New Headset to Improve Your Playing Skills?

The Emotiv brain scanning device could help poker players to understand their mind, refine their skills and reduce tells - at least according to the developers. A high tech headset that measures the wearer’s frustration and excitement levels can be used to develop card-playing skills. Knowing how your mind works in different situations during the game can help improve your chances of beating your opponent.

Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, multi-channel, portable system that has been designed for practical research application. The headset monitors emotional states in real time, and with the TestBench real time display of the Emotiv headset data stream, users are able to study data and their emotional responses during a game of poker.

The British newspaper Daily Star decided to test the product during the partypoker World Poker Tour that was held in Aspers Casino in London. John Ward wore the Emotiv headset while playing against the pros. Afterwards, the company behind Emotiv, SimpleUsability, analyzed the results that were logged into the system and it was revealed that Ward played better when he was less frustrated and excited.

When John was in a state of calm he certainly performed better because he made better decisions and was able to win some pots even though he was a novice at the table.

While Emotiv EPOC is a device that can give us information about our brain activity, opinions on the headset are divided. Most of the poker pros at the table who witnessed the test were not of the opinion that the headset could help minimize tells during a poker game. According to Jared Tendler, author of The Mental Game of Poker, the Emotiv device is not helpful to the poker world, cardschat.com reported.

He stated that the information about how players perform better when they are in a calm state has been known for over a hundred years. However, partypoker seems to be very interested in the product, believing that the device can help them understand how players respond to their games.

The Emotiv Bioinformatics Company was founded in 2011 by Tan Le, Nam Do, Neil Weste and Allan Snyder. The company, which is advancing understanding of the human brain, has offices in Hong Kong, USA, Australia, Maritius and Vietnam. Their products have won numerous international awards and are well-known for helping individuals understand their own brain.

Photo: kickstarter.com