[Written By External Partner]
Augmented reality has had countless benefits in various sectors. This technology can improve everything from surgery to online gaming, and poker is no exception. Already, augmented reality has been implemented into the poker world, enabling players to develop their skills in virtual realms through AR poker training.
As AR poker develops, new benefits for the poker player and guaranteed to emerge. To visualize this, it helps to imagine the following situation: You’re hosting a poker night with a group of friends and you all have a virtual reality headset. You don’t need tangible chips or cards, as the technology enables these to exist within the augmented reality, while still ensuring fairness in the game. You don’t even need to be in the same room to sit together around a single table and play.
Seems impossible right? Let’s take a look at some exciting developments we can expect to see as augmented reality evolves in the poker realm.
No Equipment? No Problem
Perhaps the most exciting change to poker, that effective AR technology will bring, is its ability to entirely remove the need for poker equipment. Everything involved in a game of poker, including the chips and cards, will be rendered within the virtual world. This kind of technology will also be able to track the movements of your hands over the virtual world it has created, meaning that you can ‘pick up’ and ‘hold’ these items within augmented reality. These actions are given an additional layer of realism through haptic technology, which will simulate the feeling of holding such items in your hands.
Casino From Home
You only need to read PokerScout’s review on CoinPoker to understand how popular online poker rooms have become in recent years. One reason you might choose online casinos, as opposed to their brick-and-mortar counterparts, is due to the ease and accessibility these platforms provide. Not only can anyone with an internet connection enter a poker game almost instantly just by opening up their phone, but many online casinos offer additional incentives, such as the integration of cryptocurrency, that traditional casinos aren’t able to provide.
As AR becomes fully incorporated into the world of poker we could see the benefits of both brick-and-mortar and online casinos available in one place. Augmented reality would be able to change the appearance of your home within the virtual reality, to make it appear as a casino. It could even create a virtual dealer to help run the game. All of this creates the immersive experience of attending a live poker game but with the accessibility of online poker.
More Social than Online Poker
Regular online casinos attempt to make poker games as social as possible through the incorporation of chat rooms. This is an essential feature because one of the most important aspects of all kinds of casino gaming is the community that surrounds it.
Augmented reality poker will improve the community offered by online poker games, as, instead of chat rooms, these games will enable players to see their opponents (or avatars of them) within virtual reality. This means you could sit at your table in your own house, while your friends do the same in theirs, and yet all be playing together within the AR setting.
Again this bridges the gap between online poker and traditional poker gaming, by providing the same accessibility of online casino gaming with an echo of the sociability of visiting a real casino.
Refine Your Skills
AR is not solely beneficial for playing poker games, but can also be utilized within poker training. The development of this technology could see players provided personalized advice on how to deal with specific poker hands that they have been given, as well as the opportunity to be guided through various poker strategies by a virtual teacher.
They could also try their hand against virtual appointments, and learn how to exploit other players within a game.
Benefits for the Poker Industry
Early variations of poker have been around for over one thousand years. Although many aspects and rules of the game have changed during that time, the fact this card and chip game has stood the test of time for so long, comes, in part, from how adaptable it is. From the development and refining of rules to the integration into saloons, and later, casinos, people have been keeping poker alive across generations.
The implementation of Augmented Reality into various settings, including the poker realm has had countless benefits. It has, in many ways, contributed to this evolution of poker. Bringing in this kind of technology is bound to also bring in new players to the game. This is one of the biggest goals of the poker industry. Such a move will allow for greater revenue for the poker industry.
Challenges
Although the integration of Augmented reality into the world of Poker gaming is an innovative and exciting development, some drawbacks will need to be assessed as AR poker gains more traction.
Accessibility
Granted, if you have a compatible AR headset and accessories, then playing virtual reality poker is bound to be more accessible than having to go to a casino to play a live game. However, the catch lies in the fact that at this time, few people have this kind of technology.
For AR poker to be a viable option for everybody, AR technology needs to develop to become more mainstream and more financially accessible to a wider range of people.
User Discomfort
Depending on the technology used, having to wear VR equipment for a long period can be uncomfortable for some people. Not only can the hardware be bulky and awkward, but certain individuals are also prone to bouts of motion sickness while using AR.
For AR technology to be fully accepted by the poker world, the tech would need to evolve to combat these challenges. Anti-motion sickness technology, as well as smaller headsets, will need to evolve for this kind of tech to have the desired reach within the poker realm.
Conclusion
As we have explored, the implementation of augmented reality into the world of poker will bring countless new and innovative benefits to the game. This tech, which can remove the need for physical equipment as well as bring the excitement of a poker game to your living room, is already revolutionizing the way poker is played. Additionally, the use of augmented reality already exists within poker training and has been proven to improve the skills of those who use them. However, as augmented reality technology evolves, it will need to adapt to the needs of poker players to make AR poker as accessible as possible.
