Reviews// World Championship Poker

Yesss. Poker. It‘s the current sporting choice for chain-smokers and alcoholics that pitches uber-trendy scoundrels from the Hoxton borders against ruthless scrap millionaire merchants from Merseyside. It's aces high, round the table, two fat ladies and a snap. Or something like that. To be honest, poker's a bit of a mystery to the uninitiated and that's certainly how this review is being pitched: as an educational introduction to this notorious pastime/habit. The game's always had a bit of reputation as the quintessential lads' night in. We're talking beers, chilled; peanuts, chillied; and huge great choking cigars that suck all the oxygen out from the moody surround of a dimly-lit kitchen table. And these days, it's even getting a bit of seedy-smelling chic dealt into the mix. Featuring prominently on Channel 4's late night roster, enjoying its own celebrity tournaments and permanently broadcast over 735 dedicated cable channels in the States, it can only be getting more and more popular. And so it’s clear that SPOnG needed to unearth the latest and greatest video-game equivalent.

Even before we got started with World Championship Poker we did understand one fundamental principle behind poker's allure. It's about the stakes, it's about gambling: and frankly, a straight-forward card game, without a profound appreciation of the real-life subtleties and nuances of the actual gameplay, just can’t be particularly exciting. And played 'out-of-the-box', that's a clear problem for WCP. There's not really anything to play for. If you had £145 in cash, your watch and a handful of I.O.U's at stake, it would be exciting. If there was someone else's bra at stake, it would be exciting. Heck, if you had half a bag of twiglets at stake, it would be sort of slightly exciting. But points in the form of ’virtual dollars’ don't really cut the mustard.

It's all well and good earning points through sheer gaming skill. If you can pull off a super triple double special combo counter, you get the points, you get the props. But this is poker, and in this context: poker with an even greater element of luck than it would be as played with real people and real paper. Winning 'points' by being 'lucky' is not the greatest foot for any video-game pitch to start off on. However, that's not to cut it down so soon. This particular reviewer does play Hoyle’s Casino on the Dreamcast on a regular basis. And the attractions of San Andreas' Las Venturas were only resistible after the introduction to Luigi's Casino mini-games in Super Mario 64 DS. So, in many ways, as an alternative to falling victim to the ever loudening call of those online poker parlours, and the UK's forth-coming US owned regional super-casinos, WCP is very welcome. Either as a substitute, or more intriguingly, as a training tool. One day soon, we'll be 'really good at gambling' and will make millions. And sipping Martinis on the deck of a luxury yacht in Monaco, we'll look back and thank WCP for the things it taught us. And then we'd throw some diamonds into the sea, just for the hell of it.