If you follow professional poker at all, Phil Hellmuth needs no introduction. He is best known for his record holding 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, but his personality is what makes him a poker icon. His nickname is “The Poker Brat” because he is a bit of a sore loser, but apparently that can be forgiven when you are a talented player. Not so surprisingly, Twistbox Entertainment has decided to harness all of Phil Hellmuth’s talent and personality, and put it into an iPhone poker game.
The App Store is plump full of card games, especially poker games, but Twisted Entertainment feels that they have a winner on their hands with Phil Hellmuth Poker.
The game features four difficulty levels ranging from very easy, easy, medium, and hard to appeal to all types of poker players. The developer claims that the game sports superior AI that will put even the best poker player’s skills to the test. Phil Hellmuth Poker also allows you to adjust the opponent numbers, blind levels, and player bank amounts.
Instead of a simple card view, Phil Hellmuth Poker features a top-down perspective that allows you to see the entire table, including the characters. The characters are fully animated, even Hellmuth himself, and since this is a Phil Hellmuth game, it features comical and clever dialog to keep things interesting.
Phil Hellmuth Poker is available in the App Store at the introductory price of $.99.
I will NEVER own this app. Phil Hellmuth is such a douche.
Hahaha… tell us how you really feel. I do agree, however. Mr. Hellmuth is a bit overbearing. Who is your favorite poker player?
Phil rules. He’s a great player I find him really entertaining. Poker needs characters and Phil is one of the best.
Disclaimer: I am the author of THETA Poker, the easiest-to-use and strongest Texas Hold ‘Em game for the iPhone and iPod touch. I hope you find my review to be objective nevertheless.
Synopsis: A good-looking, enjoyable app that’s unfortunately not very good at poker.
Pros:
* Good graphics, good sounds, and okay music.
* Several options and features to tinker with, including biographies of all of the players.
* Solid effort for a 1.0 release.
* Inexpensive (at the introductory $0.99 price).
Cons:
* Slider for selecting a bet amount is absolutely horrible. Sometimes I had to tap and drag five or more times to get the amount I wanted. Ironically, this was the one iPhone-specific UI element that was added to this port of the game.
* Fair strength 6-handed, but tight, tighter, and way-too-tight by the time you get down to heads-up (it’s actually pretty boring to steal the blinds repeatedly). Even the real Phil Hellmuth doesn’t play as few hands as his doppelganger here. Also, players have no concept of short-stack play (Phil keeps waiting for great hole cards as his stack dwindles away to nothing).
* Limited to a 2- to 6-player, single-table “Practice Game”. If there’s more, I don’t see it, even after defeating the highest level.
* Limited to 3 sets of 5 opponents (who sit at the same seats every time), and 5 difficulty levels: Very Easy and Easy (same players), Medium, Hard and Very Hard (same players). The App Store description says 4 difficulty levels, so they must have added one at the last minute. Also, when playing fewer than 5 opponents, the players are always added clockwise, so you can never start a heads-up match against the Poker Brat (he’s the 3rd opponent, and you’ll be going against the player on your immediate left).
* Elliptical panning around the table is slow, annoying, and even dizzying (yet still better than Imagine Poker’s horizontal panning).
* Music and sound are controlled by a single option. I would have liked the sounds without the music, but at least the music is only at the beginning and end of the game.
* Game Settings revert to their defaults before every game (Options are saved correctly).
P.S. – Love him or hate him, Phil’s been good for the popularity of poker.