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TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Zynga Poker
Zynga has gained a reputation as the evil empire lately, and to a certain extent that's true -- a lot of the company's Facebook "games" aren't much more than pyramid scams. But Texas Hold'Em poker is a game that will always have players, and for all of Zynga's drama, their Poker app has been pretty fascinating to me lately. I've been playing on Facebook mostly, but for those times when I'm away from home, the iOS app has served pretty well. It's unfortunately very barebones -- the official Apple Texas Hold'em app is much better in terms of presentation, despite not being updated in quite a few years. But Zynga Poker's big selling point is not only that it shares a bankroll with your Facebook account, but that it's basically instant access, even on a 3G connection, to other online poker players, whenever you want it. The money doesn't really mean anything (and you should be careful -- that means a lot of players just go all-in whenever they can, not worrying about their virtual financial standing), but for a quick and easy multiplayer game of poker, I've had a lot of fun with Zynga Poker lately. You'll need a Facebook account to play the free app, but once you get it up and running, if you're a poker fan, there's a lot of fun to be had.
TUAW's Daily App: World Series of Poker Hold 'em Legend
While in Las Vegas at CES last week, I didn't have a lot of time to gamble, but I did get to play a few hands of video poker, and that combined with my preview of Full House Poker for the Xbox had me looking for a poker game to scratch the itch when I got back home on Sunday. I poked around the App Store for a few ideas, and while Pokerbot is a nice simulation, this official World Series of Poker app seems like the best version around. It's made by Glu Mobile (the same company behind the great Gun Bros), and it's a solid experience, offering up not just Texas Hold'em, but a persistent career, a nice online multiplayer mode and even Game Center integration with leaderboards and achievements. For a quick game of Hold 'em on the iPhone, it's been perfect for me. The full iPhone app is available for US 99 cents, but if you're not sold, there is a free version with some annoying interstitial ads. And unfortunately, the app's not universal -- the iPad version will set you back $4.99. Still, that's pretty cheap compared to what I'd have ended up losing at the tables in Vegas anyway.
