Poker and VR? Is there any way the two can combine? Read on to find out.
VR seems to be one of the main focus points of the tech giants of our age right now. It’s the newest, hottest gadget. On the other hand, poker is almost as old as gambling itself, not really changing in the time it’s been here. Is there any way the two can combine? Read on to find out.
What is VR doing now?
There is a lot of talk about VR nowadays. Initially dismissed as a gadget that will lose appeal in a year or so alongside the likes of the PlayStation Move, it is now being adopted by almost every industry as a means as giving an immersive experience.
With a VR headset you can stop crime in Gotham with a console game, Lil Nas X has performed to one of his biggest audiences, you can have a haunted house experience in a VR room complete with treadmill and gloves, like something out of Ready Player One or you can explore our world in great detail without a flight or a dive into the ocean.
And VR isn’t about to stop anytime soon. There are a lot of plans for it to become an integral part of digital life, as important and common as the smartphone.
What is poker doing now?
The biggest leap poker ever made was to adapt to the internet. It’s a classic game that has survived centuries and new worlds and has mainly stuck to the core concept throughout. The only difference between poker played in the Wild West and poker played on an online casino is the environment.
However, poker has been allowed to expand on the internet. Not only has poker become more popular due to access, and a readily available opponent a click away, where in the past we’d have to teach it to each other and hope they were free this Friday, but the perks of the internet have allowed new ways to absorb it.
You can play with randomly assigned players in an online table, you can watch a Twitch streamer play it as if it is any other console game, you can see all the tournament games up close with the games streamed straight into your phone from the WSOP partner platform of ggpoker.co.uk.
It only makes sense that poker would follow any technological advancements into the future as it always has.
What will we see in the future?
Well, the plan for VR is to expand in every direction the industry can think of. Zuckerberg and Meta are focusing on making VR the default means of communication, with the idea being to host meetings with colleagues and friends with an avatar in a virtual space. The gaming community thinks it’s the next step in immersion, with worlds you can wander and explore as a player. The music industry wants it to be the way we all attend gigs today.
With every advancement in gaming comes and advancement in online gambling. It’s taken a while, but once the internet was a concept, internet gambling was born and now is being accepted around the globe by governments that were notoriously against the idea of any form of gambling in their country.
As VR becomes more commonplace, which is likely, we could see an adaptation of online casinos. The best ones will allow you to sit at a virtual table, across from virtual opponents, trying to read avatar’s poker faces in a grand hall that is a recreation of the Monte Carlos Casino, but you can imagine most will allow you to play poker as you do on your phone now, only with a headset.
