I am a huge fan of Poker.  Like most of America, that typically means Texas Hold ‘Em Poker these days.  I love getting together with friends for a late night game, and I even enjoy watching it on TV.  Most of the time, though, I find myself playing on my mobile device.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, I can play from anywhere, regardless of whether I have ten friends and a deck of cards handy.  Second, it is great practice, but most importantly, it is free.  You see, as much as I enjoy Poker, I tend to lose a lot more money than I win.  So, when I can enjoy the game I love without putting money on the line…well, sign me up.

The other great thing about Texas Hold ‘Em on mobile devices is that everyone has produced their own take on it.  The problem is, they are all basically the same.  Sit at the table and try to win as much money as possible.  In some games you progress through various tables of increasing difficulty.  But, on your device, as in real life, that is about all there is to it.  Deciding which one to buy really comes down to personal preference more than anything else Though some do have particularly bad animation or artificial intelligence).

I was pretty excited, therefore, to find Governor of Poker in the iTunes App Store.  Sure, like any Poker game, you will still spend an awful lot of time sitting around tables playing Poker, but you will also find a whole storyline wrapped around this concept, which ultimately sees you (you hope) owning the entire state of Texas.

The game, as you may have surmised takes place in Texas, spread across thirteen towns and cities throughout the state.  You start the action kicks off in your hometown of San Saba. 

Your first goal is to become the mayor of San Saba.  In order to do that, you will need to purchase all of the buildings in the town (there are five, ranging in price from $150 to $300).  In addition to moving you closer to your goals, owning buildings also helps generate income, which you can use to enter poker games. 

Obviously, in this game, in order to really generate money, however, you want to play poker.  This results in an ever growing circle of action, in which you use buildings to generate income, in order to play in better poker games, in order to win money to purchase more buildings, so you can enter even better tournaments…and so on. 

There are two kinds of games, tournaments and local games.  Tournaments generally are larger affairs, with lower buy-ins, but offer payouts for the top three or six finishers.  local games are much smaller, but with a larger buy-in and winner-take-all format, the payout can be quite large.  Additionally, if you own any buildings, you can use them to up the ante in a local game. 

In addition to just winning buckets of money, though, your success in tournaments can also lead to various awards.  Things like bluffing, busting out opponents, and finishing in the top 6 will earn you a medal.  The only problem I had was that there is no way to preview each award until you have actually earned it.  This makes it difficult to strive for each award since you have no idea which actions will lead to the next one.

Once you have become the mayor of San Saba by winning enough games to buy all of the local buildings, it is time to move on to other surrounding towns.  In order to do this, however, you will need some form of transportation, and that means playing poker again.  You will need to play one last game, a head-to-head against San Saba’s best player in order to win a horse, which will take you to three more towns.  From this point forward, each additional mode of transportation (there are four, the horse, wagon, carriage, and car) will take you to a group of three towns reaching further and further across Texas.  Once you complete each group of towns, you can play that final head-to-head in order to win the next mode of transportation.  Win enough games and tournaments to become mayor of all thirteen towns and you will be crowned the Governor of Poker.

With all of that said, let’s take a closer look at the main element of this game, the poker.  You can easily identify the townspeople who are ready to get a game started.  Just look for the “i” icon over their heads.  They will tell you whether they have a local game or tournament starting, and how much it costs to join.  If you do not have enough money to join, tap next day and you will collect the rent on all of your properties (sometimes you will need to do so a few times in order to generate enough income to join).

I really liked playing poker in this game.  Since everything takes place in the state of Texas, everyone in the game wears a variation of the wide brimmed cowboy hat, in a rainbow of colors.  Since the view of the table is a static, bird’s eye view, all you can see of each player is that hat, and that is how each is identified throughout the game.  It is a unique, whimsical,and fun approach to the game. 

For those of you not intimately familiar with the rules of Texas Hold ‘Em, each player will be dealt two cards face down.  Then, the dealer will show the flop (three cards face up), turn (one card face up), and river (a last card face up).  Using your two cards and the five community cards, you must make the best possible hand of five cards.  Between each round, there is a round of betting as well.  The rest, you can pick up as you play.

When it comes around to your turn, a board will appear at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to fold, call (or check), or bet/raise.  One thing I did not like was the manner of setting the amount of your raise.  While sliding a horseshoe to raise or lower your bet did fit the theme of the game, it was terribly imprecise.  I found myself constantly sliding right past my intended bet, or just giving up and tossing in something close to what I wanted.

Overall, I really enjoyed this unique twist on the Poker game.  While the artificial intelligence could have been better, the unique format and Monopoly-like gameplay more than made up for that.  The poker is fast paced and well designed.  The western theme gave some unique opportunities for fun within the game (like the hats).  As a stand-alone Poker game, it is probably not the best I have played.  But the complete package, with both the Poker and non-Poker elements, this is one fantastic and really unique game. 

Governor of Poker is available from the iTunes App store for $4.99 from Youdagames.  There is also a Lite version available, which allows you to take a free look at the first level of the game.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. Quick Look: Stacking the Deck With Poker Stacks
2. Quick Look: World Series of Poker Hold ‘Em Legend HD
3. Mobigloo’s Texas Hold’em Poker Odds Calculator Pro Review
4. Deal of the Day: All-In Hold ‘Em Poker for Windows Mobile
5. Poker Odds Calculator Pro