Poker Simulator

There are a lot of poker games out there, not to mention the plethora of free (or real money) gambling sites about. It is with this in mind that Poker Simulator aims to be a bit more informative than your average all out poker game; offering a training mode for beginners and even some more advanced techniques on how to read people, as well as the fairly standard poker playing game sections.

There are tournaments, a career mode and quick play options as well as a few mini games, all allowing you to gain some very pedestrian poker practice against the computer (or anyone foolish enough to buy this game and take it online). Sadly any games against the computer are marred by the artificial intelligence (AI), which isn't really deserving of the moniker: being easily bluffed or bullied, even the so-called 'legend' folk are a push over.

When you are playing you are overloaded with menus and clickery, with each option to 'bet' or 'check' requiring a marathon trek to the other side of the screen to click another button. Playing poker like this is a long process, and certainly not a fun one.

This whole poker school idea is all well and good. You might well want to learn a few tips on how to play the game, how to read poker players and memorise percentages. But when everyone in the game itself look like those Dr. Who mannequins of death (not sure what they are called) and plays like a wet blanket with too much money, there isn't much chance for you to practice any of these 'skills'. If you actually wanted to try and get some people-reading-practice, your best bet is to go and play poker with some REAL people. Not a computer.

And this here is the major problem with poker games; no matter how good, challenging or varied the computer intelligence, it is still just a simulation. You have nothing invested and so nothing to lose.

Unless you are playing against some friends online (this is an option) it is very hard to care. In fact, with all the free play poker games on the Internet, why would you ever pay for a poker videogame? Take that money and play it online. You might win. Or if not, you will certainly learn more about playing poker than buying a videogame, just don't bet your £30 all at once...

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Edited @ 16:16 // 14th Aug 09

Apologies to all for the accidental uploading of a painful draft. I can assure you that as bad as that may have been to read, this game is definitely worse.

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Under the previous scoring system (before 09/09/09) this game received a score of two out of ten.