The January 2013 edition of Ante Up magazine reports that the Aria in Las Vegas just introduced a new game called “Multi-Action Poker” on a trial basis. Players play two hands simultaneously getting their cards dealt from two dealers at the table sitting opposite each other.

Each game is played with its own deck. Players must bet from separate stacks and are not allowed to borrow from one game’s stack to bet in the other game.

The game is designed to attract players looking for extra action.

I have not seen the game personally yet but will be at the Aria over New Year’s so I will check it out.

Personally, I think that serious players who are looking to win have to concentrate on the game they are in, stay alert, not be distracted and observe as much as possible when they are not in the current hand being played. But for action “junkies” this game may be very appealing and catch on.

Anyone have any opinions on this?

I'd need exact rules in order to compute odds, etc. but, so far, it looks like a complicated game to handle!

Personally, one hand at the same time is enough for my brain, but so many players just play for the fun of it that it might get some success. Just take a look at Baccarat, what do you control? Nothing. Just a game of chance. Yet, billions are played...

"Anyone have any opinions on this? "

Sounds like a fad to me.. Remember Multi action BJ?

I think some of the "internet pros" will enjoy it as it may seem similar to multitabling like online. This way your mind stays focus on the game without playing to many hands because of boredom. There is also the fact that more hands equals more profit if you are a winning player. I think this game will have enough people interested in it to keep it alive, at first at least. I don't think it could have happened 20 years ago. One of the problems I see is the fish will lose money faster and will perhaps be less inclined to come back... (but a gambler is gambler)

For my part, I don't think I will play it as I sometimes take profit or the impatience of players that play substand hands in a regular game.
Just my thoughts. I will go see it though.

Slim

AMcD,

I haven't seen the game but I read a write-up of it in a local newspaper. If I understand it correctly, it's just two games of poker going on simultaneously. The games don't intermingle and so there is nothing to compute really.

Maybe I didn't understand the article correctly though.

Jason

PS:The article also mentioned that the game was virtually dead most of the time.

Jason, you have it right. It's just two games running at the same time. 2 dealers, 8 or 9 players, each player has 2 stacks, one for each game. Can't shuffle chips from one game to the other. They've been toying around with the structure, running it as limit only, sometimes with same limit each side, sometimes with a different limit (3/6 and 5/10). They've also started to run it as NL a couple weeks back but they ran 2/5 and 5/10NL to 5 players and the table broke pretty fast apparently. Since then it's been up and down, sometimes full with a list.

I don't really see it taking off, to be honest. Casual players will be very confused and likely prefer a single, normal table, and grinders who like to multitable probably prefer 12-tabling at home instead of 2-tabling at the casino with all the disadvantages that implies (slower, more prone to mistakes, tips required, etc). Who knows though.

I see. It's just like a live 2-table game. I doubt about his success.

I really don’t see this being a worthwhile game for professional players. I don’t believe this is the same as multi-tabling online.

This is a game with live players and there is so much information that can be gleaned from a live game that is not available online. Of course, there is considerable info in online games but it is of a different nature and more mathematically oriented using software programs.

I think this will appeal mostly to the typical action prone, craps-shooting mentality player, who mostly plays for fun and is not a very good at playing. These players can’t take advantage of the information they can obtain from live games because they don’t even know what it is and are unable to correctly interpret what they see or experience.

I also believe these type action prone players will end up losing more money, more quickly than in a “normal” game and for that reason I don’t believe this type game will last. Of course, I could be wrong and time will tell but the last time I was wrong about anything was 30 years ago and it really wasn’t my fault.