Run It Once Poker teased their new sit’n’go offering this week. The poker site posted the video to Twitter with the caption “Sit-N-Gos: Autumn 2020. Can you crack the Cub3?”
The video showed a box on a table under a tarp for a few seconds. Cut to black. Title card: “crack the cube.”
And that was it.
We will have to make of that what we can.
STTs for RIO
Sit’n’goes have been a long time coming for Run it Once. They were promised as a later development when the software first hit the market. Single Table Tourneys are such a fundamental part of online poker that it was surprising when the software launched without them.
One argument might have been a decline in the popularity of STTs as a format in recent years. But it was also heavily tied in with the desire to get the basic cash games right and the USP features set up properly before launch.
Now Run It Once is delivering on its promise.
Long time coming
Back in April of 2018, SNG’s were the one concrete promise for Run It Once’s “Phase 2”.
Other promises were vaguer. Things like “General software enhancements, more user options” and “An innovative Tournament experience.”
On August 4, 2020, some two and a half years into the project, they started to move into Phase 2.
Invite only Beta tests for their SNG offerings kicked off at that time. An exclusive group of 21 players, culled from the top of the cash game leaderboards, were invited to Beta test the SNG module with play money.
Tests must have gone reasonably well, since the ad says the SNGs are due “Autumn 2020,” and we’re only 60 days from the winter solstice.
Run It Once are launching this product right after having pulled out of the German market which may affect rollout. Run It Once has expressed their intention to return to Germany and to apply for an operating license there in the near future.
The business will be launching the new software update with SNGs in parallel to their attempts to get up to the new German code.
In the meantime, players in Deutschland are wondering which will come first. @Nekim0r replied to the Twitter ad with “Is there a chance Germans will be back in when SnGs arrive?” Run It Once’s response was that they cannot be sure.
CUB3
The fact that SNGs have a fancy new name might just be marketing. But it could just as easily indicate that Run It Once Poker will be putting their own twist on the format.
Their software abounds in little twists on "typical" formats like this. For example, player avatars and names are randomized and respond to session results. The software has built-in HUD displays that are accessible by everyone while banning external HUDs. The idea is to even the playing field as much as possible.
How this design ethic will play out in this case is currently anyone's guess. The old format of ten players buy-in, three cash out is pretty hard to beat.
The ad is frustratingly or tantalizingly — depending on your perspective — uninformative. But Run It Once’s approach to software design has always been highly customer focused. They have earned some benefit of the doubt at this point.
Featured Image Source: Twitter
