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PokerStars Prepping to Release Mobile Online Poker?

UPDATE: While PokerStars’ plans for mobile remain in the development stage, Full Tilt Poker has released a real-money mobile version of their popular Rush Poker format.

Read more about Rush Poker Mobile here. Info on Stars mobile development below.

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Never been dealt a bad beat while waiting for your seat at a restaurant to be ready? PokerStars is apparently looking to provide said opportunity, as the company moves toward a mobile version of their poker software.

Stars took the first public step in developing a mobile-phone-based version of the online poker client late in 2009, when the poker room acquired mobile gaming development firm Cecure.

The terms of that sale, completed in November 2009, were not made public.

Stars took the second public step this week, reportedly distributing surveys to select PokerStars customers asking for their feedback on a variety of issues related to mobile gaming. An excerpt from the email, posted on 2+2:

PokerStars would like to invite you to participate in a short survey regarding mobile phone handsets and the potential for a mobile version of PokerStars.

While Stars would certainly be the largest mobile online poker room, they wouldn’t be the first – Cake Poker launched a mobile version of their room last year. Cake’s software only runs, as of the writing of this article, on phones running Windows Mobile.

Cake does not publicly release figures breaking out mobile from regular traffic in their lobby.

Stars has yet to comment on concrete plans or any sort of time-line for a mobile version. In addition to security concerns, the company must face a series of other challenges, including crafting a parallel, streamlined version of both the lobby and the gaming environment suitable for mobile display (on both visual and technological levels).

It’s presumably with those concerns in mind that Stars purchased Cecure, a company with a track record of delivering efficient mobile versions of larger-scale gambling platforms.

The combination of Cecure’s technological know-how – the company developed mobile gaming platforms for Ladbrokes Poker and the World Poker Tour prior to being acquired by Stars – and PokerStars massive player base and marketing savvy seem to create a potent recipe for unleashing the first mass-market real-money mobile poker client on a global audience.

How the market will respond is another question. While the concept of mobile poker is clearly appealing in theory, whether or not players will embrace it is less so. If you’re used to a large screen – or even a laptop – scaling down to even the most generous screen offered by a mobile device will be a tough transition at best.

Players might also find that the conditions under which you’d be forced to play on your mobile – waiting for your dinner seat, killing time at an airport, and so on – might not be the most conducive to top-notch play on their part.

For more info on Full tilt Poker’s mobile poker options, visit FTP’s Rush Poker page here.

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