If you're like me, you are one of the thousands who have jumped onto the poker bandwagon. Look at the poker explosion over the past 5 years. In the year 2000 there were 512 entries to the main event with a $10,000 buyin. In 2003 that number grew to 839. Then in 2004 the field TRIPLED to 2,576. This year, 2005, an amazing field of 5,619 people put up $10,000 for a $7,500,000 first place prize.* The reason I am giving these statistics is to show the amount of people this game is trying to attract to it. With a field growing 91% larger since 1990, you would expect an amazing game that captures the feel of the World Series. (Although I have not yet experienced that for myself... I'm not 21!) This game fails miserably.

The main aspect that would make this game successful is to capture the vibe of an actual poker tournament. Have some good background graphics, have players act like they would in a real tournament - even pocket cams of the hole cards would be a good idea! Most of all, this can't be a donkey game, after all.. it is the world series. (Donkey poker is a term referring to people playing poker who do not know what they are doing.) So basically, get some good AI. This game has it, right?

First and foremost, I have no other way to say it then just plain - no. The AI is absolutely terrible and you lose the vibe of an actual true poker game in a bout 10 minutes of gameplay - if that. You see more outdraws with ridiculous cards in this game then you would at an amateurs home game. I know luck is a major factor in poker, but the AI is so unpredictable that the game turns into a lottery where luck is a much stronger ally than even a basic understanding of the game. If you want a game to live up to the world series make the opponents do things that well... make sense.

Lets do a couple examples: (if you do not know anything about texas hold em, you probably will not understand these examples. I do not have time to lengthy explain how to play the game, so please just bare with me.) I was in a tournament with 200 people left with about average chips. This hand involved 3 people, lets call them Joe Bob and Gary. Joe was a short stack, Bob had a massive stack, and I was even with Gary. Bob raised preflop 4x the big blind under the gun, me being next to act re-raised him with AK of hearts. Next after me Joe called. First off, any short stack wouldn't just call half of this chips - any poker player knows this. Then Gary calls. The flop came A 3 6 rainbow. The shortstack (Joe) is first to act and puts his remaining chips into the pot. I am confident I have him beat so call. To my surprise both Bob and Gary call as well. Me and Gary now have half our stack in. The turn brings a 7, and I immediately move allin. The massive leader Bob quickly calls and Gary folded. Now we flip over our hands, and I am SHOCKED. Joe the short stack had 45 suited in clubs, and Bob had A3 offsuit. Joe had a straight 3-7 and Bob had 2 pair AA33. Only god knows what Gary had. Lets look at what is wrong here. Who on earth would call a bet that has been raised and re raised with 45? Not only that, it was over half his stack. Also, Bob called my reraise with A3, which is not a good play. Plays like this continue on and on.

Things like that hand and someone calling an allin hand with 5 8 suited really bring the game down. But lets move on to the other aspects. Graphics are terrible. This reminds me of the Playstation 1 era, which just a crisper and smoother player model. The backgrounds are a stationary mess and the "pro player models" do not resemble them whatsoever. The animations are repetitive and nothing like the pros. If you are going to get a professional into your game, take the time to make their model resemble them and maybe some custom animations or voices? You didn't buy a poker game for the graphics though - but what about the sound or gameplay?

The sound is ridiculous. I realize you don't need music from a well known band like Madden makes it work for this game, but something other than the repeating lame techno would be nice. Also, while you play you hear a ramble of chips shuffling and people talking. This kind of sets a "mood" of a poker room, but it gets outright annoying. The commentators are pure useless and say an occasional “oh he is allin!” comment.

Gameplay is the only place this game almost scores an average rating. You can chose Quick Play, Multiplayer, or Career Mode. To my surprise there are actually a variety of games to play; Texas Hold Em PL or NL, Stud and Omaha (both normal or hi/lo), and even Razz. In quick play you can chose to sit down at a cash table, or make your own tournament for any of these games. The only way to get any sort of an almost normal poker game is to sit at a table with the all-pro’s option on. Even still, these professionals in the game sure make some silly plays. If you like the game, you can get a lot of great replay out of this mode.

Moving on to multiplayer mode. This game was not created for multiplayer, (I’m actually not quite sure why it was created at all) so this option isn’t anything great. It is nice if you and friends who live far away own this game and can find a room together. You can start or join any tournament or cash table with a few different options. It is a nice feature having a headset or a camera to communicate with the other players, but all in all, it isn’t worth it. First off, there are hardly any people playing on it, maybe in the uprights of 100. And secondly, if you want to play multiplayer poker either download one of the hundreds of online poker places or grab a deck of cards and some friends.

Career mode is what this game should be focused on, and it is, I guess. You can make your own character, design his looks, and give him a custom plain voice then send him off to the WSOP with $10,000. In career mode you try a variety of different WSOP events, 26 total, and some other special tournaments to win some money. In all honesty I have only played for a couple hours so I am not totally sure, but there doesn’t seem to be any storyline involved at all. You just play tournaments over and over, and win money. That wouldn’t be bad at all if the play of poker was good and not terrible.

The WSOP tournaments are hard. Not just hard because of the bad playing, they are actually difficult to win. I have only reached one final table with Jesus sitting to my right, and I got busted off of it to bad playing (on the AI’s part). It is more interesting making a final table and if you like the game it would be very challenging and fun to try and win a tournament – especially the main event. The tournaments have a good layout to them, sort of mimicking how you would see it on television, even with the percent of winning if you’re allin. Also a nice feature is the fast forward button if you’re not in the hand.

All and all if you were to ask me if this is an allin or a fold; it is a fold. Buying this game makes as much sense as going allin with 72 offsuit – it won’t work out. Play some internet poker for free. Buy a $2 deck of cards and heck, buy some friends if you need them. But please, do NOT buy this game.

* All the numbers were taken from the WSOP official website. http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com


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