Texas Hold'em

iTunes Link

Texas Hold'em is a poker game by Apple Inc. $4.99

Texas Hold'em is Apple's only game on the App Store to this date and is the premier poker game available on the App Store. It is essentially the upgraded version of the click wheel game of the same name. The game is easy to pick-up and play for people who have previously played the game but may be difficult for first timers. The instructions are somewhat helpful to the people who are new to poker, showing the hand rankings and how to fold, bet etc. but it doesn't explain about what the Flop, Turn and River are so they may not know what its all for. There are ten different venues to play at, starting from the garage where it is free to enter, but winning gets you very little profit, all the way up to playing in the big league where the entry fee is a hefty total but the rewards make it worth the risk.

Apple didn't let anything be less than perfect in this game. This can be seen by the visually stunning graphics during game play. Instead of having cartoon figures as your opponents, they are real people who have been filmed and placed in the game to show betting, folding and angry when you take all their chips. The smoothness of these actions is also remarkably good and doesn't freeze the game. The only downside to this realistic feel is the background. All ten venues are computer generated. It would be nice to see real places completing the real feel. When the device is held sideways the game comes turns into a poker table which only shows the avatars of people you are playing against, but it allows you to have your own character.

The sound in the game is also very well done. All the actions made during the hand have a sound that matches to them right down to dealing out the cards of moving the chips into the pot. Again, this adds to the realistic feel of the entire game. Background music is played on all of the games and has a nice tune to it and doesn't get irritating after hours of it.

The menu has large, clear buttons for the different options. There is single player mode where you choose the location that you can play your game at. There is multiplayer so you can play friends and family over the same Wi-Fi network, not to play people from around the world. The settings option allows you to change the effects volume, the game music volume and other little tweaks which can help you enjoy the game more. Your statistics are shown for both single player and multiplayer, showing the number of games you have played as well as what percentage of them you came 1st, 2nd or 3rd in. It also shows the biggest pot that you have won. Lastly the help button is there to give you tips on how to play the game, such as what to do to fold or show emotions, and the hand rankings.

The gameplay is quite simple once you know how to play the game. Once you start the game you have two options of how to play it, either the slower but visually better first person game or the faster birds eye view game. Whichever one you choose to do makes no difference, just depends on your personal choices. You start the game with nine players around the table and you bet, call and fold until you are the last player or until you are eliminated by having no more chips left. In the higher stake games the game will involve two tables where you need to finish in the top 3 on the first table before taking a certain number of chips depending on where you finished to table 2.

As this is a gambling game, the game has a huge replay factor. Getting to the last table isn't easy and you will be spending hours on the game before reaching it. This is a great card game and would appeal to any poker players, card players or people who have alot of patience and nerve. This is the best poker style game I have seen on the app store and would certainly be your first choice if you were interested in getting a poker game.

Graphics- 9.5/10
Gameplay- 8/10
Sound- 9/10
Overall- 9/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Live Poker

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