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A good game for suffering improbably bad beats!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played other computer poker games including its predecessor Pokerstars I. I also play online and have played in brick and mortar casinos so I have a diverse experience with the game. Pokerstars II would be a better game if not for the fact that the program favors the "pros", particularly in heads-up situations. For example, you may be leading in the hand and magically to the tune of 5 times to one the program rewards the "pro" with the exact card in which to win,many times one or two outers. I once recorded this happening 52 times when I had the best hand over a two tournament session. You have aces for example and the program calls your preflop all-in raise. You are in the showdown and the "pro" has, say 6 of clubs and 8 of hearts. The program will deal 4 clubs to beat your aces. Bad beats happen in all aspects of poker but it is glaringly clear that the programmers apparently surmise that the program pros are supposedly 5 times as lucky as you because they are professionals. It is literally comical to watch the program deal runner-runner-runner sevens to a pro holding 4-7 for quads to beat your kings and sevens. I once lost for example, to Kathy Liebert in the championship where I had avoided the showdown phase by playing the flop turn and river. On one hand she called the all in of pocket queens with jack-six and predictably a jack and a six comes on the turn and river; again during the preflop all-in to showdown phase. The next hand I am dealt nines, go all in and she has kings! This pattern will be repeated ad-nauseum and it is nearly pointless to outplay the computer pros as the program will give then what they need to beat you 70-80% of the time, even when they only have two outs in the entire deck..Presto, that card will come on the turn and more frequently the river. If you don't mind the lack of truly random results and you have a sense of humor, then by all means buy it. If you are new to the game, there are better games to practice with. If bad calls, directed outcomes and bad beats galore frustrate you to no end, this is definitely not the game for you.

Boring and monotonous

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game about a week ago, since I wasn't willing to pay much for it. I'm glad I waited. I beat the game with a purse of $465,000, but it took about 30 hours total time to do it. Basically how to beat the game is fold your way into the money. Just wait until you bubble then take a risk. Also, don't go all in pre-flop with anything unless it is at least a decent pair. I do agree with the previous review that the computer players seem to have an uncanny ability to catch cards. Thus, I decided that I would wait until I flopped the absolute nuts and then go all-in to get the loose computer AI to call.

Obviously I beat the game, but this game teaches you how to play scared and bad poker. However, one thing it does teach you is to make sure to play premium cards. I play live at casinos, and sadly this sort of scared tight play usually wins at low limits. But if you ever want to get good a poker don't think this game can help you do that. Not worth the money at all, and now that I have beaten it, it is going in the garbage.

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