The game is the official game of the World Series of Poker and features a lot of the star players such as: Chris Ferguson, Men the Master, and Scott Nguyen. You can create a character and start on a long and, hopefully, successful career. There is some great options for your character, right out of the TV series, sunglasses, walkman, lots of possibilities; very cool!!! Your character starts in a plain hotel room. But as your winnings increase you’ll be upgraded!!

Starting from there you have a lot of choices of games. There is Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud. You have different buy-ins, limits, and no limit games. Just like the real tournaments you can win money if you place in the top of the groups, depending on the number of players who entered the tournament. Fight your way through the hundreds, or thousands of other players to make it to the top. Of course the first positions of money prize aren’t big, but at least you can make some money. The ultimate goal is to make it the Final Table and win that bracelet (and the big jackpot too).

The graphics are very cool. It has the feeling of being there, the players will pick up their chips to bid, through away their cards, and stand when all-in. The dealer actually deals out the cards. Really nice. You see players show looks of exasperation when losing a big pot or arms cheering in the air during a victory. And when you do make it to the final table you see the huge pile of money coming to the table. These are nice touches that make the game a lot more fun then simply seeing the cards.

You can fast forward the card action if you want except when playing Omaha. I don’t know why this is but you have to wait for every player to make their bet or fold, although you could still fast forward the cards. It makes playing Omaha very frustrating at times. When you did wait for the players the wait was always the same. It would have been a nice dynamic to see them bet faster if they had a good hand (or was bluffing) or mix it up a little. But that was minor. And I fast forwarded most plays anyways (except in Omaha).

While playing you will get voice comments from the other players after a good or bad hand, as well, the commentators will also interject their own opinions of how you played that bet or that round. The comments do get old after a while of playing, like most any other games, but they are good and some were very witty and funny.

The game play over all is enjoyable and just as frustrating as playing for real. The other players though did not seem very realistic at times in their style. I found many players called all-in on very low hands, 2 pairs or less. Once I figured this out I went in on the all-in’s a lot more and won most of them. A frustrating habit among the players is high betting on the pre-flops. Besides that though you can still bluff, buy the pot, and try to pull the usual tricks of the trade.

There is a save option during and after the game. Saving during the game will bring up a new deal. Sorry, no way of saving and waiting to see if anyone can beat your pair of twos. But at least if you are up you can save your progress and go back if you make a few bad choices. I hate to admit this but this was the only way I could get a tournament bracelet!

WSOP does have a multi-player option through GameSpy or WLAN. I haven’t tried these features yet but I can see how they would be fun, especially with a friend sitting across from you. It’s one thing to beat an opponent around the world but it is something else to see the look on his face when you beat his straight with a flush!

So, wether I am in or out when it comes to WSOP, I’m all-in!! This is a fun game that has managed to waste away many hours of my time. Even when I only had a few minutes it was great to get in a quick hand or two and wait till the next game. If you are a fan of poker I’m sure you will enjoy this game. May not substitute a night out with the gang but it is a great break during the day.