Over the last several years, online poker rooms have continued to move toward catering as much as possible to recreational poker players, the kinds of players who play primarily for fun. Oftentimes, “recreational” or “casual” is used as an insult, but there is no need for it to be. Just as there are some players who are pros or serious amateurs whose main goal is to win money, there are others who just enjoy playing poker. I was one of those players. Yes, I wanted to win money, and I might have been slightly better than break even before bonuses, I don’t know, but mostly I just enjoyed the competition and the test of skill. Some casual players, though, live for the thrill of the gamble. And it is that kind of player that the GGNetwork is targeting with its upcoming game rollout: Flip Tournaments.
While the GGNetwork has not provided detail on the offering, looking at the network’s public Trello roadmap, Flip Tournaments have been moved to the “Next Release” column, dated October 30. The description is simply, “Our fast paced ‘Flip tournament’ is coming soon! Fast games, Faster prizes!”
The general consensus in the poker world from other similar games is that Flip Tournaments get their name from the fact that players simply flip over their cards immediately and see who wins. Players are automatically put all-in pre-flop, the cards are turned over, the board is dealt, and that’s it. It could be over in one hand, if it’s a Sit-and-Go. If it’s a multi-table tournament, it will be done in matter of minutes.
All-in shootout tournaments have been a thing for a number of years, but those are generally reserved for freerolls, often as a bonus to award a seat in a big tourney. To have something like that as a regular offering is definitely different.
The purpose of launching Flip Tournaments is to attract that casual player, the one who wants to gamble. It also, however, completely eliminates the skill gap between every single player on the site. Things like “jackpot Sit-and-Go’s,” which are hyper-turbo, three-handed games, narrow the skill gap significantly, as stacks are shallow and decision-making is limited. Recreational players often like those, as they are fast and again, novice players have a better chance against skilled players.
Flip Tournaments, though, are the equivalent of a slot machine or the lottery. There is no skill involved at all. You are at the mercy of the deal and that’s it. We don’t know for sure if this is all that Flip Tournaments will be. The GGNetwork could add some sort of twist to it.
It will be interesting to see if players turn out for Flip Tournaments, as they are most definitely not poker. But for someone who just wants to donk off a few bucks while having a small chance at winning, who knows?
