The Clock Desk / The round clock
Rounds and windows
The clock a live round runs on
A live round is a sequence of windows measured in seconds. On the sample it is 12 seconds of betting, 3 seconds of no-more-bets and 25 seconds of dealing and settlement, and the number of rounds an hour is a division rather than a promise.
Account spec
- Bet window
- 12 s
- No more bets
- 3 s
- Deal and settle
- 25 s
- Rounds an hour
- 90
the boundaryThe instant the account's day is measured from. On the samples it is 00:00 UTC, which is a different wall-clock moment for every reader.
the countdownWhat a window is measured from and whether day one counts. A window advertised as 30 days delivers 29 days 23 hours 59 minutes on the sample.
the calendarThe working-day clock money moves on, with its cut-off, its weekends and its holidays. One working day covered 87 hours 30 minutes on the sample.
Direct answerA live round is a fixed sequence of short windows: the betting window, the no-more-bets pause, and the deal and settlement. Summing them gives the length of a round, and dividing an hour by that length gives the number of rounds, which on the sample is 90 rather than the 180 the bet window alone would suggest.
Sample F - 40 seconds a roundbetting window 12 s
no more bets 3 s
deal and settle 25 s
round total 40 s
rounds an hour 3600 / 40 = 90
hand per hour 90 hands
if the bet window alone governed
3600 / 12 = 300 openings an hour, which is not a round count
with a shuffle pause every sixth round, +8 s
(6 x 40 + 8) / 6 = 41.33 s per round
3600 / 41.33 = 87.1 rounds an hour
a 60-minute session at an average stake of 5.00
87.1 x 5.00 = 435.50 staked
The same hour on three products
"An hour of play" is a different number of units on each product, and the difference is entirely a clock difference. The units are what the house edge is applied to, so the count matters even though the edge does not change.
Units of play in one hourlive table, 40 s a round 3600 / 40 = 90 table rounds
electronic table, 12 s a hand 3600 / 12 = 300 hands
slot, 3 s a spin 3600 / 3 = 1,200 spins
slot at an average spin of 1.00 1,200 spins = 1,200.00 handled an hour
live table at 5.00 a round 90 rounds = 450.00 handled an hour
the ratio between the two products, per hour of sitting
1,200.00 / 450.00 = 2.67 times
the ratio in units of play
1,200 / 90 = 13.3 times
the hour is the same length and is not the same hour
What the windows are for
- the betting window
- The interval in which a bet is accepted for the round. It is the same kind of line as any other cut-off, measured in seconds rather than in hours, and it closes on the operator's clock rather than at the moment the dealer stops.
- the no-more-bets pause
- The interval between the close and the deal. It exists so that the round's bets are fixed before a card is exposed, and it is the reason a very fast click at the end of the window can still be too late.
- deal and settlement
- The longest part of the round in the sample, at 25 seconds, and the part a player does not act during. Counting only the betting window therefore overstates how many times an hour a player can decide something.
Latency is a different subject. How far behind the picture is, and why a bet can be accepted at the clicked price, re-priced or voided, belongs to the in-play desk (cycle 20) and the live-dealer desk (cycle 23). This page counts windows and does not measure delay.
- Add all the windows before estimating a round count. The bet window is not the round, and on the sample it is less than a third of it.
- If the product pauses between rounds, include the pause. On the sample an 8-second shuffle every sixth round removed 2.9 rounds an hour.
- Compare products in units of play rather than in hours. A 13.3-fold difference in decisions per hour is a clock fact, not a strategy one.
- Treat the end of the window as a cut-off with everything that implies: your device's clock is not the authority, and the recorded receipt time is.