World Poker Tour: Texas Hold 'Em 2 Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

A great smooth flowing poker game

Poker is back and looking as polished as ever. Hands On have resurrected their World Poker Tour licence to give us their second title. It's actually the second and third titles. Poker is all about the bluff (and a little bit of luck) so Hands On have created two versions, a single player game and a long awaited multiplayer network game (more on this later).

The basics of WPT have remained the same and the screen layout will be instantly recognisable to fans. Take a closer look and you will see detailed 3D characters to play against. We keep saying that mobile graphics are catching up and this is further proof. Admittedly none of the characters jump up and down in 3D glory but they do have their own little gestures when it comes to their turns.

The game is based around the successful Texas Hold 'Em rules and your table starts with six players. Take on the US tournaments from Las Vegas to Reno and conquer your way to the World Championship stages. The tournament structure works well and there is a noticeable progression in the computer AI; you need to be brave to win through to the end. Even you lose in the playoffs, you can continue from where you left off and try and reach the final. The only niggle is the opponents. Although their names change, the avatars don't. Was it that hard to let them sit in random positions - I think the cowboy took a liking to me and I wish he would have moved.

Controlling the game is a simple one thumb/Dpad affair but you can use 1, 2 and 3 for call, raise and fold in case you have a slippery Dpad. There are a few in-game options and you can control the opponents' speed. They have tried to speed up the whole betting process with a simple raise system which doesn't mean you have to keep inputting numbers on the keypad. Another useful feature that you don't see in too many poker games happens when you fold. After folding the game will process the remaining plays and unless there is an all-in showdown it will cut straight to the round summary which shows all the central cards and the winners and losers. It helps to speed up the game and shows you whether it was worth playing with your 2 and 5.

There are two flavours of WPT 2 out there ??????? single player and multiplayer. The multiplayer version has all the same features of the single player but has added network play. What is different in this title is that the network includes the whole web and not just wap. This is PC to mobile. The first step is to logon to the website and create yourself an account and new avatar. This account can then travel with you on your mobile while you gamble virtual dollars on the bus. The game and style on the PC is identical to the mobile version albeit with a more widescreen effect. Whatever you can do through the web, you can do on the mobile. This includes chatting. To make life easy for mobile users, there is a quick chat function where you can have preset responses assigned to various numbers.

As with all connected gaming, the game is only as good as the connection or the signal. We played on the PC for a few hands and there was some lag and players would randomly leave (mostly when they had a bad hand). If you are unlucky enough to receive a phone call while playing, the game will automatically call the hand on your behalf and then safely evict you from the table.

WPT 2 is a worthy successor to the original and has taken on the technical improvements in the handsets to give an improved poker game. Even if you experience problems with multiplayer, the single player mode is worth the money alone.

For a free demo, UK users can send the following SMS:
ACE FREE to 80208

Standard SMS and WAP charges apply