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POCKET ACES

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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

March 22, 2008

Another Poker Site for the U.S. Audience

So just after I discovered Ujogo, the free poker Web site where U.S. players can compete for prizes, I get this email in a mailbox I check only once a week. It's the box I use when I check out places that ask for personal information, including, of course that email address. I'm not entirely sure why the message arrived there except that I did once use it to sign up for a dot com poker site and one poker newsletter. I guess one of those lovely sites rented or sold the address because I never mark the box that wants me to approve email from trusted associates.

(But as I sometimes do, I digress.) ... Back to the email message.

This particular message came from Duplicate Poker (user name), also known as promo at play poker dot info. (Most of you should know to change the word at to the symbol, the dot to a real dot and to close up the spaces for the authentic email address.) Promo (not his or her real name, I'm sure) proceeded to tell me that "Finally you can play POKER wory-free," and yes poker was in uppercase and the typist put just a single R in worry.

I almost tossed the message into my spam folder but I decided to read further.

It seems this was an invitation to play Duplicate Poker, the game of skill where "the luck of the draw is one excuse your opponents won't have ..."

I'm still not hooked, just interested, so I continued to read, and note that gambling no longer had a G at the end.

But I'm being picky. Heaven knows I've written more than my fair share of missives with typos and misspellings, especially when I didn't have the luxury of a spell checker to underline my faux paux in red.

What really electrified my brain waves was the good luck wish, the request to check out the site and take $200 from it, and to play worry free because this Duplicate Poker was a game of skill so I'd be able to use my credit card!

Was I being led down some garden path that would end up at a suspicious gingerbread house waiting, one with a wicked witch inside?

I decided to do some investigation so off I went to the dot info site.

Cute, I thought at first, these cartoon figures illustrating how the three versions of poker work, some of them looking suspiciously like people I know. Clever and quite well done.

I wanted more information so I clicked on the "about us" button and saw a bunch of names, guys I've never met or heard of -- until I came to a handle that was definitely in my address books. Bob "The Coach" Ciaffone.

Now I feel more comfortable. I know Coach has a keen interest in educating people and in fostering the growth of poker. He's written a rule book (and offers it free on his own site, http://www.pokercoach.us/), authored Omaha Hold'em Poker, co-authored a couple other titles and has acted as a poker ambassador for many years.

Without going into the details of how Duplicate Poker works, I'll just reiterate the site's description: "Duplicate Poker is played against people sitting at other tables, holding the same cards as you."

Now this kind of game seems ideal for online play because a computer can certainly arrange the deck and the duplicate hands much faster than, say, a ten-table cardroom where an overseer of some kind would have to cover this feature.

While the FAQ state that the game is legal in any state that allows games of skill, the answers also include the 11 states that do not allow residents this privilege.

I can't argue against the logic of Duplicate Poker as a skill-based game but a thorough examination of the site doesn't show any actual legal test of the claim that DP is legal. While the game's engineers say it's skill-based and that all luck has been eliminated, that doesn't mean some aggressive politician (or publicity craving attorney) won't challenge the statement.

Still, they must have convinced somebody because you can use your credit cards to deposit money on the site -- something you can't do with offshore poker rooms.

I'm going to vote in favor of the validity of the press release and will try Duplicate Poker. It sounds plausible, looks enticing and could be a good next step after practicing at places like Ujogo. (And, by the way, the downtrodden in those 11 states can play for fun with no cash value at DP's free play games.)

Once I've had some play time, I'll report back. And if you've played there and want to add anything, just fire off an email to me.