Today’s Game 9-23-2009 – Texas Hold Em (Zune)
Since I’ve been on the road quite a bit in the last week, I’ve been playing games on my Zune (Classic not HD) while in transit. I must admit that I’m not a Texas Hold Em fan, and I don’t consider it a sport even though it appears on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, NBC, CSN, and some other sports networks on a seemingly hourly basis. It has that Saved By The Bell feeling from the mid 90s, or Law and Order now, where you can change a channel and it is always on. Also, coming out of a semi-casino based company, I’m not big on gambling either, but I will admit that this is the best Texas Hold Em Poker game I’ve played, and unfortunately, that’s a lot.
Texas Hold Em Poker (Zune)
This is entirely a different experience from playing at a place like Full Tilt Poker, Party Poker, or Poker Stars, it isn’t even like playing against casual players like Zynga’s Texas Hold Em on Facebook. You’re playing against an AI bot in either a Heads Up (1 on 1) game, or a Multiplayer game, with 6 other bots. Playing against others is available, but then you have to find other people, with Zunes, have the game installed, and wireless turned on, so it only happens on days that don’t end in “y”.
For being played on a device that isn’t primarily a game device, the interface is very clean and responsive, but then the number of options is extremely limited, and the control scheme is based on the Zune interface, so take it for what it’s worth.
The biggest thing about the game is the AI. Playing against the easy level AI is like reading through the first couple of chapters of Texas Hold Em for Dummies. The bot will fold immediately if you raise and it has nothing, and will not raise unless it has something, no bluffs, and very easy to read. The only thing that determines how much you’ll win is how long you can play for. The Medium AI plays as if it read a little further in the book to the chapter where the probability tables are introduced.
However the Hard difficulty left the Dummies book at home, and started to read The Psychic Handbook: Discover and Develop Your Psychic Abilities. It is nearly impossible to beat, where it seems like it knows not only the probability tables, but also what hands were folded, and has an inkling of either what’s in your hand or what is coming out of the deck. It’s no longer a fun experience, just frustrating.
One of the joys about playing on the Zune is the integration of music playback, and that the controls for song selection and volume are accessible, but also nicely tucked away. What would a primary music player be without the functions of playing music? Overall, it’s an enjoyable way to kill time, but it’s not going to do anything for your poker skills.
