Developer Hype

"STACKED with Daniel Negreanu is the first video game to bring next-generation gameplay and broadcast quality production to Texas Hold 'em Poker. As the premiere state-of-the-art multiplayer 3D tournament poker title, STACKED will immerse players in the excitement and drama that has become synonymous with the sport that has been recently crowned “America’s new national pastime.” Learn the basics of Texas Hold 'em and refine your game against Pokibot, the most advanced Artificial Intelligence system ever utilized in an interactive poker product. Develop your skills with world-class tournament strategies and real-time guidance from poker's prevailing star, Daniel Negreanu. Go head-to-head against David Williams, Evelyn Ng, Josh Arieh, Carlos Mortensen, Erick Lindgren, and Jennifer Harman as you progress towards a championship title in career mode, before taking on Daniel in a final showdown. Compete online against millions of poker players from around the world in the STACKED League™, the largest tournament system ever offered in a console poker game. Qualify for sanctioned events, where you could challenge the best of the best, and build an online career worthy of enshrinement in the STACKED Hall of Fame™."

My Experiences

On April 21, 22, and 23 STACKED was open for beta testing. On the first day, 54 people showed up for the tournament. There were 30 people on the second day. I was going to participate in the second day tournament, but I was having fun playing the cash games and lost track of time. By the time I realized, I was an hour and a half late, meaning I was blinded off. During the last day, I fired up the game 15 minutes early and promptly waited in the waiting room for the tournament to start.

When the game did not find any profiles, I was prompted to create my user. Players can choose between gender, skin color, face, clothes - including hair, hats, hat orientation, and sun glasses. There are so many combinations out there that it would be pretty hard to find a twin. I chose a backwards hat with the STACKED "C" chip on the front design because I have a similar hat. This is the same hat that Daniel Negreanu wore throughout his games in the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP). I would think he’d be wearing the STACKED apparel through the 2006 WSOP, but he has recently signed for his own poker room so that could all change.

The first hand I was dealt were a pair of red fives in the hole. The first thing I noticed were the two clubs on the board. I knew my hand was good, so I bet a little less than half the pot. I was called by a fish. I knew this guy was a fish because of a reraise war on the first hand. One player to my immediate right raised three times the big blind, another person reraised that raise. All the while this fish was calling all the raises. The first raiser pushed all in and the reraiser folded. The fish called and flipped over Ace plus 2. The original raiser had two red Kings. On the flop the raiser was outflopped and lost to a three outer on flop. The 8 of clubs landed on the turn.

The best feature about this game is your hole cards are flashed to the player once unless you bring up the command to look at them again. When that third club came down he acted before me, so he peeled to look at his hole cards to see if he had a club, just like in the casino, a very well known tell. I knew my hand was good if he didn’t bet, and if I was behind, I would be redrawing to about ten clean outs to pair the board for a full house or to quads. So I fired off another half of the pot, and he immediately called. On the river came a harmless deuce. I fired off a small bet, and he called, resulting in my winning a nice sized pot.

After I folded my hole cards, I changed the camera view so I sat directly in front of the dealer to look at the flop. From this position one can also see the burned cards directly to the right of the chip tray.

Late in the game when players were knocked out they moved me from my table, and I was prompted with the above message. I was worried that I would be dropped and not be able to continue the game. Fortunately, after the fifth retry I was brought back to the menu where it automatically connected me to the proper table.

After returning to the proper table, I won a huge pot with my A+J offsuit against a 7+9 suited short stack, and I took the chip lead.

In this situation there was a blind battle where the villain raised preflop, and did a continuation bet where I pushed all in with A plus 9 off suit. Shortly after, I took down the pot.

Midway through the game I opened up the task manager to check memory usage, which wasn't too bad on my system: AMD Athlon X2 3800+, ATI Radeon X800 Pro, and 2GB of DDR400 memory.

Back to the action, we had the first side pot on our table, with the short stacked big blind and lady in the under the gun position.

This was the hand that broke me. I was third in chips with Ace plus Jack of diamonds and raised three times the big blind under the gun. Small blind pushed all in, and I thought for a moment about how erratic the play was by several people. Most people would have pushed with any Ace suited or Ace rag, and especially suited cards. He flipped over Queen plus Jack of spades. I had him totally dominated and was a three to one favorite to win. Unfortunately he out flopped me, and paired his queen. To add insult to injury, he turned a queen, and I was drawing dead to the river. I was crippled, but the poker gods gave me a powerful hand as big blind. It was folded to the small blind, who completed, and I pushed all in. He reluctantly called and flipped over King plus 8 offsuit. The poker gods were not with me on that hand either, where three clubs landed on the flop, and he rivered a King high flush. I busted out at fifth place.

Conclusion

After about an hour and a half game, I was pleased with the experience, and I can’t wait to pickup the retail version. Although, at one point during the cash game for kicks and giggles I asked for a pro tip since it was available on a pocket 5 pair in early middle position. He told me to fold it, but I called anyway, and I won that pot. Another hand was a board 4 to the flush, and I held middle pair with top kicker and he said to me "Yea! Go ahead and make a small bet." I was like are you kidding me? Just to test the game’s AI engine, I bet and was reraised. I called down for more giggles, and the villain turned over the nut flush.

I may be leaving the online cash games to play STACKED because of its tournaments, which translate well to playing at the brick-and-mortar casinos. I currently do not play tournaments online because No Limit poker is not my strength, but I expect to learn plenty from playing STACKED versus the pokibot AI, which I expect will help my real-life tournament play in the future. STACKED is now available for multiple platforms, with pricing starting under $30, which is a bargain for serious poker fans.