Texas Cheat ‘Em: A bargain of a game at $10

0Sean, Contributor • 15th Aug 2009 • Entertainment, Sean's Spotlight • big3news, Cheat 'Em, Entertainment, game, poker, sean, Steam, Texas, win

“Win if you can. Lose if you must, but always cheat.”
-Freddie Blassie, Professional Wrestler

If Fred Blassie were alive today this would have to be his kind of poker game.

I found this game while looking around on Steam, the game management and messaging program made by video game development company Valve.

As the 2009 Topeka Poker Superstars Summer Series Champion, I figure this game is right up my alley. So it’s time for my first video game review.

When you start up the game for the first time it gives you an option of tutorials. This is really good because you might not know how to play Texas Hold ‘Em; those concepts need to be taught before you can learn the cheating stuff.

If you know how to play Texas Hold ‘Em you can just choose to learn about the cheating aspects of the game, or you can be like me — jump into the game and learn as you go.

The game is broken into Single Player and Multi Player sections. In Single Player you can do Career mode, which is called Career Cheat ‘Em, or Practice mode, which is called Practice Cheat ‘Em.

In Career Cheat ‘Em is a set of challenges that get increasingly harder as they go along. Since this is on the Steam network and X-box 360 — a place where achievements often come tied with games — this seems redundant. In Practice mode you can play with up to three other computer players and set the beginning chip amounts. Where the real fun is, though, is playing Multi Player mode where you and up to seven other players can play online against each other.

The gameplay is interesting. The game is set up like your basic Texas Hold ‘Em game, but you can use special cheats to tip the game in your favor, like chip steal to steal other player’s chips or x-ray vision to see their hand.

To use these cheats you buy them with “cheat points”. You start out with a set number of cheat points then gain more as you bet and play hands. Once you use a cheat you play a mini game to see if you succeed. If it’s an attacking cheat you play a game like rock, paper, scissors to decide if it works or fails. If it’s a defensive cheat or a cheat that doesn’t affect another player then you might play a mini game like a slot machine or play a game of guessing if a second card will be higher or lower than the first.

At first I thought the mini games were going to get in the way but they work because they are short and get you back to the action. The only real hitch when you’re playing the game is when they divide up the chips. If you’re the winner you don’t win the whole pot. Depending on who is in the hand they will divide the pot among first, second and third, with the higher rank getting more chips than the lower ones.

This may frustrate poker players, especially since every hand can be a good hand and folding is rare.

When it comes down to it you have to decide if this game is for you. After playing the demo I decided it wasn’t. I just wanted to play poker and the whole cheating thing got in the way.

I would suggest getting the demo first, as most of the game is playable in the demo, but at $10 (its on sale at Steam for PC users till August 17th) it’s a bargain of a game.

Sean’s Rate-O-Meter:

You can leave the author a moderated comment about this article by posting it below: