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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.
Andy Bloch at the World Series of Poker with TUAW and his iPad
The other day we showed you a photo of poker pro Andy Bloch with his iPad at the World Series Of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. Little did we know that Andy was going to find and read the post. According to photographer BJ Nemeth, Bloch called him over to say it would be a bit surreal to have a photo taken reading the TUAW post about his iPad on his iPad. BJ mentioned that Andy is playing a lot of Scrabble against other professional poker players, some of whom are at the same tournament although never at the same table. Players can have both iPads and smartphones at the table, but can't use them during a hand. Once they fold their cards, players are free to use their devices. Andy's still alive at the tournament with 21 players remaining, and action resumes today at 3 PM PT to play down to the final table. Final table action takes place tomorrow and is taped by ESPN, which does not allow the use of electronics at the table. Update: Andy was knocked out in 16th place, with winnings of more than $98,000. We're not sure if posting this photo will cause a singularity to develop, threatening the existence of the multiverse, but we're going to give it a try anyway. Thanks to BJ for the photos and to both BJ and Andy for being TUAW fans.
Xbox 360 camera plus poker equals immersion
After the Microsoft keynote we managed to spend some time with one of the games supporting the 360's camera peripheral, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions. In this game, the camera is used to take a frontal and sideways shot of the player's head, which is then turned into a 3D representation of the player.The process takes about three minutes, and is a little rough around the edges, but the immersiveness from seeing your opponents' faces both in 3D and in a superimposed webcam display is undeniable. The PMS Clan ladies demonstrating the game were impressed, describing it as a way to increase the addictiveness and realism of online poker, and wondering when they'd see their own faces in their favourite FPS. However, we find the concept of seeing our own dead bodies disturbing enough without adding our faces to it.
