Rating: 
Summary: "That was the first REAL poker game I've ever played!"
Review: "That was the first REAL poker game I've ever played!" was the quote of the night from the first home Texas Holdem Poker tournament I've ever hosted. The night was a complete success. 17 People showed up making it a two table tournament. "This was fantastic, I really had a great time" was a response from another player, and seemed to be the general feeling.
The Donohoe Digital No Limit Texas Hold'em software was key to keeping the timeclock, prizepool and used by everyone to keep track of the blinds. Just follow the hosting tips in the game HELP, and you too can have the same results.
Rating:
Summary: "That was the first REAL poker game I've ever played!"
Review: "That was the first REAL poker game I've ever played!" was the quote of the night from the first home Texas Holdem Poker tournament I've ever hosted. The night was a complete success. 17 People showed up making it a two table tournament. "This was fantastic, I really had a great time" was a response from another player, and seemed to be the general feeling.
The Donohoe Digital No Limit Texas Hold'em software was key to keeping the timeclock, prizepool and used by everyone to keep track of the blinds. Just follow the hosting tips in the game HELP, and you too can have the same results.
Rating:
Summary: Message from the software developer
Review: Amazon doesn't have the full description for DD Tournament Poker up yet, so I'd thought I add it here.DD Tournament Poker: No Limit Texas Holdem - Play the game that determines the champion of the poker world! Whether you are already a seasoned tournament player or just a beginner, DD Tournament Poker is for you. Features * Cheat Mode - Sneak a peek at anyone's cards, show folded hands, see the winning hand and never go broke. * Chances Are - See the odds of winning the hand, pots odds and odds of making that straight or flush before you bet. * Tournament Play - Can you make it to the final table? Choose a standard tournament or create your own with up to 5,000 players. Define levels, blinds, buy-ins, add-ons, rebuys, and prize payouts. * Host Your Own Poker Night Tournament - Computer counts down time, calculates prize payouts and tells you when to raise the blinds or end re-buys. You have complete control over all the details. * Count Your Profits - Automatically tracks your tournament wins, placements and cash prizes. * Realistic Tournaments - All the realism of an actual tournament: levels, blinds, color-ups, and side pots are all automatically handled. * Challenging Computer Players - Play against thousands of computer players, each with their own unique style. * Helpful Information - View at a glance your current rank, number of players left, your hand, chances of winning, betting history and much more. NOTE: Supported platforms: Win98 to WinXP (not win 95). Mac OS X 10.2.6 or higher with Java 1.4.1 update. Full details at ddpoker.com. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: DD Tournament Poker is IMHO the best poker sim software
Review: Currently, there are four 'legit' poker sim software apps out there, DDTP being one of them. IMHO, DDTP is overall the best one, hands down.
Originally, there were only two-Acespade and turbo poker.
The former, Acespade, has DOS-like graphics, its website is very amateurish, and there is no demo download option. Borrowed a copy from a friend and was underwhelmed. Graphics aside, the AI was inferior to DDTP's (more on DDTP, of course, later on in my review), the options left a lot to be desired, and the app itself was last updated in 2002. In today's day and age, that's inexcusable, no matter what. Oh, and the price is a cool $90. No thanks.
The latter, Turbo Poker by Wilson Software, is like its rival Acespade, from the old school, and it shows all over. While the graphics are very nice and comparable to DDTP, and for that matter any 'modern' app, it pretty much stops there. It too costs cool $90 (the tournament format-only version a 'mere' $60), and it too was last updated in 2002. Old school. Also, again, its AI, despite all the dusty platitudes from the old pros on their book jackets, is no superior to DDTP.
The third and last rival to DDTP, and a recent arrival to the scene, like DDTP itself, is Poki Poker. It is similar to Acespade and Turbo in its price, a neat $100 tag. The graphics are slick and modern, the website is professionally done, it has a support message forum (like DDTP), it regularly posts update patches on its site (new school thinking), but it's limited to ring games (no tournament format options) and, again, its AI is not superior to DDTP's.
Finally, here's my two cents on DDTP itself and why I made it my personal choice to improve my game and practice for satellite and WSOP-format tourneys.
From a technical standpoint, DDTP was a breeze to install (have two PCs-one a laptop with XP Home, the other a desktop with XP Pro) and run, no problems whatever. Oh, and DDTP's maker, Donohoe Digital, lets you install the app on two separate machines with your license. I like that. Also, the app is java-based and, as such, very 'light-footed'. My perennially slow laptop never crashed once, and, miraculously, I am also able to multitask with DDTP on it, something that I am not able to do while playing another PC game. DDTP is all substance and no fluff, graphics-wise and otherwise, and that's a major plus in my book.
For someone like myself, who wants to prep for WSOP satellites and the WSOP main event itself, this app is it. Oh, and if you 'just' want to set up your home poker night game/tourney, DDTP can help you with that, too. It has full-range tournament management options. But its bread and butter is the tournament play. Against some 5000-plus AI players. They vary in skill level and play style, just like real-life opponents you will meet on that WSOP satellite and, should you be good/lucky enough to make it, on the WSOP main event itself. The AI is really, really good. After playing several thousand hands in the past month (mostly on the super satellite and WSOP 2004 format tourneys), I can attest to that. The AI players do (semi)bluff, checkraise and, which I found most surprising, 'learn' from your play patterns and adjust accordingly. In other words, you will need to mix it up, just like you would on the real-life satellite/WSOP tourney.
And all this for a version 1.0. And the price? Real nice-$25 for a direct download from DDTP's site or $19 for a boxed version at your local brick-and-mortar retailer.
For v. 2.0, tentatively slated for spring 2005, the good folks at Donohoe Digital, intend to, among other things, improve the AI (naturally, never enough in that area), introduce the Internet/LAN-playing option (another big plus) and, of course, introduce select new bells and whistles as needed.
When I qualify for, and win, the WSOP main event, (one can hope, right?) I will credit DDTP for it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Hold'em Tournament Simulation and Poker Night Manager
Review: DD Tournament Poker is awesome!! This is not your low limit Hold'em poker, and those strategies will only take you so far. This is the ideal tool to sharpen your tournament game. Learn money management, card odds, pot odds, probability of hands, and you get the ability to risk it all and go "ALL IN". The Artificial Intelligence of the computer players is challenging. You will find them playing every style from weak-passive to wildly aggressive. You will be bluffed, check-raised, and drawn out when you least expect it. All this will help you read your hands and manage your game to win the tournaments. Speaking of tournaments, If you don't like the preinstalled selections (there are 9) you can create your own to match the game you play most frequently. Then you can use DD Tournament Poker to manage your home tournament. This version included the Blind clock, prize amount calculations, and the ability to alter the game settings as you play to speed up, or slow down the pace of play. My poker group was very impressed at our last tournament when I used DD Tournament Poker to manage the tournament. Overall, the graphic presentation is great, the keystroke commands are easy and intuitive, and the game is very challenging on all three difficulty levels (low, medium, high). One note on required equipment: DD Tournament Poker states a minimum of 128M ram. I have tested this on my 333mhz 64M laptop, and found it to run nicely most of the time. There are some decision points where the game froze while memory was swapped out to disk. But these delays were not a major problem. On my other systems with more memory, there were no delays or disk swapping. I highly recommend this product if you are looking to improve your Texas Hold'em tournament play.
Rating: 
Summary: Good game for a good price - but not for the advanced
Review: For the very most part, "Tournament Poker - No Limit Texas Hold 'Em" delivers what it offers. The game includes an easy interface, several useful options, and even some preset tournaments from a local card room to WSOP 2004. I ordered the game in hopes of finding a reasonably difficult poker simulator for a reasonable price. However, the AI is precisely where the game is lacking. For an intermediate/advanced player who knows to fold the junk and play positionally, the AI becomes easily beatable. One week after ordering the game, I had beaten the WSOP 2004 at the highest computer skill level. That's 2500 opponents. Now, I know I'm not THAT good. The AI is by no means horrible, just not sophiscated enough. The computer will throw a few good bluffs your way, be warned, (I think I laid QQ down to 84) but I could barely recall being check-raised a single time throughout the entire WSOP tournament. The computer will rarely slowplay or trap you. I guess for the advanced players out there, we may have to cough up the $90 to Wilson for a decent simulator.
Rating: 
Summary: An Enjoyable Way to Rack up Mounds of Practice Hands
Review: Given the recent resurgance of poker's (specifically Texas Hold 'Em) popularity, many people are looking to try their own skill online, at home games and in casinos. Many of these people will soon discover that it's easy to play poker poker from the couch when TV shows you everyone's hole cards and calculates success odds for you. Playing in the real deal will require practice and that's where this game becomes a valuable asset.
I had no troubles installing the game on two different XP PCs (one XP Home and one XP Professional edition) - very quick and clean.
When you dive into play, you'll see that you're given a lot of control over the structure of the game, i.e. blind structure, re-buys, add-ins, etc. If any of these terms are foreign to you, the help section is adequate to define key terms and teach you the basic rules and flow of a no-limit hold 'em game. There is a lot of flexibility here, but only within the structure of no-limit hold 'em (more on that later).
Once play begins, you're pleasantly surprised with an attractive interface devoid of any unnecessary nonsense on the screen. There are no chatty cartoon opponents or phony animated casino backgrounds - just an overhead view of a ten-person poker table. During play, the game provides just the right amount of visuals: each player's position displays his/her chip count and an icon indicating his/her most recent action, i.e. fold, check, raise, re-raise, etc. It will help a novice player keep track of what's going on while no distracting more advanced players.
The opponents' AI is one of this game's real strengths. There are three different skill levels you can choose and each are pretty distinct. Unfortunately, there is no "mix" option where you get a table with some sharks and some know-nothings. Players bluff, bully and check-raise when appropriate. You can also turn on any combination of cheats during the game in order to see hole cards and "rabbit hunt" the remainder of the board - this is very helpful for players trying to apply the strategies that they've learned and see exactly how they play out in a real hand. Toggling cheats on and off is a bit clunky; I wish there were keyboard shortcuts to do so.
My only true complaint about the game is that it hypes its own tips on strategy. I've examined the help file over and over again and can find nothing of the sort. Aside from the game calculating pot odds for you (but ironically not defining what they mean or telling you how to use them), there is no strategic assistance here at all. So, if you're looking to kill some time at the airport and solitaire just doesn't do it for you anymore, then this isn't an issue. But, if you're looking to take down the competition at your neighbor's house next Friday night, you'd better throw a couple of books on your order as well (as an aside, I recommend the new Phil Gordon book for absolute beginners through intermediate players and Sklansky/Malmuth's "The Theory of Poker" and Brunson's "Super System" for a concise poker library)
A secondary gripe is that the game's focus is just what the title says - no limit texas hold 'em. Given the wealth of options when setting up a tournament, I was surprised and a little disappointed to find no ability to create any sort of limit game (after all, if you're taking your poker act to a casino, this is what you'll be playing unless you're hoping to lose everything that you own in one night). Plus, there are no other variations such as omaha or razz that people who have a regular poker night like to throw into the mix.
The game includes a real-time tournament manager that displays a timer and what the current and next blind structure is, but this is a bit of a gimmick. Is it really worth it to hold your poker game in your den or else have a laptop on the table when an egg timer or wristwatch can do the same thing for you?
PROS
* Generally good opponent AI that plays at distinct skill levels
* Straightforward interface with none of the cheesy junk that is typical of PC casino games
* Gameplay is fast-paced addictive fun
CONS
* Very overstated expectations on strategic tips
* Lack of any additional poker variations such as Omaha, razz, etc.
In conclusion, if you're looking to practice your poker game in preparation for more serious competition, this game is a very good tool to use when applying concepts learned elsewhere. It's also just plain a lot of fun, so it's highly recommended in my book.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet simulation
Review: Good thing the girlfriend is out of town, because I've been playing this game non-stop since it arrived Friday! This highly realistic simulation offers a good challenge, and is reaffirming my biggest poker weakness (a tendency to play too aggressively off the bat), meaning that in a 40-player tournament I either finish in the bottom 10 or the top 5. Right now I'm trying to "save" enough money to get into the game's version of the WSOP, and it's gonna take a while....
Rating: 
Summary: Hokey at best...
Review: I really put a lot of faith into the reviews I read about this game before purchasing it. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. The AI is absolutely horrible. I set the options to show the hands the players were playing with at the end and was amazed at what the computer would call a big raise with. Likewise, I was also amazed at what the computer would fold when facing a medium size bet - top pair?
I set the difficulty at it's highest level and the computer played worse than the newbies at my weekly game. Obvoiusly the people who wrote such rave reviews are not students of the game with an understanding of the fundamentals.
With that said, this is probably a great game for kids or people who just want to get some experience before playing for the first time. However, it is not recommended for anyone at an intermediate skill level or better.
Rating:
Summary: Serious poker for an affordable price!
Review: I recently lost interest in the "cuteness" of the Hoyle Casino series of titles, and the other poker sim's on the market which seemed to have been programmed by someone with no knowledge of the game. All the poker books I've been reading suggested trying a certain series of titles which are considered to be the standard in poker simulation, but at $80+ I determined those to be out of my price range. This title offers the best of both worlds, serious poker for an affordable price, while retaining all the features of it's competitor. With the release of DD Tournament Poker Donohoe Digital has set the new standard for poker simulation.
|
