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Everyone’s gotta start somewhere
Your measly starting bankroll will allow you to get into some public games at an initial casino, with the objective of building up your cash flow. After a few rounds getting your feet wet, you'll be able to enter some single or multiple table tournaments. Winning those will unlock some VIP tables, with more money and better opponents. Eventually, you'll be able to move out of the slums and into the big time, but along the way you'll need to be smart, lucky, and aggressive - but not necessarily all at the same time.
Each time the table move turns to you Negreanu is available to offer his advice. Some of the time it's pretty generic, and occasionally - but not often - it turns out to be flat out wrong. This is probably a good thing, since blindly following his advice doesn't let you develop your own feel for the game. In particular situations, a card-specific Pro Tip will be presented to you. You can ignore or pay attention to them; after a few hours into the game, the desire to get tips will likely be trumped by your own cunning instincts.
The computer AI is remarkably adaptive to the situation at the table, especially as the skill levels increase. For example, early on, the shlubs will hardly ever raise, and half the time you can scare them off with some aggressive betting of your own. Start playing with the big boys, however, and you'll be hard pressed to figure out just what their strategy is - presumably just how it would be in a real big-money tourney. All sorts of bluffs, raises, and assorted tricks are used, so having a strategy (along with some guts) is required. For a game of such limited focus, there's a substantial amount of depth. It will take an investment of some time for sure to get to the top of the tournament heap. Remarkably, the experience doesn't get old.
Learning from the best
Another helpful feature (especially for those of us out there who are far from Texas Hold 'Em experts) Stacked has an excellent series of training videos hosted by Negreanu, offering all sorts of good information, tips, and strategies. Poker has its own vernacular, and these videos provide a video glossary of what they are and mean. The strategy suggestions are a terrific primer on what the particular seatings offer and when certain tactics have the best opportunity to work well. What's best about these clips is that they are valuable in a second (or third) viewing, once a few hours of gameplay are under your belt.
There are really only a couple of drawbacks to Stacked. Texas Hold 'Em is the only game in town - there's no other poker style to be found. If you're looking for some Caribbean Stud, Five Card Draw, or any other way to play, this ain't your game. In addition, there have been reports of online problems related to lost bankrolls and freezing in multi-table tournaments when they rebalance. To address these problems, one Xbox Live-only auto update has been released, with a second one planned. Troublesome, to be sure.
Stacked is not a graphical or audio masterpiece, but that's really of no importance. It does what it is built to do with the best of them. The underlying engine makes for a substantially playable, fun, and long-lasting Texas Hold 'Em experience. Heck, it’s even a great price at $29. If you're a fan of the genre and are looking for a game that will challenge and entertain, you can't go wrong with Stacked.
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