Poker by Mail

[lgas]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone trying something like playing poker by mail, similar to the way some people play chess by mail?

Obviously the logistics would be more complex -- you would need a third party dealer that kept track of who was dealt what cards and so on, but the idea being that in a non-real-time game, you would have as long as you liked to make your decision, to run software simulations, to explore game theory tables, look up detailed notes on how the player has played in similar situations, etc.... basically to do whatever you felt was necessary to come up with the *perfect* play for that particular situation.

I don't think anyone would ever want to play this way for money, as it would be way too susceptible to cheating, but it seems like it might be an interesting approach to learning more about the game, especially if you had the opportunity to play with good players and get their feedback on hands afterwards, etc. (which presumably you would if this was primarily a learning exercise).

You could even automate it by creating a website that handled the deck, dealing, etc. if it turned out to be a valuable tool.

Anyone else think this might be interesting?