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> Results: World Championship Poker
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Did you ever want to go to Vegas, throw down a grand or two and go head to head with unsavory characters in a battle of cash, cards and nerve? Well, now you can, and you still get to make your car payments, pay rent and eat too! World Championship Poker lets you test the water and your luck at the same time. Consisting of seven different and authentic casino games, Slots, Video Poker, Black Jack, Five-card Draw, Seven-Card Stud, Omaha Hold ﾑEm and Texas Hold ﾑEm, players can choose to go directly to their favorite wallet drainer in quick play, go on a four casino tour in career mode, or learn how to play a new game.
In quick play, you start out with $100,000 in the bank and choose the game you want to play to bankruptcy or boredom, whichever comes first. In Tutorial mode, players can learn how to play some new games and not just the headliner games. Everything from Texas Hold ﾑEm all the way down to Slots are described. The Tutorial hits on the rules of each specific game, when to bet, how to avoid betting if you can, and when you can fold. On the poker-based games, it will even cover which hands out rank which. The manual also has a handy reference guide in the back for the beginners. Once you've played a few practice hands it's on to the real thing, sort of.  Career mode, the guts of the game, consists of going down the strip to increasingly exclusive casinos with higher and higher table limits. Your competition gets better poker faces too. You start off with a meager $5,000 at the Wild West casino where you can start off as little as $200 a hand bets all the way up to ﾑbetting the farm' as they call it. Depending on the casino, your opponents range from little old ladies, oil barons, and business types to professional gamblers and a fellow that bears a striking resemblance to Tom Cruise. The four casinos are varied and well decorated in their themes. You have the Wild West, The Amazon, The Moon Club and one last one that, well, I'm not good enough to get into yet, but has a modern appearance similar to the Moon Club. Depending how well you do, various ﾑcomps' are available from the casino to celebrate your winnings. These don't actually do anything or change the game at all, but it is fun to rack them up. Now in case you have no luck or you want a little extra cash, there is a loan office available on the strip as well. Rates are very bad. For every dollar you borrow, you will have to repay two dollars, plus the two high-end casinos won't let you in until you are out of the red ink. If your luck runs the opposite direction however, the game offers a convenient password feature to save all your winnings, which is readily abused in the case of a bad hand.  Most play consists of cycling through the betting phase of your chosen games, then reading your opponents tells to figure out how good their hands are. Depending on your opponents, the tells can be as obvious as a throaty yee-haw from the local yokel, to a twirl of the hair from some of the ladies in the game. You also have to approach the ﾑthis game cheats' question. From what I can tell, the cards the computer gives you are randomly generated. I don't have a big flashy formula to tell you for sure or not, but it feels fair. The gambling portion of it all leaves a little to be desired, but I admit it is hard to replicate a true poker environment where it's difficult to bluff. Perhaps a bluff feature in future games? Looks like poker night is still on at my house. 
This is a game about gambling, plain and simple. It's probably not too good to introduce kids to high stakes gambling at a young age. (Ed. Note: Strange but true. You can't play these games in a real casino until you're 21, but the game is rated E-Everyone!) As far as the content is concerned, all the in-game opponents are appropriately dressed for a night at the tables. There's no foul language and all the comps are rated G (no strippers sent to the penthouse for you.) Play will probably bore all but the most card-inclined kids, most of which would probably prefer Yu-Gi-Oh or something like that, but it is a fun way for bigger kids to pass time or even learn a couple of games. If your kids are smart enough to play poker and have the desire, try to get them unplugged. Poker is much more fun live. But in the absence of another warm body, World Championship Poker is a good way to go.
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