The Four Winds Hotel and Casino in New Buffalo, Michigan, recently had its grand opening after installing 19 PokerTek tables that have already seen a lot of action from curious customers. It is currently the largest automated poker room in the world and is exclusively World Poker Tour and PokerPro branded.
PokerPro tables are electronic tables that allow players to compete in live poker games without dealers, cards, or chips. They ensure total accuracy and increase the number of hands seen per hour by about 50 percent. In the Four Winds poker room, the 15 10-handed tables offer limit and no-limit hold'em cash games and limit and pot-limit Omaha cash games. Single-table and multi-table sit-and-go tournaments with buy-ins that range from $100 to $500 are also available 24 hours a day.
Scheduled daily tournaments include limit and no-limit hold'em, as well as Omaha, with buy-ins ranging between $50 to $250. The other four tables are specifically designed for heads-up poker. Players can compete in heads-up tournaments or play to win seats into major events.
Since Four Winds is the Midwest's only WPT poker room, players also have the opportunity to participate in special promotions.
Four Winds Casino poker room will award up to 10 WPT satellite tournament seats at the Four Winds Poker Invitational on Jan. 26, valued at $10,000 each. The top 100 players with the most number of hands played before Dec. 26, with a minimum of 12,000 hands played, will qualify.
The poker room will also hold satellites into the season-ending WPT Championship. It is a $25,000 buy-in and scheduled to take place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The satellite is separated into two tiers.
The tier one satellite is a $50 buy-in single-table no-limit tournament, in which each player receives $500 in tournament chips. The winner receives a voucher for an entry into any tier two tournament, valued at $450. The tier one tournaments are held 24 hours a day.
Tier two tournaments are held on the last Saturday of each month. Players can buy-in for $450, or with a voucher received from winning a tier one tournament. Each player starts with $5,000 in tournament chips. The winner receives a prize package for the WPT Championship. The package is valued at $28,000.
The convenience and efficiency of PokerTek tables have led them to expand even further. The Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau, the world's largest gaming market, now features five PokerPro tables including four 10-handed tables and one heads-up table.
