Making the Case for Hands Free Poker Voice Recognition Software

In 2011, Two Plus Two forum member "Jeff_S" officially launched Hands Free Poker, an innovative way to play online poker without ever having to click a mouse or use a video game controller. I can remember speaking to Jeff personally about his MTT tool years ago and how it came about because of hand pain he experienced from long hours of online play.

Hands Free Poker allows players to play long sessions online through its voice recognition software and there is even a YouTube video out there that shows it in action. Keeping in mind that Hands Free Poker is in need of several improvements (PokerStars Zoom Poker compatibility as well as Lock and Merge support, just to name a few), we've decided to publish an article outlining how the software works in hopes that requests for updates from the poker community will be heeded.

To begin with, this software (and others that are sure to follow in its path) has a considerable amount of potential in today's "on the fly" online poker environment provided that certain voice command issues and mass multi-tabling compatibility can be achieved.

Hands Free Poker recognizes voice commands and begins by labeling each table in progress as "1," "2," "3," and "4." For example, if a player is participating at four tables at a time, a large number will appear in the top right window of each table designating its specific number. In order to move to that table, a voice command with the corresponding number is required.

The voice recognition software recognizes basic commands such as "Fold," "Call," "All-In," and "Raise." So, if you wanted to shove pre-flop on the second table, all you would have to do is say "Two" and "All-In" and your chips will fly into the middle of that table just as if you had physically clicked the all-in button with your mouse. It truly is an amazing thing to see.

There are clear signs that this concept could work successfully in the community as long as there are future updates and improvements made to its functionality. For one, this software has not received any meaningful official updates since Black Friday nor has there been any reply from Jeff in the official Two Plus Two forum thread in quite some time. This is understandable in some regards based on the significant impact Black Friday had on the overall poker market, especially those who formerly played online while residing in the United States.

With the 2012 commercial release of Zoom Poker on PokerStars, many online poker players are now four-tabling the Zoom format and looking for ways to streamline their betting experience while not sacrificing any of their bottom line or hourly win rate.

It is unclear whether this type of voice recognition software will be able to revolutionize the game in the next 12 to 24 months due to heavy reliance on software applications such as Table Ninja along with marquee database software such as Holdem Manager and PokerTracker, but it will be interesting to see any new progress that comes to the Hands Free Poker application.

It may be that much more development work is needed in order to become compatible with the current versions of major poker sites and more importantly, to instantly adapt to any updates that are made to a site's client.