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Scenario Poker - Hold'em in a widget Pick of the Week
Scenario Poker imageThe macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]
Tiger only hintAs some of you may know, I enjoy the occasional game of Texas Hold'em poker. That doesn't mean I'm good at it, but I do enjoy it. So I've been sort of keeping my eye open for a good Mac version of Hold'em. Scenario Software makes the amazing iPoker, but it's a bit of overkill for my simple needs. Then a couple weeks ago, Scenario released a free Dashboard Widget called Scenario Poker. The widget offers just one game, but that one game is Texas Hold'em.

I installed the original release, and it was fun, but had some issues (primarily that the widget was so small that it was hard to see everything). Then last week, they released an update to the widget, and this new version is basically perfect. The widget is now quite large (840x640), and there are numerous options for card design and table color. You play against nine opponents per round, and you start round one with $1,000. Survive (win) round one, and progress to round two, where you start with $10,000, and the players are all a bit better. Admitting my poker incompetence, that's as far as I've currently progressed, so I'm not sure where it goes from there.

As each hand is played out, you get a readout of the odds of completing certain things -- "Straight Draw: 16%" or "Flush Draw: 20%." As a relative beginner, I find this quite helpful to learning the game. You can also see some cumulative stats on the back of the widget (I'm presently winning a whopping 16% of the hands I play, which is just slightly better than the random odds (10%) of being the winner of any given hand). Gameplay is pretty fast, though I'd like to see an option for a 'finish hand immediately' when you fold. The speed does increase when you bow out, but I'd love to have the option to just jump to the end of the hand when I'm merely spectacting.

I love the fact that this is a widget that can be called up and dismissed whenever I want to play a quick hand or two. The computer players all seem to be pretty decent, and my only complaints are minor. First, you can't just declare "all in" at any point (you have to basically bet all your money away progressively). Second, it's not possible to bluff everyone out of a hand, ever -- at least one computer opponent will stay in, even if they're only holding seven-high junk. In any real game I've ever played, there have been at least a few hands where someone walked off with a pot simply because everyone else bailed. But these are minor flaws; if you enjoy Texas Hold'em, Scenario Poker is a fun, easy-to-play, and addictive 'widgetized' version of the game.
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Scenario Poker - Hold'em in a widget
Authored by: matthewroth on Feb 13, '06 08:58:26AM

i belive i played this when it first came out. have the fixed the bug issue where the same cards are played each time you restart the widget.



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Scenario Poker - Hold'em in a widget
Authored by: PancakeMan on Feb 13, '06 11:08:52AM

Pretty fun widget. I have to say, though, I'm a little concerned that you're impatient for the round to finish if you fold. It goes pretty fast on my computer! Are you like the monkey pressing the crack button on this thing or what? :-)



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an unlikely scenario
Authored by: buddhistMonkey on Feb 13, '06 11:27:53AM

This widget is fine if all you want is a random-card generator, but the action is far, far removed from typical tournament play. Rather, it's more like a family game in which virtually everyone plays every pot all the way to the river. Bluffs never work, raising is redundant (since everyone calls all of your bets anyway), and it's impossible to put an opponent on a hand, since it's rare for anyone to fold even the lousiest, money-losing-est cards.

The way to beat this game is to play a lot of pots where you have a flush or straight draw possibility, or a pocket pair. If you miss the flop, fold immediately. If you make your flush/straight/trips on the flop, keep raising over and over and over. Everyone will call you, even if they have absolutely no cards and no draw. You'll double/triple up nearly every time. This is terrible strategy for a real game, however, and I would submit that playing this game for any length of time is actually detrimental to improving your skills.



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Scenario Poker - Hold'em in a widget
Authored by: squawky on Feb 14, '06 09:04:32AM

Yeah -- the AI isn't the best, but hey...it's free. A little experience with the previous version suggests the computer players usually don't raise beyond the blinds before the flop unless they have a pocket pair...but they'll meet the blinds with just about any hand. Had occasional luck bluffing once the table thins down, or "stealing the blinds" head-to-head.

One complaint, though -- no way to minimize! A big deal on my iBook, where the widget fills most of the screen.

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Somebody wake up Hicks.



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Scenario Poker - Hold'em in a widget
Authored by: DanFrakes on Feb 14, '06 11:15:19PM

I was going to say the same thing: I like the widget a lot -- Rob beat me to writing about it, as I was going to write it up for Macworld ;-) -- but it *really* needs to automatically minimize when in the background.



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Senior Editor, Macworld / Senior Reviews Editor, Playlist



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Scenario Poker - Hold'em in a widget
Authored by: nikolstela on Jan 22, '10 11:29:45PM
Scenario Software distributes one of the first money-making game offerings for the iPhone with Scenario Poker, a Texas Hold’em game. Scenario Poker has been a top rated Mac OS X Dashboard Widget since its opening over two years ago. Currently, pokers fans can bring the competition along with them with the iPhone version of the game ---
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Edited on Jan 22, '10 11:30:59PM by nikolstela


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