Online poker has been around for about 16 years and has really been rolling for 10-11 years. In that time, you would think that the online poker rooms would have their software sleek and refined, chock full of player-friendly features. But alas, it is not so much of the time. Ultimate Poker (may it rest in peace) was a prime example of this, as it rushed to be first to market in Nevada, sacrificing basically every feature anyone could want in its software. Ultimate Poker was a newbie to online poker, though, and developed its own software, so in a sense it was kind of understandable. But partypoker? Really?
partypoker provides the software for New Jersey’s Party Borgata Network, which is comprised of two sites: BorgataPoker.com and nj.partypoker.com. The network is the largest in the New Jersey regulated internet gambling market, with a seven-day average of 150 cash game players (figures courtesy PokerScout.com). But it perhaps could have had more if it had only implemented the most basic of features: the wait list.
For whatever reason, partypoker has not given players in New Jersey the ability to queue up for a full table. It is something that every poker room under the sun offers and has really never been something that anyone has thought twice about. It’s just a feature we always have. But at partypoker New Jersey, if a player wants to get on a table that is full, he has to keep the table’s window open and constantly monitor it, hoping to be able to click on a seat the moment it is emptied. I don’t know about you, but if I am doing literally anything else with my time, my eyes just simply are not going to be staring at an online poker table non-stop until a seat opens up.
For most of this year, players have been complaining about the lack of a wait list and until now, there has been no response from partypoker. Finally, last week, a representative from the poker room entered a wait list petition thread on Two Plus Two to say that a “wait list solution” will be implemented in early 2015.
Of course, the phrasing of this “wait list solution” has struck some as odd, as it makes it sound like it won’t be a real wait list, but rather just some pseudo-wait list band-aid or something. Like a “solution” that simulates a wait list but isn’t really a wait list.
We’ll see. I look forward to seeing partypoker New Jersey catapult itself into the 21st century.