Human-dealt table v. e-table debate CONTAINMENT thread.

Interesting. Most losing fish prefer to play with real cards and chips.

I haven't really seen ePokerTables anywhere I have played in the last 12 years but recently I have seen a ton of Roulette/Black Jack/Craps eTables that deal with small betting amounts. So I was wondering when Poker eTables were going to descend for small stakes.

The thing I hated about the Poker eTables back like 15 years ago was that when they made mistakes there was no way to rectify the mistakes. On one eTable in CA I was playing LHE and then my buttons stopped working on one hand and I timed out while trying to call a bet. I stopped playing on them because it was ridiculous and for any decent amount of money I wasn't going to rely on the buttons actually working all the time. And by buttons I think it was a touch screen that wasn't acknowledging I was touching it.

The other problem with eTables in cash games is that collusion would be much easier to do. Without a Dealer at the table to prevent certain types of talking it could lead to some very nasty situations.

There was also a situation that occurred when I was on a cruise and playing at an eTable. The result of the hand was questioned and when the Floor manager of the casino room came by he didn't know how to review the hand history that had happened. Some of the players thought that a mistake had been made when determining the winner of the hand (I wasn't in that hand). About 24 hours later somebody was able to review the hand and I actually don't remember the result (so it must have been OK) but I remember thinking that playing on eTables was not going to be something I would do when there were other options.

The other reason I enjoy live tables with human dealers is that I often like the dealers and getting to know regular dealers at places I play in a lot is something I really appreciate.

Some people don't trust online poker and would be going to a casino and essentially face the same problem unless I have missed something in how this works.

I prefer humans dealing at casinos.

I don't think it's really the same problems as online poker. Online poker my main worry is that I am playing against bots, or that people are colluding.

eTables don't have those problems. Physical players have to be seated at the table with you, and have to take physical actions that you can watch, and can't easily share private info without you knowing.

They do have other problems. Mr Rick mentioned some - there is no easy way to stop action and call a floor when something weird or a tech problem happens.

I also don't like that it becomes closer to the equivalent of sitting around a table with family or friends and having everyone looking at their phones rather than interacting with each other. It's a bunch of people sitting at a common table but each engrossed in their own world. No thanks.

On the flip side, it does save on labor costs, so you can play lower stakes with lower rakes and no tipping, so it is somewhat more sustainable.

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Relatedly... when I was in Vegas a few weeks ago, I played some of the "electronic" craps with some friends who didn't really know how to play craps and were somewhat flustered about trying to play at a real craps table with people shouting and throwing chips around, making bets they didn't understand.

This is not the same as bubble craps, where the dice are in the plastic bubble that bounces them around to roll them, with no human labor needed at all. For this there was a little mini table set up, with one employee running it (as opposed to 4 for a real craps table), and everyone betting was sitting at screens making electronic bets, and one by one people would go up and roll real dice. Table limits were $15 or $25 at the real tables, but only $5 at these tables. (Possibly even lower at bubble craps.)

We played for about an hour, and the noobies all had fun doing it. There were a few times where technical problems came up and it took the guy and a floor guy 5 minutes futzing with the software to get it all working again (mostly when they couldn't get the next person to roll set up so his screen got mirrored over to the spot at the mini table). And sometimes they would start the next roll before everyone had gotten all their bets set, which locks you out of making more bets. So it wasn't without its issues. But it was a cheaper, lower pressure way to play the game.

I was thinking more about those jackdaws that believe the deal is not random or action orientated with the usual reason that it is all for extra rake. This would not satisfy their issues but I get why casinos would go this route but I wouldn't bother going to one.

Recs hate the e tables. I grinded them at Cherokee one summer back in the day. The 1/2 was all e and 2/5 was all live dealer. They would only get 2-3 1/2 games and 10+ 2/5 games

E tables were great tho. Twice as many hands, no tipping, easily got 2x as many hands per hour. Don’t really remember any collusion happening

If I want to play at an "e" table, id much rather just play online at home. When I go to the casino, I want to play with real cards and chips. IMO, no point to show up to the casino to play on e tables when online poker exists.

I guess it's just the better familiarity?

True, etables seem to resemble just playing online, but like someone said, I'd be worried about bots and other online scams. It seems harder to scam irl.

I dunno guys, when I first played on these ages ago before this recent occurrence, I haven't seen any IT glitches, it was very smooth and if there was a prb, anyone could pause the game and the chief would come to resolve it. I would guess the tech is even better now.

Personally, I think the positives are just too big to ignore: no tips, more hands, no errors, not to mention kinda benefiting the dealers in the long run to learn a better, more useful skill...do they really wanna deal all their lives? I dunno, maybe for some.

I haven't noticed any collusion at those tables but you can easily call the chief over if anyone did.

Wtf, I just noticed this thread is from 2008 lol, cannot believe these things are around that long. I really need to start reading a thread before commenting.

Incredibly easy for the house or more likely the person the house is paying to run the table to scam it however and put "independent" players in the correct seats then split the take later.

That's unheard of right esp in legit gaming establishments, the only recent poker scandal was that Mike Postle guy but nothing to do with the dealer situation.

As already mentioned, etables are much more like live dealers than online poker. I normally prefer live dealer over etables but don’t consider them at all similar to online poker. No bots, no RTA or at least you can see it and no collusion or more correctly you can see the collusion.

One place I prefer etables is on cruise ships. The cruise ship dealers are always horrible (just don’t deal enough to get good and no one to train them on what good is), and they don’t know how to run and control the table. Also with etables the stakes and rake are much better. It is great to be playing 1/2 on an etable where randoms can and do sit down put in $25 and have no clue how to play. They won’t put in more than $25 at a time but will buy in like 8 times before giving up.

It isn’t that I like the etables but the games can be SOOOOO profitable plus the 50+ hands per hour. Used them to pay for the cruise for me and wife multiple times. You just don’t get that kind of action with live dealers on cruises.

Good luck trying that. These tables and the sw have been highly vetted. It would literally be easier for the house to do this with a mechanic as the live dealer vs an etable. Just like it is possible to have this happen with an auto shuffler, there is zero evidence it has ever been done, at least not in a regulated room.

In all seriousness, I'd advise you to contact your doctor for a medication check, since you really sound delusional.

It's because they want to play a fun, social card game, not a computer game.

lol wow...........

They still can, just 1 less person.

Well, it's kinda true right? I feel bad for them cuz they are dealing for ages and don't develop any new skills.