Game idea- Duplicate Video Poker

Once I learned to play bridge, other card games felt kind of flat in comparison to the subtlety and elegance of this great social game. Duplicate bridge is the form of bridge where the hands are kept intact after each round and played by another team. In this case your game is not so much against the opponents at the table with you, but against all the other teams in the duplicate who are playing the same cards as you, and how well you bid and play the cards in comparison to them will determine your score. Thus in a duplicate most of the luck of cards is eliminated; the only luck elements remaining are if you are playing the North-South or East-West hands of a particular board, and who your opponents are for that board and how they play.

So I was thinking what other games could this duplicate principle be applied to? Maybe video poker. Here's how it would work- two players at different terminals would sit, and after agreeing on a form of video poker and a stake, put up an equal stake. Then the computer shuffles 100 decks and uploads them to each terminal. They'll get 3 minutes to play the hands (very unlikely they will play all 100 in 180 seconds, but those are arbitrary numbers) and they will be scored on their speed and accuracy- basically how much of their stake they would be getting back based on the EV of their play decisions, and since they will be both playing the same cards the luck of the deal and draw will be eliminated. Winner take all minus the house rake.

Or another variant could be they are scored on their actual results, effectively how much money they win in the allotted time period. This might be more interesting because if a player thinks he is being outplayed, he can take a chance and choose a lower EV play for a chance for a bigger win that will get him back on top.

This could have many more than 2 players too, probably no limit on how many can play in one duplicate, although some people might not want to wait for a bunch of seats to fill up and all the stakes to be anted. But terminals like this could be very flexible, and a game could be configured in many different ways just with software.

I would really like playing something like this (which doesn't tell you much about how popular it would be among the normal!) and I think more skill games and competitive games would attract a whole different crowd to casinos.

The main problem I see with something like this is, either:
(a) Each hand's entire deck is identical for each player, in which case, if you get players all playing a common strategy, you will end up with quite a few ties, or
(b) Each hand's deck is shuffled differently for each player after the first five cards are dealt, in which case, what's the point?

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

So I was thinking what other games could this duplicate principle be applied to? Maybe video poker. Here's how it would work- two players at different terminals would sit, and after agreeing on a form of video poker and a stake, put up an equal stake. Then the computer shuffles 100 decks and uploads them to each terminal. They'll get 3 minutes to play the hands (very unlikely they will play all 100 in 180 seconds, but those are arbitrary numbers) and they will be scored on their speed and accuracy- basically how much of their stake they would be getting back based on the EV of their play decisions, and since they will be both playing the same cards the luck of the deal and draw will be eliminated. Winner take all minus the house rake.

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Isn't there a technical standard that Nevada requires the virtual cards to be continuously shuffled until "deal" or "draw" is selected? Wouldn't playing with duplicated deck orders violate that?

It seems an interesting idea for tournaments, but... if the tournament prize includes any sort of overlay, the potential for hijinks seems troublesome.