veeRob’s Blog

Well this is a new one for me… I’m here to write a review of the iPhone (and iPod Touch) application PokerZig that a few friends of mine took a part in putting together.  Even stranger, I was bullied into downloading this application, so rather than getting paid, it costs me $1.99 to do this review.  But that’s ok… I was offered to be reimbursed, but I’m happy to support my friends.

If you don’t already know, PokerZig is an app that will allow you to find a live tournament in Las Vegas that suits your needs.  It does a decent job of doing so, as loading the app instantly shows you a list of upcoming tournaments, including time, venue, and buyin.  Clicking on a tournament gives you more information such as the average number of players, duration, starting chips, typical 1st place, and what % of the buyin goes to the house.  It also shows a rating from 1 to 5 chips (stars), though it’s very unclear who’s rating the tournament.  My first instinct was to go to the Bellagio tournament I play often and give it five stars like I do when listening to music, but it did not allow me to click to give it my rating.

It was then that I realized that I couldn’t click on hardly anything.  If I played a tournament that reported 40 average players and the day I played it got 20, I would love to click on the app and update a database somewhere so that the average would be better reflected for myself and future users.  This is one area that I think the app would be very useful for if a handful of players continually updated them, as the information available on the Internet won’t necessarily be 100% accurate.  If this application let you see past # of entrants and averages, it would be very useful.  For example, I tried to play a Wynn tournament that the Internet told me had an average of 30 players, yet on the night I showed up, it didn’t run.  Had I known via PokerZig that other players had run into this problem or that the field could sometimes be 10 people, I wouldn’t have ever showed up.

Another problem with this application is that at the bottom of the screen, you only have the option to see tournaments by date, by event series (they call it “majors”), or by casino.  I didn’t see an option to see tournaments sorted by buyin.  I want to play higher buyins, but recreational players may want a buyin in a certain range.  Another great option that I use on AllVegasPoker’s tournament listings is sorting by vig, so that I can find the tournaments that take the least amount out of the prize pool.  There is no reason why this app can’t integrate sorting by both buyin or vig.

Going further, I’d like to see this app offer a filter, rather than just sorting.  For example, I’d like to be able to pull up a screen to find a tournament with a buyin from $100 to $200, with a vig of 18% or lower, and between 11am and 5pm.  With all of the sliders I see on the iPhone, I see no reason why this wouldn’t be an easy task to program.  And, for completeness, why not have a “pick a tournament for me” option where you can shake your iPod and it will spin a wheel and pick a tournament that’s starting within the next hour.

Lastly, the app fails to make use of the location services available on the iPhone.  I believe the app could be programmed so that it would know where you were, and you could list tournaments sorted by proximity.  That way, if you were playing at Bellagio and busted out, you could see where the closest tournaments are that were coming up in the next few hours.

Now the question is will I continue to use it?  Unfortunately, for me, the answer is no.  See, I don’t own an iPhone, just an iPod Touch.  I would use it if I busted from a tournament and was looking for another tournament to get into, but I’d need Wifi to be able to do this.  If I had an iPhone, I would definitely be making use of this app in the future.  I encourage the developers to consider porting the application to Windows Mobile so I can use it on my Touch Pro.