Texas Hold’em Poker is extremely popular right now (I still don’t know how people can watch it on TV, but to each their own) and people love to play it. World Series of Poker is a brand that many know and there have been countless games available. Glu Games has brought the WSOP to Android and actually created a great time waster for when you’re taking the bus or waiting in line.
I’ll start off with the one negative I have with the game since I don’t want to end on a bad note, there is NO multiplayer in this game. A game of poker is always more fun with a group of friends (or at least random strangers) than playing with some computer AI. A game like this could be fun to be able to play online with friends on your OpenFeint (more on that later) buddy list or maybe even just some local Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, but that is not the case here. I’m pretty sure that the iPhone version does so it is sad that Android gets the shaft here.With that out of the way, besides this major omission there is still plenty here to keep you busy.
The first mode is Cash Game which you can think of like the “exhibition” mode in other games. You pick a place to play (all real locations) and join one of the events hosted at that location. The more you scroll over the higher the buy in to play, but obviously that means there is a chance to win more money. A recent update added the ability to purchase (with real money) more chips so that you could play the bigger events earlier had you not earned enough yet. Once you pick the location a short video intro of it plays and you join a table. Gameplay is intuitive with you tapping on your chips to place your bet. You can tap on the check mark to call or slide on the wheel to increase your bet. There is even a button to set the amount to what the pot currently is which can be a help if you want to make bigger bets. The wheel only goes so fast so sometimes it takes a bit to get to where you want to go. If you want to fold you just flick your cards up. You pick an avatar to represent you and when playing you see the avatars of all the other AI players and you can play with or without “tells.” There is also a meter for how strong your hand is that can be turned on or off based on your taste. These games as well as the career games all go towards an overall bankroll that you will try to increase (I mean, that is the point of playing Poker, right?).
The Legend Career mode is where you will most likely be spending the majority of your play time, at least at first. It plays just like the cash games and has the multiple locations as well, but now there are more events with a bit of variety that seem to give it a bit more purpose. You start at a small pub playing a game for nothing to build up a bit of a bankroll to get you to Harrah’s New Orleans which has Sit & Go, Winner Take All, and Shootout events. Your progress in each event is saved so if your best was 3rd place it will be labeled as such until you beat that. You do not need to come in first to move on, but it will obviously net you the most cash to be able to buy into the bigger games. Other than more variety the career mode also adds a sort of rival for each location introduced in some high quality video sequences (and once beat there is a video of them not being the best loser). In all seriousness this could have been the only mode and Cash Mode isn’t really all that different, but it is how it is setup and that is fine. There is an option to save replays which I find odd since there really isn’t a whole lot of action like in sports, action, and fighting games. I cannot see a situation where I would be like “Dude, you have to see this sick flush I got!” but if you can, it’s here for you.
On top of the bankroll increasing, the more you play the more you level up. This adds an extra element to keep you playing where it adds kind of a level grind. The better quality the opponents you’re facing or the bigger the stakes the more XP you will earn for winning and you can even get a smaller amount of XP for at least playing a hand and losing instead of just folding. These levels really get you nothing in game, you don’t get any avatar customization or item boosts or extra chips or anything, it is purely just to say you hit that level. Well, that and to get achievements. WSOP is an OpenFeint enabled game which for those that don’t know is an attempt to have something similar to Xbox Live or PSN where you can have achievements that accumulate to an overall score, a friends list, and leaderboards. All of these features are available in WSOP which is definitely nice since OpenFeint seems to have the most support for users, although there are others and not every game supports it so don’t expect it to be exactly like Xbox Live. The only thing is that (at least as it is as of this writing) you can’t see what achievements your friend has earned, just what games they have played. If you click on the game instead of showing the achievements they have accomplished it takes you to a download page. This is more of something with how OpenFeint is setup than how Glu has made WSOP so I can’t fault it for that.
The graphics aren’t anything special (outside of the high quality video clips) but they get the job done. I mean, how fancy do you really need that deck of cards to look next to your (hopefully growing) pile of chips? The same can be said for the sound effects. It doesn’t look or sound like a cheaply made game so you feel you got a bit more for your $0.99. I have had this game for a few weeks now and I have been playing it for hours and still have not finished the career.
4/5 Stars – I would have given it the full 5 stars if there were any form of multiplayer, but it is still a ton of fun without it. It will keep you busy for quite some time and even after you finish the career you can try to level up more and earn all the achievements (oh yeah, and increase your bankroll). I have been known to say in the past that playing poker against AI is boring but this game made me change my mind on that matter. For $0.99 you can’t go wrong. It is available on both the Android Marketplace as well as the Amazon App Store.
