Poker as a turn-based game

Poker as a turn-based game

While the main stream hordes look for ever more action in all of life’s activities, some people still appreciate really, really slow games, such as the classical game of correspondence chess. But what about poker – could today’s popular poker games be played on a turn-based site?

Poker is defined as a turn-based game

The short answer is an unequivocal “yes”. Poker is a turn-based game per definition. No changes to the game mechanics would be necessary to make it work on a turn-based site.

Poker involves dealing cards in an order that should be unknown to the players, so it does require a central part – the usual role for turn-based sites.

The random element of poker

Poker games also require a random generator to shuffle the cards. This requirement is not a new one; it’s valid also for some already existing turn-based games such as backgammon and poker dice.

So, technically there should be no surprising complications when setting up, for example, a turn-based Texas Holdem application. The question is, would turn-based Texas Holdem be a fun and playable game?

Preserving the fun of real-time poker

For sure, the tempo that online poker players have gotten used to, with a couple of hands being dealt every minute, won’t be achieved in turn-based poker. But then again, the low tempo is the very heart of turn-based games.

A more acute question is that of playing poker with no money involved – or some kind of actual, real-world value. It’s a quite generally accepted experience that poker without real values is badly degenerated. It’s no fun. Weighing in potential real-world losses is the heart of poker.

Anyone who has played at the fun-money tables of Full Tilt Poker or any other site knows that it’s very easy to call down an opponent just to see what he’s holding. It’s also very easy to just push all in with any two cards and see what chance brings.

Sure, you could play turn-based poker with some kind of points, maybe in a sort of league or ranking. This would represent a kind of real value for those who engage in the competition, much like any other game that doesn’t involve money.

But again, it’s questionable whether the value will be large enough to conserve the key mechanism of poker – that of actually not wanting to loose your chips.

Real money is a world of difficulties

Of course, nothing prevents you from playing turn-based poker games for real money or texas holdem freerolls. This would bring back the really tough decisions that characterize good poker. But it would also bring a host of problems otherwise foreign to turn-based sites, involving such hard-core areas as fraud, collusion and banking.

A turn-based hi stakes tournament such as WSOP probably lies in a very distant and obscure future.

As a last objection to turn-based poker, one could mention the issue of short term vs. long term results. Even if poker is clearly a game of skill, the random element plays a big part in any short term view. Basically you need to play, say, 10,000 poker hands for the long term results to be reasonably stabilized and “fair”.

In turn-based poker games, where a number of emails or the like would have to be passed back and forth between as much as ten players in each and every betting round, the long term could turn out to be extremely long.

Multi-tabling and headsup poker

Two possible solutions can be outlined to handle this issue. One would include headsup poker, that is, poker games with just two players. This is a much more fast-paced game than full-table poker.

Another gimmick that could jazz up turn-based poker would be to play a large number of parallel poker hands. Ten players playing 100 simultaneous hands would clearly get a lot of action, and the long term would be much, much shorter.

To summarize: poker could indeed do very well as a turn-based game – with a wise set-up and a train of very patient players.