... I'm sure they'd pay for themselves...
I'm sure the dealers unions will be up in arms over these types of devices.
so its like playing online poker... offline and on an actual table
One of my local card rooms has had a better version of this for a while. They use it for omaha 8 or better so the dealers don't have to deal with the difficulty in dealing that game. Nobody really likes playing with it. It confuses a lot of people, its somewhat easy to accidentally bet and raise. And nothing can beat the feel of actual cards and chips. I feel like people play a little looser on it as well, but maybe thats my perception. I see why the card rooms like it, but I it hasn't been too popular so far.
I've played on one of these in New Buffalo, Michigan. The cards are "dealt" face-down, but when you put your hands on the screen in front of the cards, as if to hide them, they are revealed. I didn't like it much, but only because I like having real chips. One very cool feature, when 2 people are heads up on an all-in, it gives the percentages (like when I go all in with 5s, and this A-hole call me with 4-6 suited. I catch a 5 on the flop and he gets another diamond, then another...then another)
I figure since they aren't paying a dealer and they take a rake, they probably pay for themselves in a matter of days or weeks
hey stop hacking!!
This is really nothing new Poker Pro tables have been around for a long time. They actually are really nice, I happen to play alot of poker and when playing at a live table with a dealer there tend to be misdeals and sometimes the dealer will try and call the winner incorrectly, these tables dont make mistakes. A misdeal sucks when you get AK or AA and all of a sudden get your cards stripped from you cause the dealer is an idiot. Also you dont have to tip a computerized table!
This is what I make for a living. Funny how many people have even copied our "X" naming convention that we came up with about two years ago:
http://www.digideal.com/platforms/dtsx.php
As runin mentioned, I too have tried this on a cruise ship.
There's no 'riggin' to it, the house takes a very small percentage of the game. The ship I was on had 2 tables with different blinds on each. They also held tourneys and the tables were quite popular. A strict rule that the floor manager had was 'no drinks on the table'. Instead they had cup holders that hung off the end of the table. Seeing the price now, I understand why.