The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed in the US during 2006 ignited a debate that is far from settled – is poker a game of luck or skill? This simple question has many legal ramifications, and can determine whether or not the game of poker is legal to online players from within the US. There was, however, a person who decided to tackle this fundamental question in a very original way. Instead of trying to prove, disprove or calculate the amount of skill found in a game of poker, 55-year-old Randy Peterson set out to reinvent the game of poker as we know it. Peterson, an ex-police detective, is credited as the creator of duplicate poker – the first poker variant that was designed to drain the luck out of poker, and to turn it into a skilled game!

Peterson created the game back in 2001, way before the American law was involved. He served as the provincial gaming expert in British Columbia before his retirement, and later went on to invent skill-based versions to many games of luck, including bingo. Peterson was motivated by the possibility of turning chance games into skilled ones without losing the essence of the original game, and many believe he struck the perfect balance with his highly-original ‘Duplicate Poker’.

Duplicate poker is a poker variant. It is most commonly played using pot-limit and no-limit Texas Hold’em. The basic idea is that you are not competing directly against players sitting at your table, but rather against other players seated in your seat at parallel tables, who are all dealt the same cards as yours. At the end of each round, your winnings are compared to those of other players sitting at the same seat, to determine who did the best job given the same cards. Here are the specifics:

An equal number of players must be seated at separate tables. Each table is dealt the same cards from the same shuffled deck. Consequently, players sitting in corresponding seats on different tables are dealt the same cards, and the community cards are all the same as well. Basically, the very same hand of poker is being played simultaneously across a number of tables. Each player sitting in any given seat is playing the same cards, and is up against opponents holding the same hands. Additionally, all players begin each hand with the ability to bet the same number of chips, regardless of their performance during previous rounds. Their achievements during each specific round can now be compared with each other, since they are all given the same starting point.

The object of the game is to win more chips than opponents sitting in your seat at the other tables. The irony is that you can win the game even if your overall chip balance is negative. As long as you lost less than your corresponding opponents, you did well under the circumstances. Given the cards you were dealt, you’ve held on and done better than your opponents. This is exactly how Duplicate Poker greatly reduces the luck factor found in traditional poker. Your poker skills are being tested against opponents who have been dealt the same cards as you. You can’t hide behind your cards or blame lady luck any more.

As is the case with any poker variant, Duplicate Poker requires a slightly different strategy, mainly because the results are calculated and measured differently. We will explain more about strategy in a separate article.

Duplicate poker is considered a skill game, and is completely legal to play online wherever skilled games are allowed, including most of the US. Though luck is somewhat involved in the process, its impact is minor. Luck plays a part in any human activity. Take basketball, for example. A player may get unlucky and slip during the final play of the game, losing the ball and the game. Still, no one considers basketball a game of luck just because the possibility exists. Similarly, in duplicate poker play you may be unlucky and be assigned a seat which is shared by the ten best poker players in the world. Still, you will all be dealt the same cards, and only your poker skills will be put to the test.

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