[Q10 soooted]

I don't know if this is on the radar for anyone, but this site is launching 'Duplicate Poker'. I discovered this through an advertisement in a bridge magazine, but I'm having a hard time explaining how this works so I'll quote the site's rule page:

First, there are always two or more tables of players, with the same number of players seated at each table.
Second, an identically shuffled deck of cards is used at each table for each hand played so that players in the same seat position at each table receive the same hole cards and the common cards are the same at each table.
Third, every player begins each hand with the same number of playing chips, regardless of how he/she may have done in any previous hand.
Fourth, the winner of each hand is determined based on the number of chips he or she has at the end of the game as compared with those held by all players in the same seat at the other tables.

It's worth noting that the site's claim is that this turns 'Duplicate Poker' into a game of skill instead of gambling and that it is therefore legal in the US (except for Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Tennessee and Vermont which don't allow 'fee-based contests with prizes').

Any thoughts? This works amazingly well for bridge and I think it could work in an online environment with a bunch of players and a given hand being played 100's of times. If a hand is just played 2-3 times there'd be way too much variance and a lot of the enjoyment would depend on the scoring system and its ability to weight given hands and plays effectively.

[bigjohn]

If my aces got cracked 2 times in the same hand I think i would go postal !!

[99%evil]

What's to stop two people or more from communicating their cards via phone or PM, that would tip the person to what the same position person has in their game?

[Q10 soooted]

Originally Posted by 99%evil

What's to stop two people or more from communicating their cards via phone or PM, that would tip the person to what the same position person has in their game?

I dunno. I guess I should have been sure to mention that I don't work for these guys & haven't tried the site (yet). I just think it's interesting because duplicate bridge is quite fascinating to me and I often wondered if it could be translated to poker. I guess my devil's advocate view to your quesiton would be to change the last 8 words of your question to point out that collusion will always be an issue. My guess (and hope) would be that the same levels of anti-collusion software that poker sites use currently would be adapted to note a pattern of 'fortunate' results from individuals.

What's to stop two people or more from communicating their cards via phone or PM, that would tip the person to what other people have at the same table.