Phil Laak Invitational

Electronic Poker Tournament

Hollywood Park Casino has opened their new ePoker room, which features a set of electronic poker tables from PokerTek. These tables combine aspects of live and online poker. With video screens embedded into the table top in front of each player, and also in the cetner of the table where the pot and flop are usually posted, these tables are certainly something new.

Instead of having dealers collect and shuffle cards, and split and award pots, the electronic table takes care of all of those chores at the speed that internet poker players have become accustomed to. They also eliminate the possiblity of dealer errors, but still allow players to "study the faces" of their opponents.

Of course the casino enjoys the fact that cards are dealt more quickly, and generate more rake than could be made with live dealers. Players have also come to realize that electronic poker dealers don't accept tips, and that makes a bit of a difference at the end of the night in their chip stacks.

The tournament itself is scheduled for January 4th, at 11:00 AM. The direct buy-in is $200+30, for which you will get free food, a Unibomer hoodie, and of course entry into the tournament.

Satellites are running twice a day, every day. You can enter one at 6:00pm or at 8:00pm. Buy-in for the satellites is $36.

Since the tournament is being run on the rooms electronic poker tables, in the new "ePoker Room", the event organizers cannot simply add tables to accomodate an unlimited number of players. The event is being capped at 81 participants.

Phil Laak, also known as the "Unibomer" is the featured player at this event. So, players can count on his presence at the tables.

For a closer look at the unqiue tables used in this tournament, visit the ePoker Room page at the Hollywood Park Casino website.