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- Reviewed on: 05/10/2005
- Released on: 04/05/2005
- Originally published on GameSpot: Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship (PC) Review
Poker seems like a game that wouldn't be hard to transfer to the video game world, and yet somehow developers find ways to screw it up. Developer ImaginEngine has managed to royally break the game of poker not once, but twice. Admittedly, its latest effort, Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship, is an improvement over its first attempt, but only because it isn't the worst poker game ever produced, which the first effort most certainly was. Apart from the fact that it features the likeness of the one-hit wonder of the poker world, Chris Moneymaker, on the box and in the game, there's really nothing to this package. The offline play is completely dragged down by overly predictable and cheap AI, and there isn't a soul alive playing this game online, all but rendering that feature useless.

ImaginEngine delivers another completely unpleasant poker experience in Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship.
Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship is a Texas hold 'em-focused game that happens to feature a few other games like five-card draw, seven-card stud, and Omaha hold 'em. Those games are almost irrelevant, though, as the AI is so weirdly aggressive in most all of those games that your games will typically be over before they start. Players will just be eliminated in huge groups, leading to a brief, unsatisfying experience. As for Texas hold 'em, the AI is only slightly better. Basically, while the AI opponents seem to have a decent idea of when to fold before the flop, they are utterly incapable of folding postflop. Once any opponents bet into the flop, they're practically trapped. You can raise all day long, and they'll just keep raising on top of you until the hand is over. Likewise, if you check, they'll always bet on top of you, usually in fixed and very predictable amounts. You can basically bully any player to death once you've got a fix on how the AI bets, and it sucks pretty much all the challenge out of the game--that is, except on the higher-ranked tables, where the game seems to up the difficulty by giving your opponents significantly better cards rather than making them smarter.
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Where to buy
Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship (PC):
$5.49
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Inetvideo.com
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$5.49 | No |
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