By Alexis Russell

09/16/2008

         Online poker players in the U.S. are well aware of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that has inhibited them from playing for real money online.  The poker rooms themselves are also well aware of the stringent regulations that have crippled the industry and led to many rooms going under.  There have been many efforts to find a way to work around these regulations and DuplicatePoker.com may have actually found a way.

UIGEA – Quick Facts

·         It outlaws any kind of wagers or bets in connection to a game of chance, poker is considered a game of chance.

·         Prohibits online poker room operators and payment processors in the U.S. from accepting and processing money in connection with online gambling.

·         The UIGEA makes it illegal for a poker room site to be operated from within the U.S.

However, DuplicatePoker.com is run and operated out of New York City and they accept bets for their poker influenced card game.  They are currently able to do so because they have worked around the first UIGEA point.  DuplicatePoker.com has come up with a new way to play Texas Hold’em that the UIGEA supports can’t argue with.

What Duplicate Poker has done is taken out any kind of element of chance in the game.  Though any poker player who’s played poker for more than one sit done can tell you there’s serious skill involved in winning, the UIGEA disagrees.  The game Duplicate Poker has created is just like playing Texas Hold’em, but with a twist.

        Instead of playing against other opponents at your table you are playing against players at different tables that are in the exact same position as you and are dealt exactly the same cards.  In order to win you have to play your cards better than the others, thus winning is clearly based on skill.  At the end of the playing session the player with the most chips wins the whole shebang. 

        It truly is an innovative, fresh spin on the game of poker and will very likely start drawing attention to itself as the only legal U.S. poker room.  It’s also likely that die hard poker players will want to try it out to really assess their skills.  That’s one of the benefits of the game other than finding a loop hole in the UIGEA.  At DuplicatePoker.com lady luck isn’t at the table delivering bad beats.