Reviews
Hold
'em For Palm OS
There
are three Hold 'em games that I'm aware of at the time of this
writing. Birdsoft's All-In Hold Îem, and Aces Texas Hold Îem from
Concrete Software. Aces is based in Java and only runs on compatible
devices. Aces plays a decent game, but I find its interface clunky.
All-In is graphically the best of all the games, but its computer
AI is far too easy to beat. I regularly beat it and I'm an average
poker player. Stand Alone's Texas Hold Îem is the one that is
really good. Really, really, good.
Texas Hold
Îem offers huge variations in its AI engine on how well the computer
players are at playing the game. Then there are three levels,
Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced ö and even at the beginner
level it beats me eight out of ten games. There are several different
layouts, the horseshoe layout shown here, a multiple row layout,
and my favorite ö the expanding layout, which simply shows each
player on a line and expands the display as players drop out.
There
are many unique features. Despite the name, Texas Hold Îem also
plays other variants such as Omaha Hold Îem and has built-in tables
for standard casino table limits including No Limit hold Îem.
The game even has the player avatars subtly animated to help you
to see the Îtells' of the individual (computer) players to help
you play and bet against them ö something no other game attempts!
There are many other options that are sure to please all fans
of this game.
You can download
the demo and try it for 30 days for free ö and if you decide to
buy it ö it's only $8.95!
÷ Kermit
Woodall
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