Poker seems to be the topic of late. A few weeks ago, our friend and fellow writer, 3Suns, wrote about how his gaming group needs to play. Interestingly, I’ve got another friend who’s an avid poker player. He told me to check out 888 Poker (http://ca.888poker.com/), a site where you can download a game of the same name.
I was a little leery at first as you can actually play for money. Fortunately, 888 Poker is TRUSTe verified, so that eased my mind a bit. I downloaded the application and got going. During my time with this game, I was playing in practice mode where you don’t have to have to worry about making or losing money in any way. I’d also like to add that I never had to enter any credit card information to get started. Simply put in your email address, create a user name, and go.
From there, you have a variety of customization options where you can choose anything from how your cards or table look, to your in-game avatar. You can’t upload custom pictures (which is probably a good thing), but there’s plenty to select. The child in me loved that they had a stable of Marvel characters to choose from. I went with Venom.
Visually, the game’s nothing to write home about. But it has a clean and simple aesthetic, with a little more flair than Solitaire for windows. There may have been more graphical bells and whistles as I saw an option for a 3-D table, though I didn’t choose it. I also noticed that you can attach a webcam where others can see your mug. In the games I played, I never saw anyone utilize that feature. And from a competitive standpoint, I’d avoid it as so much strategy is required in these games that showing your face while you can’t see the faces of others could be a huge advantage for your opponents.
After customizing my look and deck, it was time to head out into the wild and try my luck. Looking for games is simple, and will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s played any kind of multiplayer game on a PC or console where you have to search for matches. Simply select the kind of game your looking for in the main lobby and a list of all available games under that category will appear. From there, you choose a match and play.
As I mentioned earlier, I was playing in practice mode. I was pretty surprised to see just how damn stiff the competition was. I expected it to be a little more forgiving, to be honest. But in all the games I played, my opponents beat me senseless. I mainly played Texas Hold ‘Em, though I did do a bit of Seven Card Stud. In both games, rounds played out very fast. More than anything, that was probably the most difficult part. There was a timer on all your decisions. I’m not sure if the timer was set to a standard time in all games or if it can be customized in each individual match, but the clock seemed to run fairly quick. It was also readily apparent to me that these people knew how to play. So when you start up, you better bring your “A-game.”
Fortunately, there’s write-ups on 888 Poker’s site where you can find detailed instructions on how to play anything from Texas Hold ‘Em to Snap Poker. You can dig deeper and also read about the game’s terms, hands, and card value. I found the write-ups to be comprehensive, concise, and well-detailed. My only real complaint about the title is that I would like to see such explanations embedded into the game itself. I’d love the game to provide tips and instructions as you play, with pop-ups or advice detailing good hands, terms, etc. I’d also love to have an option to play computer opponents so you can get your feet wet. I’m sure implementing such features would be quite an undertaking, but I think that if the developers want to take this game to a whole other level, they could implement such features, make it a bit more friendly for newcomers, and you’d hit a wider audience.
As it stands, 888 poker is clearly a title that’s designed for those who know how to play the game and its many varieties. The fact that you can actually make money from playing the game can be good or bad depending how you look at it. But if I were a decent player in any game (I’m not), I’d love to make some cash while enjoying one of my favorite hobbies. In short, if you like playing poker and its many variants, this may be a game worth checking out. If you’re new to the game like me, however, prepare for some serious growing pains.
888 Poker is available for PC and Android Devices. This review is based on the PC version of 888 Poker.
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