Poker Gadget Makes Home Games Easier

PORTLAND, Oregon – (PRESS RELEASE) -- In the Dodds family, traditional board games have gone the way of the dinosaur, and have been replaced with one of the hottest new trends: Poker.

Once the activity of smoky, back-door clubs and casinos, family participation has necessitated some easy-to-use new inventions, including the DB Dealer. The poker gadget combines the game's dealer button -- an oversized, round chip marker that denotes which player bets last, the most advantageous betting position -- and the blind timer, an alarm that marks a minimum bet increase, called a blind.

"We are expecting a lot of family during the holidays and we'll start our poker tournament with three tables," said Doug Dodd, a Portland Disc Jockey.

Dodds' 12-year-old son Hayden would rather play Texas Hold 'Em than watch television or play video games. "He is initiating our family time," Dodds said. "So many other topics come up while we're playing -- and even though they are sometimes used as an intentional distraction from what's happening in the game -- they are still important."

Kids and adults can easily program the DB Dealer in five-minute increments. In the past, poker tournament players used various kinds of alarms to mark blind increases, ranging from the obvious (kitchen, stovetop and microwave timers) to the absurd (old-fashioned buzzer clocks and cell phone alarms).

Inventor Jeff Klein, 37, grew up with Poker as a family activity, but it was hardly the norm at the time.

"My father had a regular game with college buddies that met monthly for more than 20 years," said Klein, who founded DB Dealer, Inc. several months ago. "I was about 11 when I joined their game. I played a lot in high school, but couldn't find other players in college."

The DB Dealer grew out of Klein's annoyance with the lack of reliable, easy-to-use timers. "The dealer button was already on the game table so it made sense to combine it with a timer that could be passed around from player to player."