PokerHand

.: By: Corn Bread :: Device used: EM-500 :: October 24, 2001 :.

Update:

Since this review was posted, a new version of the game is available addressing some of the issues raised in the review. In addition, the author has pointed out that, contrary to what is stated in the review, there is a help file included in the game which can be accessed from the startup menu.

Original review:

Poker has always been a favorite game of mine. Whether I'm playing at a casino, with my friends, or on my PC, I’ve always enjoyed a good round of Poker (any variant). I was very happy when I was given a chance to review a Poker game for the Pocket PC, but how was I know to know that my feelings of happiness would all too soon be replaced with disappointment and frustration...

Lets play Poker!!!!

PokerHand features not only 1 but 6 Poker game variants which includes Five Card Stud, Five Card Draw (my favorite variant), Seven Card Stud, Hold ‘em, Omaha, and Video Poker. You start every game automatically with $100 worth of credits and with 3 computer-controlled opponents.

The game follows real life Poker rules very accurately - all of the players first drop $5 into the pot and take turns checking, calling, or raising the ante. You are given the option of “folding” on every turn if you do chicken out, any bets or raised made is defaulted to the amount of $5 only.

One thing I do like about this game is that the menu and interface are very well laid out - you won’t get lost in the interface and you instinctively know what to do. Also, having the ability to change the background color and the deck design is pretty cool; the graphics here are quite simple but still very attractive.

Another noteworthy feature is that the computer has 3 levels of difficulty, Chicken, Normal, and Aggressive. I like this added feature as the difficulty levels did make a difference as to how well the computer-controlled opponents played their hand, always making you wonder if you would be able to bluff the opponent. With all of the good things I’ve been saying so far, you’d think that this is very good game right? Well, read on...

Time to customize

One thing that I instantly noticed upon my first 10 minutes of playing PokerHand is the eerie silence. This game has no sound effects whatsoever, no sound of coins hitting the ante pot, no shuffling sounds, no card passing sounds, nada, zilch! I really like the computer-controlled AI, but the amount of time that they spend on “thinking” before making a move can be really annoying. I think that the developer deliberately did that in order to simulate real life opponents (some friends of mine take far too much time thinking before making their move). It's a novel idea but it doesn’t really work in practise. It would have been nice if I could adjust the “thinking” time of the CPU to whether I want them to take their time or have them instantly make a move - I don’t like being forced to wait for my computer controlled opponent.

Additionally, it was very irritating that I couldn't start a new game whilst in the middle of a game. I had to exit the current game first if I wanted to start afresh. A simple “new game” command would have been welcome but - alas! - this is not the case. Another major complaint I have with the game is the absence of a help/instructions file. Luckily, as a Poker veteran, I know the rules of Poker by heart, but what about those people who are new to Poker? The lack of a help/instructions file will quickly turn off potential customers.

It was a nice touch that I can give my opponents custom names, but it irritated me no end that they have a limit of 10 characters only and I can’t even name myself! In the game, the human player is referred to as “you”... Sheeesh! I felt like I was playing one of those old Commodore 64 games.

The most unforgivable bug in this game, however, is the “recurring card bug”. As the name implies, when this bug strikes, you and your opponents always get the same set of cards round after round after round - exiting the game would sometimes fix this. Any small amount of enjoyment that I had was quickly destroyed whenever I encountered this bug. I felt like I was playing a beta copy of the game. It’s a good thing patience is one of my strong virtues, or I would have thrown my PPC to the wall just to be done with this game.

PokerHand is a classic example of a good game idea gone horribly wrong. Hopefully the developer will take note of the bugs and other issues that I have mentioned so that their next release will be more refined. If I was a sadistic person, I’d recommend this game to you, but since I am a nice person, I’ll give you a fair warning to stay away from this game (unless they release an updated and bug-free version) as your hard-earned money is better spent elsewhere.

PokerHand is sold for $9.95 and is available for all major Pocket PC's. It needs 439KB of storage space and 300KB of program memory to run and can be installed in either the main RAM or on a storage card.

Pros:

• Simple, uncluttered interface.

• Poker rules are accurately followed.

Cons:

• No sound effects.

• No help file.

• Lots of bugs that can greatly cripple game play.

• Computer moves very slowly.

• No best score or most money won tracking chart.

.: Game category: Card & Casino Games :: Reviews Index :.