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IGN Review of Bicycle Casino
Bicycle Casino boasts 500 game variations. Could this be true? Read my lips: This is about as honest as a politician. In truth, there are 27 different games, including the different slot machines and types of poker offered. So how do we get to 500 game variations? Well, you can play Texas Hold'Em and you can play "variations" such as Limit, No Limit, No Limit Tournament, and Limit Tournament. This type of variation is seen throughout most of the other games. That still doesn't get us to 500. So how does it happen? Well, the "variations" also break down the limit types. So for Texas Hold'Em you might choose a $5/$10 limit game "variation" or a $10/$20 game and so on. Fuzzy math? Yes. Don't expect a huge variety of poker game types; instead expect a lot of different options for the stakes you'll play for.
If you get the sense I am about to slam Bicycle Casino, you are oh so right. Rather than doing something cool, like having a virtual casino, Bicycle C goes the cheap route. You pick from a menu (after creating your character... my dude is green) and choose your game and bam, you are there. This wouldn't be so bad if the total lack of presentation didn't continue throughout every game type.
Yes, you do have a lot of play choices, which is a definite boon. There are several slot machines, eight types of poker, video poker, Keno, Money Wheel, Blackjack, Pai Gow, Craps, and Roulette. You begin with $1000 in your pocket and any games you play (on- or offline) count towards your total stash. But these games, pretty much from top to bottom, look meager compared to most free casino games you can find on Yahoo or various other sites.
Since Texas Hold'Em is advertised on the cover and is really the big draw for most, let's focus there. You and your cohorts are seated at a table (be you AI or real people on Xbox Live). This visually uninspired game, a throwback to old-school PC game with horrid graphics, has scarcely any animations. Chips slide magically into the pot, cards appear rather than being dealt, and each character has only brief moments of showing signs of life.
There are some limited animations and emoticons at your disposal. You can choose to laugh, frown, shake your fists in anger, or sneeze (???) -- whenever you like. The AI also has tells in that they are always letting you know how poorly programmed they are. See, there is no challenge here, because the AI almost never bluffs and rarely ever puts any pressure on you with bets. Anyone with even mild poker sense can read the AI easily, making the single-player version of the poker games relatively monotonous after just a few games. And often the AI calls you on the worst hands. The dealer flops three spades and I instantly go all in. Guess what? Two people called me. And one had a Queen high and the other had a pair of 10s! They called $4000 with absolutely nothing. Two players calling with nothing in their pockets and an obvious possibility that the guy who just went all in flopped a flush? That's terrible. I did flop the flush and I took both of those players out that hand. This type of AI is a constant problem throughout all of the poker games.
What's worse, perhaps, is that this persists online, where many inexperienced players make stupid calls. But you know what, so do I. Why do I care if I lose $1000? It's not real money and there is no way to also bet on games with actual cash. You can't choose to muck your cards or flash them on a fold to psyche out an opponent, which is something I've found in pretty much every online poker game. There is no psychology here, only monotony.
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