PokerTek Poker Pro tables: The inside scoop WHY

[Rick Nebiolo]

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Sng's are a hard sell at a casino because the juice they charge is twice the amount that online charges and 1/2 the hands are dealt.

Moving SNG's to pokertek machines will increase the hands per hour and can be run profitably at less juice.

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Agree that generally the juice is too high in card club small SNGs but at Hawaiian Gardens they are charging a relatively low $10 juice on a $100 tournament (plus $3 for an extra $100 chip, the dealer keeping the extra chip as a "tip"). This compares favorably with the $100 plus $9 juice on a Party Poker SNG.

But for real small SNGs (let's say $40 entry plus juice) the juice will always be high in a casino even with eTables primarily because the overhead is high relative to the limit. You will never see $2 to $3 juice SNGs and the ability to actually make significant money online playing $11 to $33 SNGs on multiple tables (sort of analogous to the fact you will rarely see 50 cent/1 dollar limit games in a casino).

That said, as TT mentioned eTables might work real well in a huge tournament for satellites. There space often isn't a huge problem (when they are run in convention centers) and staffing is. There you will have little wait, lots of play, and a player base that will appreciate the better blind structure.

~ Rick