January 4, 2007 - Texas Hold’em Poker has increased in popularity over the past few years with an explosive force in a barrage of poker shows, tournaments, and poker playing personalities. It was only a matter of time until this popularity hit the software market with games licensed with the names of the most popular players. With this in mind I present to you Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, a Texas Hold’em poker game developed by 5000ft and published by Myelin Media available for the PC, PS2, Xbox, and now the PSP. Stacked features Canadian Daniel Negreanu (a.k.a. Kid Poker) who is one of the most popular poker players on the television tournament circuit today. Daniel has won more tournaments than I care to mention and won more money than I’ll earn in a lifetime. The game itself sports features including AI simulated by Poki (poker playing software developed at the University of Alberta) and online multiplayer and tournament play. Daniel Negreanu is available to help you improve your game through in-game help and through a series of video tutorials.

The video tutorials included in Stacked have Daniel attempting to explain the finer points of Texas Hold’em poker. The video was shot with a dark background and Daniel in a dark black shirt; making it hard to make-out where his body ends and the background begins. The result is a set of instructional videos from what appears to be Daniel’s magic floating head and crazily illustrated flying hands. The videos are incredibly cheesy and have the feeling of a first-year film maker exploring their artistic inner-child. If you decide to put on your beret while sipping a latte and test your cheese endurance levels I wish you all the best, I refuse to be mesmerized by Daniel’s magical floating head any longer.

I personally enjoy playing poker against other people over a computer but can’t find a good game in my area. I was looking forward to trying out the multiplayer action of Stacked which includes regular table games and online tournaments. I was disappointed on every occasion as I loaded up to find no available online tables to join or would sign into a tournament only to have it cancelled due to lack of players. After numerous attempts to play online, I had to give up my multiplayer search and settle for the single-player game for this review. What good is a multiplayer function if you can’t play it?

Stacked is based on a tournament style reward system whereby whatever tournaments you win unlock other more elite competitions for you to enter. The tournaments vary from single to multi-table games and with certain successes you can unlock new features in the game (mostly professional poker characters that you’ll end up playing against). By winning various Public and V.I.P. games you will eventually unlock Championship tournaments. The overall format of the game closely resembles what you would see from a televised poker tournament. At the top left corner of the screen you have all the players listed along with what they are currently doing: waiting, making a play, whether they raised, etc… On the top right corner of the screen is the counter for the total amount in the pot along with a scrolling marquee that cycles through information regarding your tournament including who the chip leader at the table is, the current blinds and time until the next blind increase, and how many players are remaining in the tournament. The bottom left of the screen is used for how you want to interact during the game. If it is your bet you can either use the directional pad or the top L and R trigger buttons to lessen or raise your bet. Before betting/calling/folding you can press the directional pad to reveal a task bar which allows you to smile, frown, look at your hole cards, or ask Daniel Negreanu for advice. The camera movements by default look as if there was a camera in the middle of the table that pans to each respective player during their turn. In your task bar there is an option for a POV cam which simulates looking through the eyes of your sprite. If during any particular hand you fold you can press the X button to have the remaining players finish the round at a higher rate of speed. This is a great feature especially when your chip-stack is low and you’re waiting out a pocket pair to double up.