Online poker players have been using various applications and software attachments for years to enhance their gameplay. Poker apps are most often used to track hands and convert results into a series of amalgamated numbers that tell the player, quite frankly, if they are any good – or if they have gotten any better – at playing online poker. The newest poker app, however, has a much different intent, and is cocking a lot of heads around the internet poker community.
The new poker app of which I speak is Hall of Hands, a free downloadable application that was designed with one solitary intention: to give online poker players the same bragging rights and swagger of a live table player; something they have been missing since the dawn of cyberspace.
Hall of Hands gives online poker players the ability to share their biggest moments with their friends with a genuine video reenactment with real actors, full commentary and hole-card cams, just like televised poker event. The reactions are real, the hesitations timed out precisely, exhibiting flop shots and pot sizes in an authentic video.
“Poker is a fascinating game, full of personal stories,” intoned Hall of Hands’ Vice President of Marketing, Bat El. “By enriching the post-play phase with portrayals of blood-pumping, nail-biting moments that had previously been veiled behind a virtual curtain, Hall of Hands brings back the drama to online poker and expertly equips players with what they covet most – bragging rights.”
Hall of Hands is absolutely free and easy to use. Poker players simply download and install the free app to their desktop. It’s a surprisingly small program, 4MB to download. The software runs in the background, automatically collecting data for every online poker hand played. The user can run back through the list of hands and select any one they wish to have portrayed in a real video. With a single click of the ‘Publish’ button, the app converts the hand into a video reenactment, available within minutes. Once ready, the player will receive a link to the video by email with an instant option to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or simply forward to their friends and family via email.
The poker app does have some limitations. At this time, Hall of Hands works with Zynga Poker games only and is not available for Mac or Linux users. The software must be downloaded and installed to a Windows PC desktop. Although completely free, players are currently limited to producing a maximum of two videos per hour.
At present, the team behind Hall of Hands is working to give users more options, like choosing their own actor to portray them in each video and even selecting a location for their poker table to play out.
Hall of Hands was developed by an expert group of software programmers, television producers, professionals of the online gaming industry and innovative entrepreneurs. “We’re out to revolutionize online media with new entertainment formats that maximize the excitement of interactive gaming.”