World Class Poker With T.J. Cloutier Review
Long before the young guns and the hidden cameras helped turn poker into a national franchise, TJ Cloutier was busy racking up a record 59 wins in professional poker tournaments; including 36 appearances at the final table in the World Series of Poker and three consecutive wins. World Class Poker is a solid title with sharp graphics and quick, fun gameplay. Alas, I'd be lying if I said this will turn you into the next tournament champion.br /br /World Class Poker takes up about 800MB of hard drive space, but you can save half of that by running the videos off the CD. I was disappointed to see the maximum resolution is only 1024x768, however you can choose to play either in full screen or windowed mode. Once the game boots up, you enter your name, then select from three difficulty settings and the game you wish to play. You're given a choice of Omaha, 5 Card Draw, Seven Card Stud, Texas Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit Hold Em. You can also choose from various tournaments including No Limit, Limit, and Pot Limit Texas Hold Em in both single table satellites and multi-table shootouts. Finally, you can compete against computerized TJ in the granddaddy No Limit main event, provided you've won enough to afford the ,000 buy-in.br /br /Options are prevalent, but statistics are limited. The dealer's voice gets annoying as he says the same thing over and over, plus the players make some really asinine comments such as, "I've seen better hands on a mannequin" or, "I'm going to make like a lawn-chair and fold." Uh... yeah. You'll be adjusting these settings real quick. As far as statistics, you can pull up the history of the past few hands you played, but there are no options to summarize so you'll be forced to read everything line by line. You can also see the amount of time you played, the number of hands won and the amount won, but that's it. The best feature of the game is what is known as "TJ's tips." As the play moves around the table to you, a small box appears on the bottom right with TJ telling you how he would play the hand. If it's the first time he's giving a particular piece of advice, a small video screen pops up with him explaining what he would do. Masque wisely made it so that the video will only show up once so he's not saying the same thing over and over. After that, it'll just be in text. Another nice feature, especially for beginners, are 88 questions involving hand analysis. TJ pops up on a small video screen along with a multiple choice question involving how you would play a certain hand. Once you make the selection, he will tell you how he would have played it and why.br /br /Everything up to this point is fine. Masque has a solid track record of programming great gambling related software and I think their Slots programs are some of the best on the market. But the most important part of poker software is competent A.I. and, unfortunately, this program just doesn't cut it. This is evidenced by the fact that I, as a beginner, found myself easily able to battle back in ring game tournaments even after taking some bad beats. I was even able to knock out TJ personally and win the main event after only a few plays. This is from a beginner. Something tells me TJ won't be so easy in real life. As far as the different players are concerned, I was able to detect some differences in the way they play. Some were tight and passive, while others were loose and aggressive, but this was only at the highest difficulty setting. In easier settings, the play was completely illogical.br /br /Since I am a beginner in Hold Em, it would be unfair of me to speculate on the weaknesses of the AI as I could be wrong. However, I am competent enough at Seven Card Stud that I could tell the problems are severe in that game. In one instance, a player would check down all the way to sixth, then bet out with only a pair of fours. In another instance, the AI would aggressively bet into me with a pair of deuces even though it was obvious I was drawing to (and likely made) a flush. When playing against one another, computer players will bet aggressively on 4th and 5th, then suddenly fold even when the other player catches ugly. If a computer player checks to you on 5th and you bet into them, they will almost always fold. Even at the highest difficulty settings I saw the AI call down an ace high four flush on board even though they had no chance of drawing better. The AI seems to play based on the strength of their individual hand, but doesn't take their opponent's hand into account. The most glaring example of this was a player who insisted on capping the river with threes full. Considering her threes were all showing on board, it should be obvious the reason I was raising her was because I had a better hand. If you're going to cap a hand like that against me, you better at least have quads.br /br /After a while, it seemed that, even on the highest difficulty, I had the computer's method of operation down pat. On third street, the highest card always raises. On fourth, highest on board always bets out. Not until fifth street does the computer appear to bet on strength and usually if they don't improve a pair, they'll simply check down to the river. Knowing only this, it becomes really easy to bully players around. I turned ,000 into ,000 in an hour. Sigh, if only it were so easy...br /br /I originally wrote this review back in 2005. Since this time I have become more knowledgeable in holdem. Being that holdem, particularly tournament no-limit is Mr. Cloutier's forte (as opposed to, say craps), I would expect the opponents to be better versed in poker. This game doesn't disappoint if you're a beginner and Mr. Cloutier's advice is solid. If you really want to take your game to the next level, I would also recommend looking into Poker Academy Pro even though it is much more expensive. I would also recommend you work on getting the ridiculous Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) repealed by griping at your local elected official. This way you won't feel scared to challenge other players online. Right now poker's not illegal to play online, the courts have upheld this, but we need to get the government off our backs. They take enough of our money in taxes, we don't need them telling us what we can and cannot do with the money we have left. Poker is best played against others and computer games have a long way to go before they can equal the skill of a human opponent.
World Class Poker With T.J. Cloutier Feature
- Editor's Choice award-winning poker tutorial, featuring numerous poker games and tournaments; plus expert strategy, advice and teaching from renowned professional T.J. Cloutier. Also includes probability and odds calculators, situational quiz questions and replay mode to help you enhance your poker playing abilities. Format: WIN 98,2000,XP,VISTA/MAC 8.1-9.X (CLASSIC),10.1 OR LATER Genre:
Check price now
Related Products
Customer Reviews
did not like!!! - Kathy - Missouri
Really was kind of boring and slow....to many explanations and not enought variety, Have not played it for weeks now,
Mar 31, 2010 12:38:05
