The phenomenal rise in the popularity of poker has spawned the development
of 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.
Inventor Jeff Klein (37) says that the device can even be used in
friendly family games because both children 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).
Klein 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. "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."