Ah music, the secret weapon of the poker player. To expand on that a little, music can serve as a powerful psychological tool, stimulating the mind to respond to whichever mood is required in any given situation. Whether it is needed to trigger memories, get the blood pumping, make you angry or relax you, music plays an integral role in entertaining us, and playing poker is no exception to this. Poker is, after all, a game in which everything relies on making the right decisions and where reacting to mentally challenging scenarios is the key to success. Staying cool after you have lost, keeping your concentration after a big win, these are the factors that help explain why poker players condition themselves musically to achieve the appropriate mood. Mental discipline is a highly sought-after skill in poker and nothing helps deliver this quite as effectively as music, already an incredibly important feature in our everyday lives.
Old-school game, new world rules
No More Bad Beats
Ever since online poker apps first appeared on the market, there has been a rapid advancement in the games they offered and the variety of games on the menu. Going beyond mere games of Texas hold’em and Omaha Hi-lo, online poker has routinely taken advantage of both the increasing accessibility of fast wireless networks and the rise of the smartphone to launch new variants. The various poker gaming options for 888poker players, for example, include cash games, Texas hold’em, SNAP and, cashing in the increasingly popular sit and go’s, games like Blast. But what sounds are best while you play; casino sounds or music?
It’s agreed, feeding your favorite poker tunes straight in to your ears is more likely to give you your biggest chance of success. But what is it you like to listen to? Now, you could go with the standard poker themed tunes like Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler, Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, Motorhead’s Ace of Spades or Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley, or you could go with something a little more stirring to get the blood pumping. Songs like Joe Esposito’s “You’re The Best”, “Eye of the Tiger by Survivor” or, my own personal favorite from the movie Scarface, “Push It to the Limit” by Paul Engemann. Either way, make up your playlist and listen to it through your preferred music streaming service, say Spotify or Amazon, for a great all-round audio experience.
Let music guide your mental state
Wired For Sound
Or, ignore music altogether and concentrate instead on modern online poker’s increasingly powerful authenticated sounds of the casino. Modern online poker is all shiny and smooth with excellent table graphics that look and feel exceptional, all supported by sounds that makes the chips and the cards sound realistic. Graphics and sound during game play have truly succeeded in creating the perfect atmosphere and it’s apparent that the programmers have put in the maximum effort to ensure the experience runs as smoothly as possible.
There is no non-diegetic musical accompaniment at most online poker rooms; instead you simply hear the diegetic sound effects of the virtual felt and the generic noise of digital poker play. The soundcard at most online poker room’s sites and apps work effortlessly and makes for a great, authentic experience and compliments the stunning visuals perfectly. Away from the noise, the software behind 888poker allows players to have a laugh with opponents using a fun Table Chat feature, while PokerCam tables let you study your opponents with a webcam view. However, the lack of background music doesn’t alter the fact that playing poker online isn’t a noisy pastime, unless, as discussed, you choose it to be by wiring in your own playlist. This, though, should change as technology drives us forward on to the next generation of online poker.
What Comes Next?
For a glimmer into the game’s future, take note of the 2017 story in which a Carnegie Mellon artificial intelligence computer by the name of Liberatus took on four leading poker players in a 20-day Texas hold’em tournament and won the equivalent of $1.7m in poker chips. I think we can say that, like what shuck the game of chess in 1996, computer technology is evolving and outthinking us fast. This ever-evolving nature of technology, coupled with new players who bring with them an appetite for fast moving games, mean that new formats are constantly being launched. Games, typically of the modern-day lifestyle, that are made so they can be dropped into and out of at the user’s behest. On the go games such as the poker type Blast even have a time cap (between 2 and 6 minutes) after which all remaining players left in the game are involuntarily put into randomized all-ins until a winner is found. This brings us to the next technological advancement that will inevitably impact poker online.
Get lost in a new virtual reality
In the future we will need more from our online casino sounds as poker goes immersive and will almost certainly incorporate virtual reality (VR) which will lead to a more varied pool of players than ever before. Now that VR hardware is readily available, and the appropriate software is being developed, the possibilities are thrilling. For sure, rather than listening to the sounds of the chips being collected and the cards being dealt, one could expect now to engage in chat, not in a mere box like at present, but instead as part of a realistic all-inclusive virtual poker experience, playing with other players and in cooperation with a virtual dealer.
By the time we are playing virtual poker online, we should be piping in casino-realistic sounds and other audio accompaniments which will put greater stress on the technology that powers online poker but, for now, enjoy the sounds of chips stacking and cards dropping in your Texas hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo and 7 Card Stud games any which way you like it, including your favorite tunes.
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