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Friday, November 9, 2007

Poker - the future????

The year is 2057, and eighty-six year old Mr Cloud (still sprightly, with a twinkle in his eye, but very elongated ears) sits down to have a game of poker. He logs on to his favourite site, BurnleyMikPoker.com, the world’s number one new site. He thinks back to the days when he was happy to get 30% rakeback and laughs. No rake poker has been the norm for around thirty years now – although it still annoys him a little to see the tables having advertising all over them, and he knows his virtual avatar will be wearing a polo shirt emblazoned with the logo of the biggest fast food outlet.
He plays his first hand, a $1/$2 nl cash game, now considered micro stakes, and takes a look around at his opponents. Despite their virtual clothing, he can see their faces clearly, and then he picks up his cards (the playing cards virtual reality pack is now freely available as a sign-up bonus – and enable players to physically pick up their cards, which are wirelessly attached to the PC, and will display the relevant cards that players are dealt). He has ten jack suited in the big blind, there are a few limpers, so he taps the table and his hand is automatically checked. One of his opposition is talking, but the voice he hears is not quite in synch with the players lips – obviously he is not talking English, and it is being translated, but he turns the volume down – the chat is all a little too abusive these days. The flop doesn’t help him, so he folds and he is treated to an ad about hearing aids whilst the rest of the hand is playing out – these tailored ads annoy the hell out of him – he wants to watch the action, but he knows that part of the no rake deal is that he watches these ads, and his eye movement is being monitored.
He plays for around an hour and wins $40 – enough to buy his daily paper, delivered through his printer on the re-usable paper that is so rare these days, He turns immediately to the back pages and reads up on the latest WSOP news. The million dollar buy-in main event is down to the final table, and he is looking forward to the pay per view final table package that he has ordered through his television – which enables him to sit at any seat during the game, and see through the eyes of the superstars of the game, and see who would take the half a billion first prize.

He goes back to his PC and logs back on just in time for Bloggerment 2634 – will he finally break his duck??