Bonus Alert:

If you are planning to pick up a copy of the video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, you may want to pre-order it through any GameStop or EB Games location across Canada or the US to get a free bonus DVD.

According to PSP Updates, the DVD "Inside Stacked" features interviews with professional poker players Carlos Mortensen, David Williams, Erick Lindgren, Evelyn Ng, Josh Arieh, Jennifer Harman and of course, Daniel Negreanu. You will also see some behind-the-scenes footage of the development and production of the game itself, including the Poki Artificial Intelligence system used which adapts to the user's playing style. The game will be available for Xbox, PS2, PSP and your PC for a suggested retail price of $29.95.

It's amazing how many people I have talked to in the poker blogging community who aren't just fans of poker, but are true gamers as well. If you are a World of Warcraft fanatic, then you may want to check out the latest Weblogs, Inc. site: WoW Insider. They are dedicated to bringing you everything WoW - all the latest news, interviews, and game information they can get their hands on. If you are interersted in, or are already an active participant of this game, feel free to send them some feedback or tips of your own.

The Wow Insider team of bloggers includes; Mark Asher, Josh Owens, Damien Barrett, Jennie Lees, and resident uber blogger, Mr. C.K. Sample III himself.  Take a minute to stop by and say hi.

It is late Tuesday afternoon, cold and snowing, and all I want to do is relax on my couch and play some games. That got me thinking - there has been an influx of poker video games and software on the market recently, but I have somehow neglected to pick any of them up and don't know which are actually worth trying out.

Here is where we need your help. If anyone has played them, send us some feedback in the comments section. Are they worth the money? How are the graphics? Can you beat the game on the first attempt, or do you find any of them challenging? The list, to the best of my knowledge, includes:

WPT Video Game - This game is based on the World Poker Tour (obviously) and features Antonio Esfandiari, Erick Lindgren, Evelyn Ng, Lyle Berman, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, and Phil "Unabomber" Laak.

Stacked with Daniel Negreanu - This MTV-themed game features Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, David Williams, Josh Arieh, Jen Harman, Erick Lindgren and Carlos Mortensen

World Series of Poker - The game captures the likeness and play styles of fifteen professional poker players including Chris Ferguson, and replicates the room in the Rio down to the wallpaper and carpet.

World Championship Poker 2 - Howard Lederer, Clonie Gowen, Paul Darden, Robert Williamson III, Greg Raymer, Amir Vahedi and tournament director Matt Savage. This game requires you to work your way up from very humble beginnings - your mother's basement. You can spend winnings on furnishings and better places to live, though if you go on a losing streak you may have to sell off your belongings.  

Crave Entertainment has finally released the much-anticipated (much anticipated by me, anyways) World Championship Poker 2 video game for Xbox and Playstation, and will be available at retail outlets this week. 

Many poker personalities are featured in the game, including Howard Lederer, Clonie Gowen, Paul Darden, Robert Williamson III, Greg Raymer, Amir Vahedi and tournament director Matt Savage. 

The game requires you to work your way up from very humble beginnings - your mother's basement. You can spend winnings on furnishings and better places to live, though if you go on a losing streak you may have to sell off your belongings.

Players will be able to improve themselves through a variety of skills, and will play in locations such as apartments, mansions, Vegas poker rooms and boxing rings. 

For more information, click on the 'read' link below.

One of the benefits of playing tournament poker at home in the 21^st century is the ability to use your computer. No, I don't mean for cheating. Tournament software is available which keeps track of blind increases for you, enabling the players and the host to concentrate on what is important: their hands, chips, and beer - if it is that kind of game. 

There are many versions available online, and I had a reader tip us off about one in particular. Poker Tournament Hero has a trial version available, and the full version is $29.95. I downloaded the shareware version to check it out, and it runs quite well. The elapsed time and remaining time is displayed largely on the screen, as are the blind amounts, so it is easy for all players to keep track. The full version includes many essential features, including your own customizations to blind structures, as well as calculates payouts for you based on the data you feed it. 

If anyone has the full version of this or any other tournament software, please let us know what you think of it.  

(Thanks, Ed)

Stacked, featuring Daniel Negreanu, is the latest in the poker video game genre. The Texas Hold'em game features Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, David Williams, Josh Arieh, Jen Harman, Erick Lindgren and Carlos Mortensen playing poker in an MTV-themed atmosphere. 

The game features multiple poker bots, each with its own strategy and play style. As your level of play increases, the bots adjust and also improve, eventually placing you against the bots that were modeled after the professional players. Stacked also features multi-player tournaments, and in the Stacked Masters Tournament you may get a chance to play against the pros themselves. 

Stacked will be released October 25 for your PC, PS2 and Xbox, the PSP console version will be released in November.

Face off against your favorite pros and compete for virtual millions in World Series of Poker, the official video game now available for Xbox, Playstation 2, and Nintendo Game Cube, as well as a PC version.

The action is set around the main table at the Rio Casino in Vegas. The game captures the likeness and play styles of fifteen professional poker players including Chris Ferguson, and replicates the room in the Rio down to the wallpaper and carpet. The game offers seven variations of poker, including Razz, Omaha, 7-Card Stud and of course, Texas Hold'em.

If you have played this game, leave a comment and let us know how you liked it.

Howard Lederer, Clonie Gowen, Paul Darden, Robert Williamson III, Greg Raymer, Amir Vahedi and tournament director Matt Savage will be featured in WCP2.  According to the press release, the game requires you to work your way up from very humble beginnings - your mother's basement. You can spend winnings on furnishings and better places to live, though if you go on a losing streak you may have to sell off your belongings.  

Crave Entertainment is a privately held publisher of videogame entertainment products based in Los Angeles, California. 

I played in a 20-player home tournament this past weekend. It was my first time in a home game that big and it was a lot of fun. You gotta enjoy flopping quads with the money looming. My buddy Joe did a great job running it, particularlay since it was his first time managing multiple tables. The main takeaway was the usefulness of a good tournament clock. Without the monitor indicating time left and the blinds and antes for each level, I think the task of balancing tables, coloring up chips, and keeping the players informed would've become pretty overwhelming. Luckily, before the tourney Joe had downloaded Poker Clock, which performed admirably. It's not freeware, but if you are in the habit of hosting multitable tournaments, the $40 price tag seems pretty reasonable. It has everything you could want from tournament software: real-time stats, audio prompts, a flexible display, payout calculators, templates your can modify and save, and a bunch of other features. It's definitely worth a look, considering the 14-day trial version isn't crippled -- usually a good sign of a solid piece of software.

Via press-release carrier pigeon comes the news that Crave Entertainment is going to put some famous faces on their player avatars for the upcoming World Championship Poker 2: Featuring Howard Lederer, perhaps feeling the heat from Stacked before that competitor even hits the shelves. The pros who have inked deals with Crave for the console title are: Howard Lederer, obviously, as well as Greg Raymer, Clonie Gowen, Robert Williamson III, Amir Vahedi, Paul Darden, and Howard's li'l sister, Annie. Interestingly, Crave also captured the services of tournament director Matt Savage, which should make for some interesting possibilities. I wonder if Savage's voice will be used to narrate the action. In any case, it looks like the poker gaming wars are heating up on multiple fronts, with WCP and Stacked set to go heads-up for the lucrative title of poker console game champion.

Chris Moneymaker has one massive thing going for him that most of us can't really compete with - a great, highly-marketable name. Well, I guess we could just change our names if we really wanted to. Hmm...I'm thinking about maybe...Dave Rakepotalot or something. I don't know. I'll get back to you on that.

ValuSoft, a division of THQ, today announced the release of their new PC video game, Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship. The game is actually a new version of ValuSoft's World Poker Championship line rebranded with Moneymaker's name. It features Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Draw, and Omaha - all dressed up with Moneymaker's personal poker tips and strategies along the way. Online play is also supported.

Now back to working on my new name...

Everyone's favorite web portal is now offering a free trial version of Poker Superstars, the game, which purports to allow users to recreate the magic of the TV show's first season. I'm actually excited to play this game, not really to test the program's unlikely skill at simulating top pros, but to find out what the structure of the first season of Poker Superstars was. I found the buy-in and point system in season one to be completely inscrutable. Now, thankfully, there's a free game I can look to for solid information. Unfortunately, since I'm on the road for a long stint, I'm Mac only. Perhaps I can turn in over to Dave for an actual glimpse at the gameplay and download worthiness of Poker Superstars.

Over at Gamespy, there's a first look (with screenshots) at Stacked, the upcoming poker video game bearing the likeness of Daniel Negreanu. They've also got an interview with Kenneth Woo, one of the game's developers. He gives some nice insights into the nature of the Poki A.I. and why you'll never see a computer player go on tilt. The title should be available in the summer.