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Full House Poker for Windows Phone Review [Video]

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I love Texas Hold’em Poker. I used to play a lot online, but the US Government put an end to that. I would play for fun on Facebook, but when there is no real action involved, people play loose and just roll the dice. There is no fun in that. When playing against computer opponents, there is some level of skill involved. Well, at least more skill than the entire table going all in all game.

I’ll save my real poker for Vegas, but I want a game to have some fun killing time on occasion.

Enter Full House Poker, an Xbox Live title available for Windows Phone 7 as well as on the Xbox 360. The game works together seamlessly between the Xbox and your Windows Phone.

Reap the rewards of your poker play on both your Windows Phone 7 and your Xbox 360. Build up your bankroll on your phone, and you’ll have that stack of chips waiting for you the next time you play Full House Poker on your Xbox 360. Level up on your Xbox 360, and get the respect you’ve earned the next time you play on your phone. Levels, XP, chips, stats, and unlockables are all shared across both devices.

Full House Poker was developed by Krome Studios and published by Microsoft Studios.

As you can see above, Full House Poker pulls my actual Xbox Live avatar into the game.
At the table (in the lower left), you are playing as your avatar as well.

Full House Poker integrates well with Xbox Live and its big brother on the console as I mentioned above. The Windows Phone version is stripped down a bit and unfortunately, it does not allow for games against friends. The computer opponents come in a mixed variety. Some are pushers that bet big with low pair. Some actually bluff here and there. Some are aggressive, some limp in all game. In the tournament mode, you can quickly identify each style your computer opponents fit into, taking a little fun out of the game.

Game Play

The game play is quite simple. You throw your cards into the middle with a flick of your cards, call by tapping call, go all-in by selecting all-in, and you can raise or bet by sliding the bar to indicate the chip amount. If you fold a hand, the game allows you to fast forward the hand to speed up the game.

Game Modes

  • You can play a “Standard” game, which is what we call a “cash game” or “ring game”. I found this mode to be a waste of time really. The game play is boring without increasing blinds.
  • You have tournament mode where you face off with 2-5 computer opponents (you can select this when starting the tournament) until only one player remains.
  • The final mode is the Pro Takedown mode. This mode puts you up against pro players in a head’s up format. Once you knock off all 9 of them, you unlock a pro tournament where you face the same pros you had to knock off already.

Achievements

Just like with Xbox 360 games, you have achievements.  There are currently 20 achievements to shoot for. In addition to the regular achievements, there are a few that reward ring tones that are added to your custom ring tone list.

Leveling Up?

Full House Poker has an XP based leveling system. You get XP for getting out of a hand with a smart fold, just getting dealt into a hand, folding without action, winning consecutive hands, and more.

Check out the video below for a walk through of this Full House Poker.

Conclusion

Full House Poker is my favorite game so far on Windows Phone. I have many wasted hours playing already. The Xbox integration with Full House Poker is very well done. Being able to have your XP and chips shared between the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone is awesome. I know it’s trivial, but having my Xbox Live avatar follow me into a game is a nice touch.

Full House Poker is only $2.99 in the Windows Phone Marketplace. You can try it 1st, but I say just buy it.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    11/24/2011 at 5:45 am

    phlpn.es/829r8s

  2. Feralboy

    11/28/2011 at 7:54 am

    I believe it’s on sale for 1.99 this week.

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