[yimyammer]

IMHO, E-Machines are the future of poker, especially tournaments with large fields with a large viewing audience.

They would be perfect for big tourneys. You could still have the TV table and final table have chips and cards, although it would present a dilemma for the ESPN coverage of the main event since I don't think digital cards would be good TV when they attempt to cover hands on non-TV tables.

Advantages that come to mind are:

1. No cards to mark
2. No dealer collusion
3. Less dealers required (Would they even need any besides the TV tables?)
4. More hands per round
5. Easy tracking of stacks
6. Easy tracking of Pot size
7. Easy tracking of bet sizes
8. No dealer errors
9. Can't steal or transfer chips
10. No accidental disqualifications by pocketing chips
11. Color ups would be a thing of the past
12. Total chips in play should be theoretically perfect
13. All tables could be broadcast over the internet (without hole cards) for perfect reporting. Any hand at any table could be viewed on a re-player at a website.
14. Stats of time left in round, avg chip stack, highest chip stack, lowest chip stack or any other pertinent info could be easily displayed on each table

I can eventually see casinos bidding out tournaments to Pokertek and any other competing E-table company that would be in charge of bringing additional tables, maintaining all the tables, tech support etc for every big event. The savings in dealer labor should make this a very viable business model for the E-poker table companies.

This should reduce the rake to players (but may not since these casinos don't seem to give much back to the players when it comes to poker)

Many will be opposed to this and I suspect many people will respond to this post with skepticism, hate and doubt, but the younger generation is comfortable and used to the technology, so it’s just a matter of time.

It just makes too much sense given the difficulties in running huge events the size we see today.

If I had the time and money, I would seek to start my own E-tour in cahoots with various casinos, Pokertek and hopefully various sponsors. The whole thing could be independently run and the casino would receive a fee for hosting an E-tour event and only need to provide space for the event to take place in. The casino would still run the side games and get the rake off of those games like any other tour. It could be one stop shopping for the casino that goes straight to their bottom line and increase their poker and other casino business already in place because of the traffic each event should bring to the casino.

I would also add a “Pokerdome” aspect to the tour where the final table could be viewed live with hole cards & broadcast over the internet. I would have seating inside the dome where these viewers could not see the cards but add to the fanfare of the live event while also have an audience that could see the event outside of the dome with hole cards shown. The idea is there for the taking and I bet someone will do it. If the UIGA gets overturned or a carve out for poker is achieved, then the sponsorships by the various websites would further add to the revenue. You could have the PokerStars E-Tour, The Part Poker E-tour, etc, etc, etc.