Texas Hold’em Reviews

by Doob214

Love the game play, the graphics, no ads. However the programming is horrendous. I’ve lost on the river card 63 times and won 7 times I’ve gone all in (it’s actually a lot more than that but I started keeping track after I saw how often it happened.) I’ve either got the worst luck in the world or there is some funky programming. To add to that, almost all of those have been losing to a much worse hand. The programming clearly is not random which takes away some of the fun of the game Note: After reading many other reviews I realized it’s not me. The bots are truly programmed against you in an unrealistic fashion. I guess the developers don’t read the reviews because clearly they have not fixed the issue Update: I finally had to delete the game after it became so ridiculous. Losing on the river 75 times and winning 7, consistently losing to much worse hands (last straw was losing three in a row, the last was pair Q to 8-4; two before that was pair K to 3-7 - hit flush on river card), and when suited flopped entirely opposite color 85% of the time.

Edit - I downloaded this again to see if the problem had been fixed. Nope my first game I got beat on the river three times in a row.

by Djjwidxijwjhx

The cpu just raises to raise, there are times pre flop where there are like 10 bets (not an exaggeration), and the cpu seems to always know when you have good cards post flop, because they will almost always check when you check, or fold even if you raise 10 dollars in a 1000 dollar pot. There are rarely pre flops that dont have 5 or more bets, and half the time the cpu has nothing, this doesnt happen in real poker games.

Also i have just messed around and would go all in first hand everytime, and the amount of times the cpu hits their cards is ridiculous, you could have a cpu absolutely dominated pre flop but since they are a cpu they hit their cards.

Try making an actual shuffle system, and cpus who dont 6-bet with 3-10 off suit, it would actually be an enjoyable game if it was the slightest bit realistic

by Kniwght

TexasHoldem makes what is normally a fun and fair game infuriating and mind numbing through a few ways.

The AI first off go consistently 10x blind pre flop, which is absurd and forces you to fold anything other than suited courts, pockets, or ace and court most of the time. These AI also mysteriously know exactly when to chase a flush or straight and when to fold, almost always pumping up terrible hands at the turn only to be saved by the river what feels like 75% of the time. Worst time this happened to me was when the ai called my all in with an unsuited 4&6 against my pocket kings with king on flop and won the straight on river.

The player also never seems to get a good hand either, with some other ai getting pockets in a row and never having a hand worse than a pair by flop. Bad luck is maybe getting 6 or 7 unplayable hands in a row, not 18 rounds of unsuited garbage.

It’s a very rigged game with AI that almost definitely know the future and have X-ray vision, with consistently better luck than the player to the point of statistical anomaly. Avoid at all costs!

by Scramble Golfer

Wow, I’ve been playing this for about 4-5 hours total (not consecutively) and I’m already sick of it. Recently got beat with pocket AA to a guy who called my all in with a Q9. Really? ALSO, the betting is extremely heavy handed. It’s one thing to bluff, but it’s another thing to constantly bet 8-10 times the amount of the big blind before the flop.

A glitch I found that should have been spotted and fixed by now is if you switch your screen view by rotating your phone, don’t do it in the middle of a flop or one or two of the flop cards will stay not turned over! Really?? Then it continues to deal the turn and river with that same flop card upside down. That’s messed up. I like to start at the table view before the flop to see how many players are in the hand, then switch to the up close view once I know who’s still in. Have been messed up a few times now because of that glitch.

Seems like a few easy things to fix, but others have commented on the constant heavy betting and no fix.

No more.

by Rnash309

I’ve been using TexasHoldem for a while because it’s the one of the few multi player with good graphics. That said the algorithm is not very realistic. Very high bets on small pots with highly improbable starting winning hands. Big and small blinds consistently have foldable hands against, again, improbable betting with small pots. And finally consistent bad beats, again, with improbable starting hands.
The game is easily beaten by bypassing 90% of early bets
and after half the Bots have been eliminated. A middle or higher pair or an Ace with a face card is a minimum after half of the Bots are eliminated. Risker bets are better played when only 3 players are left to play guaranteeing at least a third place finish.

Updated - not even close to probable betting based on hand to pot probability.
TexasHoldem isn’t even worth the one star because of an unrealistic betting algorithm. Very high bets on small pots with highly improbable starting winning hands. Big and small blinds consistently have foldable hands against, again, improbable betting with small pots. And finally consistent bad beats, again, with improbable starting hands.

by Squareman

I have seen both of the following betting bugs several times in this re-release (when I didn’t in the original), the second one rather frequently:
1. Opponents who are still in the hand, even though their chip stack says $0 before the hand starts. They can win the pot if they get the right cards.
2. Opponents who “raise” with a call. This one happens frequently! It’s so frustrating. Player to my left raises for $8,000. Okay. Player to his left calls for $8,000. Okay. Next player “raises” to $8,000 – not another $8k, the same $8k! That’s a bug. If I simply call, the original raiser will often raise again, when that’s not legal and blows my entire strategy of playing within my range.

by RWsoMuch

I was looking for a good play against the computer game to enjoy (they seem hard to find) and thought this was it. At first I thought I’d finally found one, but Sadly, this turned out not the case. The play is good and the graphics enjoyable; however, the computer characters get way too many extraordinary hands. I’ve seen too many straights, not to mention straight flushes, ordinary flushes, and full houses. That just doesn’t happen in real poker. When I’m betting what should be a good hand like high three of a kind or even a flush, miraculously, the computer has a better one.

It’s just not enjoyable playing against those odds.

by Fulltilt.com Pro

As a game developer, I see the issue quite clearly. The algorithms are highly faulty, the Random distribution of cards is faulty, the computer bots follow the same dynamic protocol when bets are made, and no matter if you bet a 10 dollar bet or bet 100 BB’s, the bot has a unique insight to post flop hole cards, and 68% of all community cards, will favor the bot unless you value bet and the bot will fold.

On our 6 games, we certified RNG, have fair card distribution and utilize no bots. For detailed information, visit 888Poker, Fulltilt poker, KashPoker and request developer packet #5, which is our online Emagazine which is free.

I give a 2 star rating due to the fact TexasHoldem has a lot of work to go until it becomes a POKER app.

by Jghorton

Two major problems are: (1) persistently “rebalances the table” with no corresponding increase in original value of 1st, 2nd, 3rd place wins; (2) significant inconsistency in a multiple raise ‘traps’, based on the value of the online player ‘s hand (ie, game players repeatedly make baseless raises, until the online player is all-in, and then simply fold as if working as a team to beat the online player!

(Later) I’m going to replace this game with another! I know it sounds stupid, but every time I get down to 2-3 opponents, the game injects an artificially meaningless “Rebalancing the table” and I’m back to 8 opponents. I feel like throwing my phone and frequently just dump my chips and start over. This feature really ruins an otherwise great game!!

by So/So; Bugs Remain

I’ve played this game for a while now. At first, I assumed a patch would be released to fix the main issue with the game. But it has not been. This is from someone who has played over a year and amassed $82mil in earnings in the game. I’ve also played it on other iOS devices just to be sure if the mechanics there.

The algorithms that determine both a) the likelihood of any given hand on each flop/action, and b) the probable response based on said flops/actions is fundamentally wrong. The average winning hand needs to be way, way too strong. Four of a kind, full houses, straights, and flushes are way too common. I am not exaggerating that a three-of-a-kind will rarely be the winning hand. And some of the player actions are just crazy stupid/lucky.

When I play other apps or in person, I have to mentally adjust how I play. I will fold nine out of 10 hands in TexasHoldem that I would play on the real world.

This visuals are fine, and while there certainly are glitches, those don’t cause any major issues.

by JRandel19

I am 100% blind, and the fact that this game is fully accessible is really awesome! The only problem is there is a few glitches. For example, when I first start the game and play for a few minutes or so the game plays really good. I get nice random hands that I can play off of. After a while of playing it seems like it stops giving me random hands, and it starts giving me one high card and one low card every time. I tested this by folding every time, and it happened at least 18 times in a row before I just quit. Another glitch seems to be when I actually do win, the game simply won't let me collect my earnings or continue to the next screen. Sometimes it will literally kick me out of the game completely. Other times it will keep my same cards, it will let me bet, then it tells me who wins. Then it just repeats. I have played this game in both Portrait, and landscape mode. I have an iPhone 13 that's only one year old, so I doubt it's my phone. Thank you for reading my review.

by PoppieALAM

I really enjoy the game but the algorithm is horrible. Very little reality in the game almost to the point you can anticipate what is going to happen. Example: player will move all for 50k only leaving 3k behind...when this happens push all in and the bot will fold. Another example: The bots will also call an all in with no draw and no pairs only to runner runner 2 pair. Once again, it’s a good game but would be better if more realistic algorithm was applied. If you can’t win at this game you have no reason playing poker at all. You can anticipate the moves of the bots. Went from 0 to 110 million +. I’ll keep playing until I get to 1 billion. Maybe another level after Macau would be good!

by Just-Jennifer

You know, the kind of movie where the gang of crooks have set up a scam game, and know what the mark (that’s you) has, what cards they will be dealt. I have had players go all in right off, have a seemingly unbeatable hand, and get wiped out because one of the bots has a higher hand that they should not have known was coming. They make bets that are a little too perfect. Apple needs to make the deals truly random. You win what seems to be a fixed percentage, and can tell when it is your turn to advance. If you play the Garage, you can accumulate quite a bit of money to pay entry fees, but you risk losing a large amount. And the bots are all rather nasty characters. They are arrogant, smug, even vulgar. If you are playing in portrait, they can be quite annoying. At least in landscape you are spared that.

Please Apple, make it a realistic game. It is too predictable.

by Will I P

The basic premise is good - no limit Hold’em tournaments varying from 1-4 tables. The bigger ones have bigger buy-ins (no money involved). It’s offline so the other players are all run by computer algorithms. However, they don’t give you enough chips considering how aggressive and ridiculous the players are. Not only do they make big bets with 3-4 or 4-7, more often than not these junk hands win against A-A, K-K, or A-K. This is not sour grapes - I’ve played hundreds of 4 table games and I finish in the top 3 in about 33%. It’s just ridiculous when someone goes all-in early with junk and beat your pocket K’s.

by Annoyed Fots

Every poker game I download seems like the computer knows the cards before they flip. At first I thought I was being paranoid. But then I paid close attention. The first 3 cards were 2,4,7 and the computer went all in. And I was puzzled because it wasn’t a flush and I had a pair of kings. Then the flop and river flipped and it was a 3 and a 6. The computer had a 5 and a jack.
The next time the cards were 3♠️ , k♦️, 9♠️and I had a pair of queens. The computer went all in for a total of $3,000+. The flop and river were a 2♠️ and k♠️ computer ends with a flush having a 5♠️ and a 7❤️.
When I first got to the cruise ship the first 5 hands were last card flushes whenever I had the winning pair going into the flop.
It’s an entertaining game, but when you start going to different levels your cards are horrible. The skill of the computer doesn’t grow. They just give them high cards constantly. Or will bait you in knowing the other players know what’s coming next.
The logic should be to keep the cards random and have the computer learn how to manage their cards better as you go on.
It’s not a complete deal breaker as i stated before, all poker games do this. Even some spades games also.
Aside from this - the game is solid. you can tell the developers wanted to produce a great game. Once/if this gets fixed I will return and upgrade to 5 stars.

by Dwayne524

I love this poker app. You start from nothing and you build your way up until you get to the 100,000 buy in. Costs you nothing to play and you have lots of fun while you’re at it.

The trick to win is you fold 90% of the time until you get to the final table and your goal is to get at least third place so you fold and fold and fold until you have a solid hand and then wait till you get third place and try to get first after that. I have over 8 million chips doing it this way.

by JohnnyRoastbeef1967

It’s a good, fun app when you hold the phone horizontally and play quickly. Having said that, there is usually one bot who gets nothing but good hands, even if they start with garbage, like 7-2 offsuit. Sometimes this is “Connie,” but more often “Chris,” who has drawn a full house on me to beat an ace-high flush and quads to beat a full house. In fact, he has drawn quite a few quads, usually at those moments you really need your straight or flush to hold up.

The bots are also obscenely aggressive preflop and often see trash hands to the end and often draw out on them. They go all-in all the time, which is super annoying. They don’t give a fig for pot odds, either.

So while I really like the music, speed and atmosphere, the card-dealing RNG is questionable and the bots’ betting behavior is outrageous. I also really dislike the inevitable “really lucky bot” who gets nothing but boats, straights and sets.

EDIT: Played again today after a few months. The bots got quads four times in less than 10 minutes of play. What universe does that happen in?!

by The First Review

I loaded this on to my iPod Touch years ago and absolutely loved this game. Great graphics, good card action and betting. Then the Touch gave way to other brands of phones until finally I bought the iPhone 7. I hunted through the offline poker section of TexasHoldem Store. Only found a handful of apps. I didn’t want to sign in to the world poker tour app and have to buy chips.

Then one day I found this version. Christmas arrived early this year. Thanks for bringing this back. It’s a straightforward yet engaging way to play.

by Miketnt

I did thank you for bringing back Texas hold’em classic. This my first game on the iPhone 4. It’s slowly lose some of it’s feature first the cards sound and then The music as apple upgraded their software. After iPhone 6 I was so sad playing the other poker game. After playing the game it was better when you beat The garage room and move on to aquarium room game if you lost it took you back to garage room Game. Now I play any room. A haven’t play Multiplayer room.

by Jbl1975

I used to looooove TexasHoldem game. I’m not sure if I misunderstood by them saying ..we’re back”, that being the reason why I could not find this game for years and thinking I was a perfect idiot. Hey not that this disproves that but we can feel a little better now. Anywho, very thankful to the developers, the world in hardship as it is, and this game being one of, even if minuscule, life’s little-to-no-effort pleasures of owning an apple product. Gee I mean after my idk how many now products purchased from them, I hope I’ve earned it ;)