PokerTek's Heads-Up Electronic Poker Table to Enhance Poker in Casinos

The first fully automated two-seated poker table called PokerPro2 is the latest offering from North Carolina- based PokerTek Inc.. It promises live casinos a low cost way to offer popular heads up poker where they couldn't afford to do so previously.

But the PokerPro2's best feature is that it "offers players a chance to settle old scores," says PokerTek.

Like PokerTek's original 10-player PokerPro table, this heads-up version is computer-dealt and fully automated.

By using only 20% of the floor space of a traditional table and dealing more hands an hour, the PokerPro2 Heads-Up table was designed to overcome some of the inherent inefficiencies and human errors of manually dealt heads-up poker at traditional tables. Thus, casinos now have an opportunity to offer heads-up poker in a profitable manner.

"We believe there is strong player demand for heads-up poker in our casino," said Hashem Minaiy, CEO of The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California. "Unfortunately, this form of poker is too costly to be hand-dealt. With the advent of PokerPro Heads-Up, we can now offer this great game to our players."

Like the 10-player PokerPro table, the PokerPro2 Heads-Up table has a large screen in the center for projecting community cards' images and betting graphics, as well as smaller private screens which are visible only to individual players.

The full-size 10-player tables are installed in at least 14 casinos around the world, according to PokerTek, including Australia, England and Italy. And in the United States, the automated tables can be found in casinos in Arkansas, California, Florida and Oklahoma.

"I think that it couldn't have been a more opportune moment for this product than right now, with Internet gambling [being cracked down on] in the U.S.," said Doug Dalton, director of poker operations for the Bellagio. "

Dalton added, "I wouldn't get myself in a position where I would terminate people and replace them with this table. What you want to do is add it as another dimension to your poker room."

As noted in a previous PokerPages article, another dimension casinos could offer is the recently debuted duplicate poker, using multiple 10-seat electronic tables (click here to view article).

Both the 10 seat and 2 seat electronic tables have been certified by the Gaming Laboratories International to meet GLI-24 standards for Electronic Table Game System. PokerPro2 also meets GLI-13 standards for On-line Monitoring and Control Systems (MCS) and Validation Systems, as well as GLI-16 standards for Cashless Systems in Casinos and applicable sections of GLI-11 for Gaming Devices in Casinos.

Development of PokerTek's tables has not been without controversy, however.

On February 5, 2007 a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tellis Software Inc alleging that PokerTek breached a May 2004 contract to compensate Tellis for developing the PokerTek PokerPro tables. The lawsuit names both PokerTek and its CEO, Gehrig "Lou" White, as defendants in the action.

The alleged agreement called for Tellis to be compensated as much as $730,000 in cash bonuses and 2% equity in PokerTek, which it claims PokerTek has not fulfilled.

That lawsuit came on the heels of an earlier lawsuit which Lightning Poker filed against PokerTek. Lightning Poker's Gaming System is an electronic poker table and is a direct competitor to PokerTek's PokerPro tables. The lawsuit alleged antitrust violations, unfair competition, trade slander and defamation.

After Lightning Poker brought to light that PokerTek had incorrectly told Lightning Poker's customers that Lightning Poker's products infringed upon PokerTek's pending patents, PokerTek issued a statement asserting that Lightning Poker's products did NOT infringe upon any pending patents. In response, Lightning Poker dropped its lawsuit. Soon after, Shuffle Master announced on January 24, 2007 a long-planned distribution deal to promote, market, distribute and service Lightning Poker Gaming Systems worldwide.

Read Related Articles: