https://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/w...-poker/104347/

PokerStars VR is a freeplay immersive social game which can be accessed using Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Steam. Players can handle chips and cards just like in live poker, as well as voice chat in real time, pick up tells and play with a host of interactive props like champagne, cigars and confetti guns.

Developed by Lucky VR the game also features voice command controls, integrated Twitch broadcasting, video streaming and social media integration.

Another dumb gimmick that does nothing for poker.

Waiting for them to launch pokernite; a poker themed shooting game.

try harder

lol

Every gaming company is pumping a bit of money into cracking VR but they're all well aware it'll be years before anything becomes commercially viable. VR plays are pretty much just PR.

Good luck to them; I hope it works, but would be surprised if we look back on this as a meaningful or substantial announcement in 12 or 36 months time.

I agree.

Now we can finally fight players who talk crap.

“Pick up tells”

Why is every single f-ing one of those things in the picture wearing sunglasses?

They're VR goggles.

Interesting, we launched Truepoker in 2001 with a 3D, first person user view, looked a lot like that version above. Players each had a unique view of other players at the table, each of whose actions was observed, including picking up hole cards to look at them, etc.

There is a screen shot at http://www.rules-of-poker.net/true-poker.html

By 2003, we looked at building Truepoker into a virtual reality "first-person casino/poker experience, which was definitely possible and would have been an entertainment product*, but its appeal to poker players was uncertain.

The online market at that time demanded speed of play, X+ hands per hour, multi-tables. What the market wanted was a flat, 2D presentation, more adaptable to multi-tabling, than an immersive environment, where you walked into a poker room, looked around, sat at your table and played about 20 hands per hour, then got up, walked to a bar, talked to other patrons and had a drink, etc.

Times have changed over 15 years, and clearly there may be an "entertainment" market for this virtual poker, but I do not forsee it gaining traction among folks who simply want to play poker, versus playing an immersive, VR game experience. (Of course, if you have 70% of the market already, offering new products for various marginal market segments to try them out makes sense.)

(* Our 3D client did host an actual wedding, where the guests wore either the James Bond tuxedo or one of the dresses, the officiating cleric and couple sat at the table and exchanged vows through the on table chat bubbles. ... )

Looks a lot like PKR used to (but now in VR, rather than just 3D).

What a stupid idea, in particular because VR is really struggling to gain any traction. "Casual" gamers haven't gone out and thought VR in any real numbers, and the last E3, I don't think any of the big presentations even mentioned VR once.

amaya reminds me a lot about the current state of US politics. when i think they cant possibly get worse or more dumb they surprise me daily

So who works at Amaya that has a cousin that works at a VR company that got funded by a whale venture capitalist like Jason Calacanis?

If there's anything I'd want to do in virtual reality instead of online or live...it would be play poker. I will give them that.

I'm being sarcastic. I'd never think to do that. I've heard sarcasm doesn't translate well on the internet, so there it is.

Putting on my ex video game designer hat, it’s the development team I feel sorry for. Sure, they will have been paid handsomely for doing this, but to have done all this work on a project that does look good but won’t have much actual appeal beyond a day is always quite depressing.

I remember depositing on PKR back in the day and thinking how good the animation was, but getting frustrated at how it slowed the game down and ending up switching to top down view within 30 minutes.

Technology for technology’s sake never works in the long term.

PKR crossed with Governor of Poker. Why do animators always make poker players out to look tranvestite farmers from the Matrix?! At least PKR got that part right, and was fun for a small while, but the PKR lite package was the one I used.


I don't get VR for anything at all. Of course I'm from the days of Virtuality and Lawnmower Man so its not like its anything new.

The glacial pace of Live Poker in your underwear!

Has to be Pokerstars tag line for this app...

If this didn't work for PKR why would it work now? I could imagine this type of VR business model working but only for Mobile.

out for rift in for abyss

It's not really the same thing as PKR though is it. Anyway, PKR was quite succesful for a few years, and plenty of people played it in the early days. I can't see the same being the case here.


Big LOL at the above poster who sympathises with the developers, devs are usually just as deluded as the idiot who pitches this idea as they are a bunch of brown nosers. Apart from the good ones, they walk and set up something better.

It's almost like you could go to your local casino and get a better experience for likely more money,less rake, social interaction, see woman or men that you might fancy, and without having to pay for a $500+ VR console / setup etc

Surely it prevents some cheating though. Bots do that for example? Scripts?