Duplicate Poker: Poker, minus the bad beats
Start with your normal multi-table poker tournament. Now, take away the luck factor. Take away the bad beats. What do you have left? The answer is: a true skill game that just happens to be played online and legally in the United States.
Duplicate Poker, the only online poker site headquartered in the US, launched late last year to a mix of opinions. Some thought the concept of poker without luck was preposterous, while others thought it was genius.
At first glance, the style of tournament play at Duplicate Poker might seem a little confusing, but once you grasp the (very) easy-to-understand concepts, you are left with a game of skill that can win you thousands.
Here’s the simple concept to understand: while each hand is played against the other players at your table, you are collecting points based on how you do against the people sitting in your seat at the other tables. For example, if you are in the six seat, you are essentially playing against all of the people sitting in the six seats at other tables.
Here’s the kicker (pardon the poker pun) - all of the tables are dealt the exact same cards each hand that is played, and each player starts each hand with the same number of chips. Now you have nothing to whine about! There are no more cold decks or bad luck. It’s all about pure poker skills now. Can you make more money with AK than the other guys sharing your position? Can you lay down KK when you know you’re beat? Can your opponents at the other tables do so? Play the hand better than other players sharing your position at the other tables and you win tournament points. End the tournament with the most tournament points, and you win.
Anybody with a brain can excel and win money playing at Duplicate Poker. The game is played just like normal Texas hold’em and the concept of winning is essentially the same too - win as many chips as possible in the hands that you win and lose as few chips as possible in the hands that you don’t win. Sounds like a silly thing to say, but you would be surprised how many people do not practice that basic concept (in any type of poker)!
Perhaps the best part is that your credit card will work at Duplicate Poker. Since Duplicate Poker is legal in the US, credit card companies and processors willingly process credit card deposits. You can use Visa, MasterCard – even American Express.
Duplicate Poker also has the duplicate equivalent of cash games. Cash games are played similarly to tournaments; you start each hand with the same amount of chips as everybody else and your wager is actually against other players that share your position (and are being dealt the exact same cards as you) at the other tables.
Just like the other poker sites, Duplicate Poker offers a number of different buy-in tournaments (both multi-table and Sit & Go) and cash games. Hone your duplicate poker skills in the small games (starting at $1), and then move up to the larger ones. Create a good poker playing strategy and you will win money. The bad news – you won’t have bad beat stories to share any more.
10 Comments to “Duplicate Poker: Poker, minus the bad beats”
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Sommer Says:
August 28th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Go pokeradi! What a ridiculous idea - can’t think of a more perfect structure for collusion and bot-ing. Sit at any other seat at any other table and you’d know exactly what your opponents have.
Kajagugu Says:
August 28th, 2007 at 10:07 am
problem is you can’t watch other tables. And cards are dealt to all tables at the same time. So even if you have a buddy on IM he can’t tell you what cards are coming because you see them all at the same time.
I played a tournament on DP and it was an interesting experience. There is a lot of strategy that goes into it, because it feels like you are playing more against your other seat opponents than against your table. Because the eliminations are against other players in your seat, when you are close to the end of a session, you might fold aces if you know that you are far enough in the lead to not need to play the hand.
Interesting concept, but very slow progress in a tourney. You have to wait for every card to be dealt to all tables, so you are basically waiting for the slowest player every time.
Ed Says:
August 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
That would drive me nuts…more than getting 2-3 outted on the river everytime I have a straight on flop.
Beanie Says:
August 28th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I guess I don’t get it. If you were 3 handed and your buddy was at the other table (not in your seat) wouldn’t knowing he has Aces be a huge help to you? Maybe I don’t totally get the idea of the site.
Chakabangbang Says:
August 29th, 2007 at 2:35 am
It’s actually a really neat concept. Duplicate bridge has been played for years with the same concept. They have duplicate bridge sites online that play the same way. You have to think differently than you do in normal poker. It requires a whole new strategy. I’ve played a few times and found it to be easy to outwit the donks. It is a slower game than what I was used to though.
CardChucker Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
FYI, just played the site and noticed the o’mighty pokerati isn’t listed as a referal page. i wouldn’t have ever heard of such a goofy way to play cards (no luck, all skill?!?!?) if it wasn’t for the fine writers and mind numbing topics of pokerati.com . once again dan for helping me not donkey off more money
DanM Says:
September 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 am
Did you get there and download via one of the links on this site? I’ll check with our friends at DP to make sure there isn’t a problem, but we may just have to do a tournament or something to see who the players from around these parts are.
cardchucker Says:
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Yes, I downloaded from the nifty little ad banner on top of the site. As a referal, I picked internet banner, since I guess that’s the most technical as it gets. Just watching out for you and making sure you get the 25 cent referal bonus Dan, haha.
Dan Goldman Says:
September 24th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
If you clicked on the banner here, the nice guys at Pokerati should have gotten credit for it. I checked all the links here and they all correctly include the referral ID. However, just to be sure, send me your playername and I’ll confirm that it was properly credited. My email address is dan{at)duplicatepoker(dot)com (some punctuation removed for obvious reasons).
Dan Goldman
DuplicatePoker.com
Pokerati | Texas hold’em blog » Blog Archive » New Online Gaming Options - Duplicate Poker & Ujogo Says:
April 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
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