Electronics and poker: a “no-limit” future?
Even if you don't know what a “hole” card is�a card(s) in poker that is dealt face-down to each player&8212;you probably can't help but have noticed the enormous boom in the popularity of poker in recent years. It's generally acknowledged that electronic technology�in the form of lipstick “hole” cameras built into the playing tables used for televised poker events�is largely responsible.
The latest electronics take an old game to a new level.
Letting the viewing audience see the players' hidden hole cards during each hand has helped create a much more involving viewing experience. The displayed card information is also usually accompanied by the statistical winning or losing odds (or hand percentages) of a given player's cards as the hand progresses�just the sort of stuff that makes the game fascinating for math/engineering geeks (like me).
Add more electronics to the mix and it gets even more fascinating, at least from a “how did they do that?” perspective. That's what I found myself asking when I saw a new poker series�the Mansionpoker.net Poker Dome Challenge on Fox Sports Net�whose poker table uses built-in LED lighting to count down remaining hand times and to automatically rotate and identify the “button” position.
There's also a built-in LCD screen for use by the dealers, and each player is hooked up to a wireless heart-monitoring system. It's clear that the table�and the Poker Dome studio itself�is loaded with electronics.
Curious to find out more, I spoke with Larry Rogers, Executive Vice President of Show Partners, the production company largely responsible for putting it all together. He confirmed that the Poker Dome was the “highest-tech game in town” and provided me with a wealth of additional details.
To my surprise I found out that RFID technology was used in the playing cards�but not the chips (at least not yet)�to keep track of all the cards on the table. A CardTracker system uses the card data, which is 64-bit encrypted, to automatically calculate and display actual hand percentages, and to tell the table when to advance the LED dealer “button.”
A further advantage of the system is that it allows�for the first time�live poker events to be broadcast with hand percentages displayed in real time. Until now, this information had to be manually collected, calculated, and then overlaid on the recorded video�well after the event itself.
That's pretty impressive by itself, but there's more�a whole array of additional parts and systems that go well beyond the details of the game itself. It is a spectator event after all, and wouldn't be complete without lights, music, and other multimedia effects�most of which are electronically cued directly by the action at the poker table.
Needless to say, that means a lot of cabling�a total of 600,000 ft of various types for all the systems that are used in producing the show. According to Rogers, the poker table itself includes something like 12 strands of optical fiber, at least a dozen coax, and 24 pairs of XLR.
It's amazing to think how all of this technology is assembled for the purpose of playing a simple game of cards! For more on the electronics used in the Poker Dome, as well as links to related Web sites, or if you'd like to publicly comment on this topic, see the related post on our blog at http://eebeat.com (just search for “Poker Dome”).
R. Pell
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