Sure you’ve seen a few couple renditions of poker, but Glu’s effort is something you really need to look at.

World Series of Poker Hold ‘Em Legend ($4.99)

I’ve always been a fan of Apple’s on Poker game. Over a year later and I have finally found a poker game that I feel it worthy to share the limelight with Apple’s Texas Hold ‘Em. It just so happens that this game is also a fully licensed WSOP game.

My Take

Being a total Poker nut, even to the extent of winning a fair sized tournament and owning about three poker games for my Xbox 360, I feel like I know enough about the topic to review this game. When I picked up this game it was really about comparing it to Texas Hold ‘Em by Apple.

This game has some qualities that are better than Apple’s attempt. Overall though, taking into account what is important in a poker game, I believe WSOP: H’EL comes out triumphant.

Presentation

The main area where Texas Hold’em wins out is definitely the graphics department. Apple have filmed various people betting, calling, folding and all sorts of actions to watch as your turns go around. Even in horizontal mode I feel as if it looks better than WSOP.

You can only play WSOP horizontally and it looks basically the same compared to Texas Hold’Em, except with the graphics not as smooth and crisp as the earlier game. Also, the game doesn’t seem to be as responsive and quick compared to TH’E. Luckily though poker games don’t care too much about how snazzy it looks as it is all about how good the gameplay is, which is where WSOP really comes out on top.

Controls

The controls in this game are pretty simple really. The game plays out with other players betting and folding as they please, which can be fast forwarded straight to your turn with a single touch of the screen. When you get to your turn to bet you have to touch the table to bring up the betting screen. This can sometimes be frustrating as it doesn’t come up straight away. Once it does pop up though you slide it to whatever amount you choose and press bet. If you want to check your cards you just double tap the screen, similar to double tapping the table in real poker to check.

Just like in TH’E there are some special tricks you can do to speed up certain processes. Whenever you want to fold you just touch your cards and flick them into the middle of the table. Also if you want to skip betting and go straight to going all in then you can do that by dragging your chip pile into the middle just like with the cards. This will automatically put you all in.

Gameplay

Those who have it will know that TH’E has a few different tables that require you to win money from smaller tournaments to buy in and try your luck. In WSOP it is basically the same, yet in more detail. You start off the game most likely in Legend Career (A local and global multiplayer option is also available).

This career mode lets you create a player to slowly work your way up the casino’s to be the ultimate poker superstar. You start off with limited cash and really only one casino that you can play on. As you master that table and increase your cash amount you can progress until you get to the last hotel, with a heap of cash flowing out of your pockets.

WSOP has many different hotels to play in, with something I felt was missing from TH’E, different types of Texas Hold ‘Em. While this game doesn’t feature games like Omaha and 7 Stud Poker like the console version, it does have many different modes like Shootout and Winner Takes All. The other great thing about this version is that Glu also has the rights to let us win one of the coveted WSOP bracelets that real life poker stars can win in major tournaments. These don’t come easy but winning one is an achievement in itself.

The main aim of WSOP is to get to the final hotel, with your eye on the main prize to win the WSOP main event. This is the hardest poker tournament in history, and will require a lot of cash from hard earned tournament wins and even more skill and luck combined to get you through for the victory.

Conclusion

Getting to this main table will probably be a dream for some of us poker expert wannabe’s, but there are hours of fun sucking at the smaller tables. Poker is a game I can play all day and the amount of new and riskier challenges in this game has even dragged me from my WSOP Xbox game and Zynga Poker on Facebook.

Like Poker and want something more challenging than Texas Hold’Em? Then this game is definitely for you. The only downside I found to this game was the lack of people wanting to play in the global multiplayer, which I found to never be able to connect me. I would stick to the Legend Career for now and just hope you don’t get dealt a 2 7!