The History of "Information"

from "Rants, Musings and Streams of Consciousness"

You know what happens when too many people arrive at the movie early and have nothing to do but sit there? I do: They trash the place.

A long time ago, movie theathers realized that they could prevent destruction by entrancing patrons with pictures of movie stars, trivia questions and tidbits of knowledge. Brilliant!

I got to thinking...people arrive at a poker tournament and sit around with nothing to do. Wouldn't it be great if you had a way of entertaining people just like the movie theater?

I give you....Information!

Yeah, I don't like the name either, but I couldn't think of anything better.

Information gives you the ability to entertain people while they sit around waiting to play poker.

I really did think of this concept while sitting in a movie theater. I thought, "Well, people are sitting around doing nothing. Wouldn't that be a good time to educate them, let them know about important events, rules, etc.? And, wouldn't it be great if the tool could do that for you?"

So, I started implementing it, then I started really thinking outside of the box about all the different stuff you might want to display on the console. In the end, I came up with seven different categories of information that you can use/create:

Information type Description Examples
Announcement A text string with an announcement you want to make. The thought is that you'll use this to remind everyone of important events.
  • "Next Tournament: December 15th at Jake's in Minneapolis"
  • "2 for 1 taps right now in the bar!"
Hand Nickname Who doesn't like hand nicknames? These are purely for entertainment. When a hand nickname is displayed, you'll see the card(s) graphically displayed along with their nickname.
  • (Imagine a picture of an Ace and a King)
    - "Big Slick"
Quiz Question This was the original type I thought of from the movie theater. Pop up a question...wait a few seconds and then have the answer appear.
  • Q: "What's the worst starting hand in Omaha?"
    A: "Quad 2's"
Quotation Displays a quote along with the name of the person to whom the quote is attributed. Did anyone say something funny at a recent tournament? Let everyone know about it!
  • "Everyone check your decks!!"
    - Steve D.
  • "What's wrong with dealing out the entire board in advance?"
    - Chuhu L.
  • "I've only met half my wives at strip clubs!!"
    - Cory M.
Rule Along with announcements, the other actually useful type (everything else is entertainment). It's always a good idea to hand your rules out, but you may also want them to display on the console.
  • "No rabbit hunting"
  • "No swearing"
Terminology Terms and definitions. Everyone loves poker terminology. Entertain your players and educate them at the same time.
  • "Rabbit Hunting - To deal out the rest of the board when the hand is already complete."
  • "Tap - A beer that is on tap"
Trivia Meant to be for fun tidbits. Like an announcement, this is just a single string of text to display.
  • "Chuhu is 'Mr. February'....he's won every tournament held in February over the last 3 years"
  • "2 for 1 taps means you can drink twice as much for the same amount of money"

Enjoy.

Send me stories of how you've used information to make your tournament more entertaining or alert your players of upcoming events!

See also