The concept seems simple – a clock to speed up play at the poker table and eliminate stalling. Not only is slow play bad for televised poker, but it also frustrates players. Most sports have a clock of some sort, so why not poker? Cavin Quintanilla and Kent McLaren envisioned a way to speed play along and also be fair to players.
The two teamed up to form Protection Poker and the Action Clock was born. It was a simple idea, players received a certain amount of time to act and were granted a certain number of time-extension chips they could use when some extra seconds were needed for a big decision.
“After working in the gaming industry for years, I noticed that there were two overwhelming flaws with live poker – bad beats and stalling,” Gardens Casino tournament manager and Protection Poker CEO Cavin Quintanilla says.
As a recreational poker player and avid televised poker viewer, McLaren agreed and is now the company’s chief operating officer. After serving as the official scorer for the L.A. Clippers for 30 years, McLaren had a good feel for statistics and accuracy that could lend itself to the project. In 2015, the two men began working to make their vision a reality.