Partypoker continues to make their customers feel seen and heard after announcing plans to use the German Poker Championships as the test bed for a new concept called the ‘button ante.’
I can do without salt, coconut milk, and even toothpaste – but nappies? Now, that’s a problem, right there. You do not want to run out of nappies.
So, I run out of nappies.
I head to Boots and grab the last remaining pack. I’m standing in line, pissed off that I left my phone in the car, feeling like a sea urchin stranded on a tideless beach struggling to breathe.
“What am I going to do for the next two minutes?”
I decide to focus on the homework I have from the book Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights Into the Next Big Thing, and that’s to spend time watching a queue to see what people do.
They are all on their mobile phones.
The lady at the till even manages to go through the entire process without looking at the man serving her.
What did I learn?
We are cyborgs.
If you want to market something you need to target mobile. If you want to create something you need to target mobile. And if you don’t want your baby to take a shit on the floor you don’t run out of nappies.
The other glaringly obvious learning point was that nobody wants to be in a queue, meaning nobody wants to even be in a shop. And you need to have eyeballs on people to understand this because it’s the nuance that counts.
Take Netflix as an example.
And some prominent companies do have eyeballs on people.
I have returned to Netflix after the recent Kodi debacle. Season 5 of House of Cards has gotten me a little wet. I love the cauldron-stirring nature of the show. Episode 1 begins, and I notice a button in the bottom left-hand corner.
Skip Intro
I press it, and it takes me straight to the action, cutting out two minutes of drudgery, and I wonder if the Netflix people are watching me through my Macbook camera (blame the Underwoods).
The Skip Intro function is brilliant.
I love it.
And it’s just a button.
Partypoker also has security camera like eyeballs on their customers. They see them. They hear them. And they also like to play around with buttons in the hope they can provide value for them.
At the forthcoming German Championship of Poker, partypoker, who is hosting the event with King’s Casino, will be busting out a significant rule change.
When the antes come into play, the only person who will have to submit one will be the button. The cost of the ante will be the same as the big blind unless there is a dead button (there won’t be an ante), or the table is playing short-handed (six players or less) where the button will post an ante the same size as the small blind.
I may be wrong here, but I first remember this proposal being made on Twitter by Barny Boatman after a constructive complaint about the pace of the game becoming affected by the cyborgs glued to their mobile phone who forget to post. Partypoker is hoping to speed up the game by removing this hazard, and time will also be saved because the dealers will have less work (they won’t have to count and recount, less need to ask people to break a 100 for a 25, etc.).
The German Poker Championships takes place 6-14 August.
The button ante idea will be a success.
Other live operators will incorporate it.
It will become the norm, like shot clocks.
Now it’s your turn.
What minor change would you like your poker room to make that’s been maddening you for years, and why should they listen to you?
