TABLEBRAIN
The other half of the dynamic TableBrain duo, company President, Zvi (Brian) Lando, believes that it’s not just diversity that today’s players demand… “When you add diversity with easy-to-learn, fun games which lean toward excitement, you’re answering the market. In today’s multi-tasking/video- game world, the new younger player base is hungry for new formats and variations that provide those kinds of challenges. Our mission is all about taking poker to the next level”. Lando also acknowledges the importance of social gaming when looking for poker’s ‘next big thing’: “Social gaming has dominated other markets; the same should hold true for poker as well. Some new games will feed off of collaborative play, such as our Voyeur Poker does.” The aforementioned product is just one of a
number of new products TableBrain has waiting in the wings, including: Voyeur Poker (“Play from the sidelines as a spectator!”), Mirror Hold’em (“a player vs. player game that uses new technology to create
‘parallel universe’ tabling during game play”) and TableWinner (“Put on your heads-up display and play poker in a whole new way.”) Back to DoubleHold’em, Gross explains why he thinks the format will succeed: “It plays tight, without issues such as space concerns. When you play standard Hold’em on basically any software, you always understand the way the hand is playing; this is far from the case in every game. High/low 7-card stud, for example, is a challenge to present well on a small monitor or to a player who is multi-tabling. If a game gets confusing to the point where players are wondering “why did she just win that hand?” then you’ve got a problem! Double Hold’em, as we’ve designed it, is easy to present so that players always know what’s happening.”
“If a game gets confusing to the point where players are wondering “why did she just win that hand?” then you’ve got a problem”
Playing Double Hold’em in preparation for this
article (purely for research obviously…) I couldn’t help but notice a relatively small number of people actually playing the game, with the majority of those only testing the waters with play chips. Lando is unconcerned by this: “So far, it’s only been released in beta form without strong marketing as we have been preparing a final version optimized and fine- tuned based on user feedback (we are constantly including user feedback and “iterative crowd sourcing” techniques to refine and improve our games). Party Poker will shortly be putting out the enhanced and final product and will add more betting formats and both single and multi-table tourneys with free-rolls. After that release, there will be substantial marketing creating a critical mass of players at Double Hold’em tables. When game selection is easier, there will be many more players.”
The brains behind TableBrain TableBrain is the dynamic duo of President Zvi (Brian) Lando, and CEO E. Mark Gross, who was a law
partner in a practice, focused on technology, telecommunications, leasing and retails matters. Before that Gross was a senior associate of a national law firm, having obtained his law degree from the Boston University School of Law in 1987. Lando holds a Masters degree in Finance and Corporate Strategy from the MIT Sloan School, and has led a wide range of profitable ventures across 20- plus years in finance. He’s launched a computer consultancy company as well as a small hedge fund, and managed multi-billion dollar investment portfolios for JP Morgan Chase. Needless to say, both are massive fans of poker!
Zvi Lando E. Mark Gross SEPTEMBER 2011 51
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