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Not for serious players

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: October 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I recently purchased this game in the hopes of honing my skillset in reading hands and betting strategy. As a veteran of poker for almost 20 years, I'm always looking for new ways to practice. This game isn't up to par.

The AI is terrible. I have seen the computer go all-in on a 7 & 2 unsuited...and won. Likewise, any time that I have a descent hand, the computer folds like crazy. I'm almost afraid to get pocket aces as I am assured that no one will bet. The ability to purchase skillsets is interesting, but I don't see any advantage to it. All in all, the AI is not up to snuff, and leads me to bet understanding the betting patterns of the computer rather than on what an actual real life player would do.

The UI for the game is annoying to say the least. You automatically have to turn off animations as the game comes to a crawl. Likewise, every time a bet is made, the game rotates to view the player making the bet which takes forever. Walking the streets to me is time consuming and uninteresting.

The only thing good about this game is that it does expose the average player to many different poker varieties. Omaha, Stud, Hold-em. If you want to learn poker games, this could be a good place to start (or just buy a poker book and you may be better off).

The Hidden DS Gem

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: August 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

World Championship Poker is a solid representation of some of the finest, good old fashioned card games. I bought this about two months ago and it hasn't left my DS since. The game contains 12 different card games, each one can be played instantly in quick play mode or can be found in the extensive career mode. Each different card game is located on one of 12 different tables in the 4 different casinos with every casino playing a little harder than the last. The main draw of the career mode is the Texas Hold Em tournaments situated on a separate table in every casino. These tournaments are the main ways to advance through the game. You play against five opponents on a table, each with their own style of play, catchy phrases, and individual characteristics. In order to enter the Hold Em tournaments you need to build up enough cash to buy in to them, this is done by gambling away at the other card tables playing games like Black-Jack and 5-Card-Draw or Texas Hold Em.

The graphics are neatly done, the player animations and casinos all give a realistic feel to the game, but you will be turning the animations off every time you start up your DS simply to speed up the play. The Casinos are themed to a certain style ranging from the Wild West to the Amazon, and are all featured in fully 3D allowing you to walk around from table to table. There is also an actual outside map allowing you to walk between the four casinos in a fully 3D map. An Arcade with an Air Hockey table and a poor Darts game can also be found on the Streets of Casino Lane.

Going back to the Poker itself, the AI is very good for the DS version and does offer plenty of competition for the average player. I personally have been playing Texas Hold Em for nearly two years now and did feel I could quite easily win the tournaments by folding nearly every hand and simply waiting for two good hole cards - you will get one at least once every 20 hands. This figure does decrease as you advance through the game, stats can be bought at the Casino shops and when you hit maximum luck and skill you're almost guaranteed to be getting good cards every five hands or so. This doesn't mean you will win automatically however, with no game face stats your character will be easily readable, enabling the computer to sniff out your pair of Aces in the hole, therefore minimising your potential win. This is the only real issue I have with the game and can be quite annoying even when you reach maximum statistics.

It's almost as if the computer knows what you have. Say you hold 9 10 of clubs and three others are in raising and re-raising as if they hold a monster. You probably wouldn't but say you did call to see the flop and a 9, Ace and a 10 come out. Booyah you think, you've surely got a winning hand and someone must hold the Ace to keep them raising the pot. Nope, every one suddenly stops raising and checks instead, they're not check raising you, they just want out, as if they know you've hit two pair. What happened to all the raising you's were all just doing? Surely one of you must have a pair of Aces? The second you start raising on that they're going to fold and only a few times will they ever call your all in's. I must stress that this doesn't happen very often at all, but when it does happen it will have you foaming at the AI.

Some of the characters also become predictable as you play the game more and more. One particular guy will sometimes raise pre-flop only to fold if you re-raise him no matter what you have. Another player will only play a hand if they have something good, making them a real pain to play against when you realise they're only raising for a reason. Luckily enough the Characters at the table do change for the better as you progress from Casino to Casino and by the third casino you can find yourself in some really close games with the computer opponents.

I haven't played the multi-player yet as I have this on import and know no mates with a DS but I'm guessing that it would play flawlessly. With real opponents to play against it totally eliminates the AI faults and I would imagine that you could have some really good games. Its obviously not going to be the same as playing with real cards and real chips but it would be the perfect substitute if you and your mates don't have a pack handy.

Overall, World Championship Poker DS is a quality game and is easily the best Poker game I've played against computer AI on any format, despite the very few issues I've mentioned in this review. The AI is obviously not going to be perfect due to the infinite possibility of hands that can be played in a card game but it plays well enough most of the time to make you forgive those very rare occasions. The fact that each game is never the same in cards, the surprisingly deep career mode and potentially superb multi-player mode, all add up to make World Championship Poker the perfect time killer for the single player. Great Stuff.

Portable Poker Perfection

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

World Championship Poker For The DS IS Fun! The top screen is a view of the player, the bottom screen are your cards/bet. You do not need to use the stylus to play the game. I play the game @ work between cubicles!

AI is much stronger than the Gameboy Advance version.

Great I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: April 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

you start out in a casino where u have to find the differt tables where u can play different types of poker/blackjack.
With the money you get u can go to differnt casinos. Also with the money u can buy cheats and accuricy ups and a car so u can move quicker.

Many varieties, but terrible AI and UI

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The good thing about this game is that the number of different forms of poker, it's not just Texas Hold'em. However the tournaments which you need to pass to get further in the game are Texas Hold'em only.

The rest is pretty bad.
The AI seems totally insane, and even when your "stats" are very high the other players seem to know exactly what you have more often than not. If there's one good thing about it, it's that it'll teach you to fold ... a lot.
The UI seems designed by someone who has never played, you can't see the action after you leave a hand, you don't even get to see the other players cards (you just see their best hand) which can be very annoying. It also asks you if you want to "leave" the tournament every hand (you just lose your money for nothing, if you accidentally hit yes) and there are a few quirks like going all in and then being asked if you want to fold the next round of betting (you just lose then).
I'm also sure the game screwed up what the hands were, on a couple of occasions.

Also the tournament structure is like nothing I've ever seen (it's basically 2+ tables where you have to win all of the tables).
The "cash game" is easy to game, allowing you to tripple up almost every decent hand you get.

Might be worth it if you have friends, and don't want to use a real pack of cards.

If you love texas hold em' you just may hate this game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I recently ordered this game to work on hold em when I dont have a chance to play with. This game is slow paced and frustrating. I wish that they used more buttons to help with options like all in and folding. It does have a wide variety of card games. But, overall I did not enjoy this game and it will collect dust on my shelf.

Not for Texas hold em player

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you want to play/practice not limit Texas hold em, this is not the game for you. This has other card games, and limit texas hold em, but you get bored in 10 minutes with its limited options.

Muck It!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Summary: Bafflingly bad interface and poor computer-player AI make this collection of poker games an unplayable mess.

Showing unmistakable signs of having been programmed by someone who has never played poker before, "World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series" suffers from so many flaws it's hard to know where to begin. It's hard to believe that anyone who knows poker was involved with this game at any stage -- certainly not with the game play, programming, or play-testing of the game.

Really, the game is a total mess. Play is slow. The character animations are repetitive and annoying (for example, virtually every hand played seems to end with the computer character pronouncing "Read 'em and weep!", even hands where, due to player folds, no cards are shown down. Weep indeed..) And critical information needed for understanding opponents' betting patterns is inexplicably absent (e.g.: fold a hand in hold'em or Omaha and the board cards are not displayed, only the resultant five-card hand formed by each remaining player. This latter behavior alone would be sufficient cause to reject the game but sadly it's just the tip of the iceberg.) Throw in a host of other bad interface decisions (e.g.: after every single hand the DS asks you whether you want to leave the game) and you will start to wonder whether the designers weren't just unfamiliar with the game of poker but were unfamiliar with the rudiments of game play in general. Seriously. It's THAT bad.

The computer's play is so awful I consider this game a potential hazard to beginning players trying to learn how to properly play the included poker variants. Habits which this game would reward would quickly bankrupt a player in a real-life card game.

I strongly recommend against purchasing this game. Not suitable even from the bargain bin. Choose another title instead.

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