Tournament Poker: No Limit Texas Hold'em
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Free Music Notes for Tournament Poker: No Limit Texas Hold'em
Free Music Review: A disappointment
Hit: 2 Stars
I bought this and played in several of the 40-player tournaments, winning one of them and finishing second in another. The program does a good job of making the experience fun and easy, and there are some nice features that you can turn on or off as you see fit, including what they call the "cheat mode," which lets you look at the cards of uncalled hands and see community cards not dealt when nobody calls. When there is a showdown after somebody has gone all-in the probability of winning the pot for each hand is given as it is on TV. You can speed up play or slow it down, and you have the option of jumping to the end of the hand after you fold--an option that one soon chooses and stays with!
There are three levels of difficulty, although I didn't play long enough to get a real feel for the differences. I did notice a rather annoying and ultimately totally off-putting bug (or perhaps, in the spirit of some programming traditions, maybe this is a "feature" that helps the neophyte player win). Quite simply some of the computer players called with hands that could not beat the board!
Now it is true that there are times when it is correct to call with a hand that cannot beat the board. These are very rare however and typically occur when there is a straight on board. Everybody has that straight (at least), and if it is the best hand, the players left at the showdown split the pot. Clearly if the board is AKQJT, with no more than two cards of any suit, it is the nut hand and no matter what the bet is you have to call and split the pot. However, in this program some computer players were calling with hands that made no pairs, no flushes, no straights and were undercards to the board. For example, one board was something like A89TQ of three different suits. One of the computer players called with something like 64. As any hold'em player knows that call makes no sense. It is just throwing money away.
This discovery really turned me off the program because even at the most elementary level of play, real players do not make such suicidal calls.
The package also claims that "Computer opponents learn and adapt to your style of play." What this statement should mean is that the program does things like fold a lot when it notices that you don't bluff much or call a lot or raise if it records a lot of bluffs from you. This "learn mode" is what makes poker-playing 'bots very difficult to beat, and would be an essential part of any program that presumed to be able to beat sophisticated human players. My problem with their learn mode is that I didn't see any evidence of it!
I would like to note in passing that some years ago Mike Caro, the self-styled "Mad Genius of Poker," developed a poker engine that was able to beat some very good human players. However, I am not aware of a program that can play at the highest levels of the game, a program that could beat a table of world champions, for example, a program comparable to chess-playing programs that can beat grand masters. Maybe such a program exists and I am not aware of it. My guess is that such a program is possible, but very difficult to write.
Anyway, I would not recommend this program and I am sorry that I bought it.
Free Music Review: Skip it if you are more than a beginner
Hit: 2 Stars
Had hoped for something that would truly offer random computing but it was obvious fairly quickly that most of the effort was put in to the graphics and not the numbers. Since there are numerous free online poker sites where you can play against real people I doubt anyone is ever going to put in the effort to create a really good hold-em game that takes advantage of modern computing power, this may be as good as it gets.
The game is predictable and will teach you bad habits if you are not a beginner. For the beginners this will give you the basic experience you need for a smooth transition to playing against other people but I would not stick with this game for to long. When you start to recognize patterns and regularly beat the computer then it is time to move on. Recommended for beginners only, then give it to another beginner when you feel confident you understand the basics.
Free Music Review: Hokey at best...
Hit: 2 Stars
I really put a lot of faith into the reviews I read about this game before purchasing it. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. The AI is absolutely horrible. I set the options to show the hands the players were playing with at the end and was amazed at what the computer would call a big raise with. Likewise, I was also amazed at what the computer would fold when facing a medium size bet - top pair?
I set the difficulty at it's highest level and the computer played worse than the newbies at my weekly game. Obvoiusly the people who wrote such rave reviews are not students of the game with an understanding of the fundamentals.
With that said, this is probably a great game for kids or people who just want to get some experience before playing for the first time. However, it is not recommended for anyone at an intermediate skill level or better.
Free Music Review: Reviewed by y'all way to high!
Hit: 2 Stars
This game is marginally better than that Hoyle Casino joke, but it has no resemblance to a real game. The AI is OK, but there are WAY too many great hands, that seem to ALWAYS beat you on the river card. I've played hundreds of hands, and when I cheat to see what all the community cards are I end up missing my straight, only if I fold first. I NEVER hit it when I'm digging for it!!! EVER!!! Can't tell you how many times I've been sunk by a boat when I do hit my flush. Hole cards are awful for my hand, but every one around me is getting AA, KK, OO, JJ, AK. I think this game is poor, and only gave it 2 stars because Hoyle's was my only comparison, and it's palin awful!Free Music Review: ATTENTION!!! STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME!!!
Hit: 1 Stars
This came of no-limit Texas hold-em poker sucks big time. First some positive things about it:
It can be fun for awhile. It has lots of options. 2003 and 2004 World series tournaments are here(pitting you against 800+ and 2500+ opponets respectively). It installs easily.
Now the bad things:
Gameplay sucks. The only way to really improve your play is to play for REAL, for REAL MONEY. Playing other fools online in virtual rooms with "play money" is a joke, because no one using his/her own cash, with the chance of losing it, would , say, re-raise all in with 9/3 off-suit hole cards. Might as well go home now. but in these no real cash games, people do it all the time. Oh, I busted out? OK, just re-enter another table and keep playing.
Now, why does the gameplay suck? Because the program cheats. Ever watch Hold-em tournies on tv?How often do players hit the "miracle card on 4th street or the river" and pull out the win? Not often, say about 20%. In this game, you hit the miracle about 15%; computer opponets hit it about 75%. Also, you tend to lose to opponets with the same primary, but a kicker usually 1 card higher- your hand is J/Q, you lose to a J/K. also, have AA starting hands? You'll lose to a flush/straight/3 of a kind about 95% of the time. What's the worst starting hand in Texas hold-em- it's 7/2 off-suit; you get this, you toss it. I have then seen the flop come either 77x,22x,72x,or 722 or 772, which, if I stayed in, would have won me the hand. It rewards you for playing laughingstock hands. NONSENSE! Play like that in a real money tournament, you'll bust out before you've even gotten to warm up your seat.
My advice, avoid this like the plague. don't get fooled by its cheap price tag. Here, you buy cheap, you DO get cheap.