The Online Poker Pro

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Rejoice all you multiple-tournament online poker players! The latest online poker accessories are synchronized breaks that take place at 55 minutes past every hour and allow all the action to stop at once. In April, Full Tilt Poker addressed the needs of every holdem poker online player who ever lost blinds during poker hands because they got up to get a drink, answer the phone or go to the bathroom, and now PokerStars is doing the same.

On PokerStars breaks take place at 55 minutes after the hour, no matter when the tournaments start. So even tournaments beginning at 50 minutes before the hour will have a break five minutes later. Not all tables have breaks though. To find a tournament with synchronized breaks, look for this notation in the event’s information window: “The tournament goes on break at 55 minutes past the hour.” The “Breaks” area of the tournament information screen will also note whether the tournament will be paused at 55 minutes past every hour.

Full Tilt’s synchronized breaks also start at 55 minutes past the hour but several tournaments don’t have the action paused, including sit-and-gos with fewer than 30 entrants, tournaments available for late registration, standard tournaments in the first blind level and turbo tournaments in the first two blind levels. Re-buy tournaments have 30-second to two-minute breaks following the re-buy period so players can add on.

PokerStars anticipates it will allow even more opportunities for synchronized breaks once they have a chance to test how it works and gauge player reaction. If the reaction from players who use the feature on Full Tilt is any indication, more tournaments of this kind will definitely be added, industry-wide.

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