Do smartphones ruin live poker?

With news of an event that bans smartphones, is this a sign that bringing technology to the table has made the game less fun?

I don’t believe in destiny or that somebody ‘deserves’ to win a poker tournament, but if there was ever a tournament I ‘should’ have won, but didn’t, it was when I made the final table of the Sky Poker Tour Main Event in Leeds. I was playing well, had a big stack and the first prize was the exact amount I needed for my dream honeymoon.

Sadly I fell short at the final table, because the one guy who had me covered accidentally called my all-in, because he didn’t hear me announce it, because he was listening to music on his smartphone. He rivered a straight.

Now in the grand scheme of things it’s good that people make accidental calls against you, and we laughed about this one, but it has always set the tone for me when it comes to distracting technology. So I was quite excited to hear Matt Savage announce an event where phones, hoodies, headphones and sunglasses will be banned, to make the game more social.

Too much of a good thing

As I have written many times before I am very nervous about the way technology is infiltrating every aspect of our lives. I love tech and online poker, but whether it’s AI, social media or smartphones, I do believe there is too much of a good thing and it is hurting some aspects of civil society.

I don’t really mind hoodies or sunglasses, I have a big problem with headphones because they slow the game down. Smartphones in general slow the game down, but by far their biggest problem is that they take the social aspect out of the game. I find it particularly rude when you are trying to talk to someone who cannot look up from their phone and this is contributing to the comprehension that poker is less fun.

Now before I go any further I must insist on pointing out that this is not a young and/or online player problem. It would be easy to blame the online generation for this, but in recent years I have begun to notice that there really is no age limit for people turning into zombies staring at their phones. Almost all of us, myself included, could probably stand to reduce their smartphone usage a little.

Digital detoxes

Maybe most importantly of all, this is by no means just a poker issue. This really is something we should think about for any social endeavour. There are already cafes that ban smartphones as well as ‘digital detox’ retreats that take you away from tech altogether. In recent years comedians like Dave Chappelle have forced members to put their phones in sealed boxes they cannot open until they leave the venue, mostly to stop people filming the show.

The better players should love this tournament anyway, because as I have written in the past, being partially distracted by a phone impedes your performance more than being drunk does. Multi tasking is something of a myth, we are just essentially doing two things badly. No matter how good you are as a player, you will be better with your full concentration.

While I love this idea in poker, I doubt it will become the norm. I’m inclined to think that while there will be plenty of vibrant conversation flowing from some of the tables, there might also be a lot of awkward silences at others with some finding it boring. Poker is a mentally taxing game and for some the smartphone is a way to take mini breaks between hands.

While I’m not expecting an event like this to reignite a new poker boom, I am hopeful that what it does do is get everyone involved to question their own smartphone usage, and perhaps the best outcome of all is if it gets a good enough response that similar events start cropping up at other poker festivals, maybe just as a side event that is also a break from our collective internet addiction. 

Stay tuned to PokerStrategy.com as later this week I have an interview with one of the men behind this event, legendary Tournament Director Matt Savage.

Do you like the idea of banning smartphones from tournaments? Let us know in the comments: