Some of you might remember a few years ago I was working for a company that ran an online poker site with LIVE dealers. I've never truly enjoyed online poker, maybe I feel my strengths are restricted behind a screen, or because you are taking the "social" away from a social game. So when I came across this concept it felt attractive to me. Alas the company was ran by people who were not poker players, and for the life of me couldn't get through to them what poker players wanted, so that was that.
Recently I came across a similar site and I thought I have a go at it. To my surprise, I was super impressed. They ticked all the right boxes for me. Strong registration process, dealers were smooth and fast, friendly, interacting with players, enthusiastic. Time between hands were short, in fact I feel that it is way faster than live games. To my surprise, they even had multi-table function, running twice, flip games, PLO/NLH combo tables. After signing up as an affiliate, I was also very impressed by their back office. Super well thought out, designed by poker players for poker players.
Some may say aren't you going backwards with human dealers online? I personally have never trusted RNG and RNG auditing companies. If you just Google, or even better, ask an AI if RNGs are really random, they will tell you that it is not. But regardless, having a software generate hands means there is visibility of what is going to happen. A friend once asked a poker app owner I used to work for this question. Does your software generate the turn and river before the hand starts, or does it generate it after the flop action is done. Both answers are equally concerning. If an app knows what the flop turn and river will be, that means someone who has a backdoor into the code/algorithm can know the outcome of hands. If an app generates the turn and river as the hand progresses, that also means someone can manipulate the outcome of the hand depending on the action. Read this article and it might scare you, especially with how sophisticated AI has become.
On Raize, the cards are scanned face down with a simple barcode scanner, like the ones at your supermarket. That means, no one, not even the site knows the sequence of the cards until they are dealt. Dealers hand cut every deck so in my opinion that is as random as it gets. Another concern about online poker are bots. But at Raize, every player has to fulfill a facial recognition scan, so that is a fool-proof KYC system. If needed, the games settings can make webcam video a must for playing. For recreationals who are looking for fun and chillax games, they really enjoy the ability to video and voice chat while playing. And for private games hosts, they feel comfortable and confident to be running high stakes games in such an environment. Players can also chat, tip and even flirt with the dealers, tag your favorite ones, greet each other by name, just like your usual home game.
There are certainly cons though. Understandably because of the logistics of operating such a setup, at the moment the games only run at fixed hours of the day. They usually only run 2 tables at the moment. But I am sure as traffic increases and demands it, they will grow that number and have games running 24/7.
I dabbled in it a bit, even tipped the dealers multiple times. The games are soft, action is fast and plenty. I also watched a private $50/100 game that was hosted there where pots got up to $50k with plenty of action. I managed to win $2700 in two quick sessions. Overall I really love where this is going. This would be a fun playground for bosses who want the convenience of online, but the feeling of a private game, friendly dealers, talking shit with others on the table. And in my experience, where there are bosses, there will be regs too. If you are keen to check it out, click HERE or reach out to me if you want to become an agent. (happyriverpoker@gmail.com)
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