Is THIS a joke? Lol

I’m sure it had more to do with having plenty of time to do it without interrupting any play.

Sure they will. I'm sure less games than normal and maybe no 9 handed games for a little bit but what on earth is Berkey smoking?

In regards to Berkey’s take, there is a phenomenon happening right now in the social media realm where the more dire your prediction of the post-COVID future the smarter you will sound.

The groupthink at the moment is that “things will never be the same” and “this is the new normal”. Well, that’s all bullshit. The truth is no one knows (even the “experts”) how this thing will play out. But odds still are that things will go back to relative normality quicker than anyone currently thinks.

Live poker will not die. It may be slow to return but you can bet it will be back full force at some point in the not so distant future.

And this is coming from someone that in February was telling anyone that would listen that the casinos would close from Covid. I was stocking up on food and water for this thing from January as I was following the China situation from the beginning.

My two cents.

Gzesh's take had me thinking strictly of Vegas, and while I don't know that it will never come back there, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it's greatly reduced in its current form. Card rooms and stand-alone casinos are different IMO, and I think poker will be back there.

That got me thinking - could this give a boost to touchscreen tables? Maybe even a poker "table" that consists of a circle of individual touchscreen tables? No chips, no cards, less proximity; just a touchscreen to wipe down.

There's going to be a decent percentage of the population that will be slow to come back to "unsanitary" environments for quite a while - perhaps a year or two at least. In that time frame, casinos may try other things to bring them back in the short term (like touchscreen poker), and some of those may stick around permanently.

They use touchscreen tables on cruise ships and it sucks. When they had live dealers the tables were always full and more lively. Once they installed the touchscreen dealerless tables the amateurs shyed away, mostly I would guess because of intimidation , not knowing how to use the machine. And also , its just not as fun without chips and actual cards. But I do agree with you , they may become more common in the coming months.

They tried those at Excalibur many years ago and it sucked. I also played them in Tampa many years ago. No point to it, I would play online poker at home and be much happier, can multi table and play tournaments, etc.

Those electronic tables are nothing like live poker.

"UFC 249 will be held at the Tachi Palace Casino Resort in Lemoore, Calif., which is situated on Tribal Land and can be held because the event does not have to be sanctioned by the state government’s stay-at-home executive order due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The New York Times."

"Holding UFC events at the Tachi Palace Casino Resort allows the company to run fights without the sanction of the California State Athletic Commission, which told the Times it would not approve any part of the fight card"

You know you hear lots of theories that most people will stay away from live poker and live tournaments for awhile due to how much uncertainty there still is with the spread of the virus. Heard people claim you gotta be a sick degen to play right away, etc...

It would be an interesting poll, let's say casinos open late May and Venetian runs its series or a smaller series and there is a $1,000,000 NL $1100 guarantee. 3 starting flights and after 2 flights there is a massive overlay, like we're talking $600,000 or more. Would flocks of players say the heck with it the overlay is too good an opportunity and go play? I mean right now almost everybody is claiming they will stay away for a minute but when is the deal too good to be true that you convince yourself it's worth taking that shot?

In my opinion lots of tough talk on this site and others but proof is in the pudding. My belief is that there are tons and tons of degens and addicted gamblers/players that will brave anything for a nice deal or overlay, virus or not.

Played full time touch screen at woodbine in toronto for 2 and half years. I like them, but most recs don't. I think it reminds them of getting smoked online, and you hear a lot of rigtard talk at the table. I would go to Niagara every few weeks just to play with cards and chips;that can't be replaced. But here's a brief list of the pros of touch screen

-no tanking/hands are timed
-impossible to slow roll
-basic stats at table. Sit down and see the average pot size, players per flop, hands per hour, exact chip counts, so you have a good forecast of the table you just sat at.
-zero angle shooting, string bets, etc
-~triple the number of hands per hour
-lower rake
-no dealer talk or error
-zero tipping

As soon as casinos and poker rooms open there will be small to medium base of people that will play right away that are a mix of people that never took this seriously to begin with, degens that can't wait to get back in action, and pros that need to make some money.

The medium to large group of people will sit back and watch what happens for a couple weeks, see if its spreading in the casinos and poker games, are people getting sick and dying from being in these games, etc.

Once they see everything looks not so bad then they will slowly start joining the games again. So probably a month at most after the games start, it will be largely back to normal.

All this off course is assuming that it doesn't spread quickly again from this and bad things happen.
A little slower for Vegas games because travel would have to get back to normal first.

Yeah, I don't disagree with you guys panning the touchscreen tables; I know a lot of people don't like them. However, there might be ways to mitigate some of the issues, and nutella has a good list of pros. I'm far from convinced that touchscreens are where things will go, but depending on how we come out of this, I wouldn't be surprised if they were tried again at some locations, especially if some casinos bought them and now have them mothballed in some back room.

And ECB and parisron, I think you're likely right, at least at many locations.

Honestly, it's hard to predict where anything's going to go next. A lot of things will go back to the way they used to be once we've had some time to get past this, but there will be some changes that stick.

Damn, this fence post is uncomfortable to sit on.

I'm not going to a casino to play on a computer screen. The market for such a game is <10% of the present live poker market for cash games. Tournaments might do better, but maybe 1/3rd? I might go to a tournament like that, but not weekly.

I used to play a weekly tournament on e-tables at a casino in Shreveport back in 2010. Frankly, I liked it. It played way faster than with a live dealer, and I thought there was at least as much player interaction/talk as there is at the typical poker table. Granted, for the WSOP, it would seem like something is missing, however if the choice is: no live poker or live poker on touchscreens--I vote enthusiastically for touchscreens. Incidentally, one of the duties of the poker room attendant at this casino was to disinfect every player station before a new player sat down.

Same. Berkey is insane. Not really that crazy tho cuz he's not a winning poker player so his take doesn't surprise me.

Los Angeles area doctor reporting success curing coronavirus in "8-12 hours" using hydroxychloroquine + zinc. People can debate or question the effectiveness of the treatment online all they want, but in the absence of any better idea on treatment out there if I get sick I know which doctor I'm going to.

That’s equally true of slot machines.

I’m an acute care nurse practitioner working exclusively with covid patients for the past couple of weeks in a large teaching hospital so my sample size is more than a couple of cases. Moat of them were placed on Plaquenil. I have not seen any close to “cured” or even remarkably improved after one dose. It just doesn’t work that way. If you’ve ever had an infection that requires antibiotics did you notice any difference after the first dose? No. It takes time.

Actually Bobo I can see live tournament poker halted for months and months because of the uncertainty of the virus and for TD's, the uncertainty of the crowds. Although I think there will always be plenty of degens that would show up, the guarantees would imo be gone or significantly lowered in any remaining upcoming tournament series through the rest of the year. No way the casinos risk having some 500k or 1 million guarantee in summer or fall with what has happened.

I think live poker will be back right away in some places, just smaller and lots of social distancing rules in place. But I just can't see any venue the rest of the year and perhaps into 2021 holding large tournament series with juicy guarantees. Honestly I'd be surprised if many casinos held ANY tournaments the rest of the year.

Agreed. At best, we would have entrees ramping up in Q1 and Q2 2021 live series as an intro to full 2021 WSOP. Anything earlier than that is overly optimistic. Of courses, depending on next winter and potential 2nd wave, if it goes bad, no 2021 WSOP either.

Yeah, like I said I don't really care about debating it, there aren't any other potential treatments showing good results and this doctor is close to me so if I get sick that's where I'm going.

Do you have an opinion on hydroxychloroquine?

FFS....

I've got a guy who can't understand the value difference between asking a healthcare professional and asking the internet a medical question rolling his eyes at me.

God help us all, the functional illiteracy is strong and everywhere.

Will poker rooms even re-open? I’m guessing many won’t right away and those who do will not resume with the standard 9-handed game while tournaments will either be 6max or not run at all due to high labor cost for a 6-handed event.