9Stacks, India’s poker platform to announce the launch of voice enabled Poker tables feature on its platform, where one can talk to their friends as they play – most of the other platforms only offer a chat feature. Voice enabled table feature is enabled only on private tables where friends, colleagues and families can come together to play poker and also talk while they are playing. And there are no hidden charges – private tables are free to set up!
Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, most of the population is stuck at home missing out on meeting and socialising with family and friends. 9Stacks brings a way to stay connected and have a good time with your dear ones without leaving the safety and comfort of your home. Texting can become pretty boring and tedious over a long period of time hence 9stacks tried to give its users as authentic an experience as possible, of connecting with your friends by actually being able to talk to them as you play.
9Stacks CEO and co-founder Sudhir Kamath says, “When you consider the Voice Enabled feature along with our industry-leading promotions and private tables for users to play only with their friends and relatives, we think we have a recipe for lasting retention. We realised that there are a lot of recreational players who want to bond with their friends and family over a game of poker but during the Lockdown they were unable to do so. Our voice-enabled private tables now give them that opportunity. It is like hosting a poker party sitting at home, with complete authority to choose who all can be a part of that. In addition, private tables are password-protected, ensuring no gatecrashers at your poker party!”.
The process for creating a private game is really simple. There is a separate tab for private games in 9Stacks, any one person representing the group wanting to play together, has to fill up a simple form – mentioning some details like desired stakes, giving it a unique name and password. All those who want to join in log in using their 9stacks accounts, or they can create new accounts instantly. They can find the table by its name and can sit on the table using the password. Players can also choose the table to be not visible to everyone but only to a pre-selected group of IDs. The players can play private cash games as well as private tournaments. Hundreds of such tables were created in the last few weeks, and all of them have automatically been upgraded to voice-enabled tables now. Even with lockdown easing, it is expected to remain a very popular feature on 9Stacks.
The platform currently has more than 3.25L users across India and has witnessed 350 per cent increase in user-base in 2019. The platform currently offers Texas and Omaha variants of poker that engage both experienced players and learners.