Pokerstars launches new heads up app

Pokerstars announced the arrival of a new app titled Duel yesterday (Thursday), describing the product as a fresh new game that enables any two poker fans around the world to challenge and engage in heads up matches against one another.

Pokerstars claims that the new NLHE-based offering is specifically designed with mobile devices and recreational players front-of-mind, and allows players to set up one-on-one heads up encounters with fixed limits on the number of hands and number of big blinds per hand.

The hands are dealt all at once -10 hands (for free play) or 20-hands for real money – with the first move evenly split between opponents, and the player with the biggest chip stack at the end claiming the victory.

A major feature of Duel is a capability that allows players to suspend the action for long periods without the software automatically ending the game. The product has a “time bank” that allows for pauses of “hours and days rather than seconds,” and allows players to break off and return to the action later if they wish.

In announcing the new product, Severin Rasset, director of poker room operations for PokerStars, described Duel as a fun way to play poker, in a format ideal for mobile phones. He claims that the game offers all the depth of one-on-one poker, but is playable whenever and against whomever the user wishes.

Duel is available for both Android and iOS devices and is supported in multiple languages. The initial release is to the Norwegian market, but plans are in place for a rapid global roll-out.