It really is amazing, when you think about it, that 10s of millions of people worldwide are competing in games (whether they be sports or shoot-em-ups) on XBox Live, and they\’re doing it for no money!
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But with Sega opening up a real-money poker room (and casino), you gotta wonder if the likes of Microsoft wouldn\’t try to get in on the real-money gaming/gambling action if the UIGEA were suddenly to go away. ** (You also gotta wonder how the guy in the picture even saw the flop. Can you imagine how soft these Xbox games must be?!)
I don\’t mean to overstate anything here — because poker is just a game, after all, that we know plenty of people enjoy playing for free.net — but the new Hoyle Texas Hold\’em for Xbox Live leaves you wondering if they aren\’t preparing themselves for a future where they stand to make more than $10 per download.
And looking at the key features of this new release …
Gamers can play as their Microsoft Avatar.
* Single player games against up to 9 AI players.
* Mixed Multiplayer games with any combination of up to 9 AI and/or human players.
* Fully customizable games let the player decide game type, table minimums, mix of AI vs. human players and much more.
* Ability to reserve seats for private custom games.
* Deep statistic tracking covers over 50 key stats categories found to be the most important to professional poker players.
You gotta wonder if any new players stepping onto the online poker landscape might not have a different outlook on things like bots and datamining than current industry leaders.
** The makers of Hoyle Texas Hold\’em have slot machine games, and handheld iPhone versions, too.
ALT HED: Hoyle Sounds a Lot like Doyle