This is my third PC poker review in the past month. Not that it's a bad thing, I love playing poker and playing it on my PC is as close as I normally get. Since having children my poker funds are all but gone. But occasionally I do get to go out to the local casinos and play in a $25 or $35 dollar tournament. And no matter how awesome a game of PC Poker is, there is nothing that compares to sitting at a tournament's final table knowing that if you can just bump off a couple players, you'll be in the money. Palms get sweaty, you look for the tells that the other players have in order to get a leg up while trying not to give up anything yourself. This is as close to the real thing that I have come so far in my PC Poker endeavors. 

Now I reviewed T.J.'s game http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r27682.htm and I reviewed Donohoe Digital's http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r27535.htm and while T.J.'s offers a much more pretty game to look at, including tutorials and helpful play tips, it's Donohoe's that wraps the package completely with it's awesome online play. So imagine my surprise when I got to playing "Stacked" with Daniel Negreanu. Featuring the awesome graphics and noteworthy instruction of T.J.'s and the online excellence of Donohoe's this title will make some sales.

"Eyes up, buddy!"

Now what I found to be the most impressive surprise is the game's A.I. engine called POKI. POKI recognizes your playing styles and begins to decipher specific patterns. But I tell you, if you do play consistently one way too much, like you bluff too much the A.I. will begin to call your bluff, and you will lose to what normally would be an average hand. It's a nasty ride playing against the computer and more then once I had to get up and walk away. I have played more then my share of poker games and I can tell you that while I didn't get my butt handed to me, I lost more often playing this title then any of my other games. Tough stuff here folks. I mean it, this was a very well made program.

 
"My gambling intervention takes an odd turn."

Stacked features a pretty heavy collection of professional poker players. Players like David Williams, Erick Lindgren, Josh Arieh and Jennifer Harman plus more. Of course it also features Daniel Negreanu, the game's namesake. These pros are featured predominantly in the game and you will go up against their likenesses. That is, of course, if you select the game's career mode. The idea is to work your way up from being a rookie and playing in various tournaments, eventually winning enough games to play in the final table against one or more of the aforementioned pros. I have not yet made it this far since it is a career mode and does take a while to get to that level. If anything, Stacked has a level of depth that will challenge the most veteran of poker gamers.

Like T.J.'s game, Stacked offers up helpful hints in order to further your poker-playing abilities. If you choose to listen to Daniel Negreanu, he will provide essential tips on how to beat the other Pros. If you don't listen to him and still beat them, then this was the game for you.  I guess if I learn everything from this and T.J.'s game, I ought to be a superstar myself. 

Graphically, Stacked does very well. The character models look nice and smooth, almost too smooth with the perfect flawless skin. The game could benefit from a bit more shading in the characters but still, nice to look at. What I thought was the nicest effect was the little things in the background to try and make the game more high roller. Plants and velvet ropes and signs are everywhere complete with the loud Vegas carpeting, it's cool.
 

Gameplay: 8.8
Dynamic gameplay here; the flow of the game, the friendly ease of control, not that it's complicated, but that it's laid out nicely.

Graphics: 8.8
The cards pop up on the upper corner of the screen giving the illusion of you watching a TV poker show. It's a pretty sharp way of depicting the action. The character models are also nice and clear as is the playing area. Love the whole Vegas look of the game.

Sound: 7.2
Nothing I would say jumps out at me. The game's weakest feature for it's normalcy. They pushed the envelope in the A.I. and the graphics, they didn't in my opinion, push it in the audio....

And still it scores in the 7's.

Concept: 9.0
Stacked gets it right, not only by making a good online poker game, but making a good-looking and good-playing, online poker game.

Concept: 8.8
Poker is hot right now and big-name players are making big-name games. Here's one right now.

Multiplayer: 9.4
Very easy to hop online and find/join a tournament. Or, if you play with your friends online you can create a game just for you and your friends... what a novel idea. Still, it rocks.

Overall: 9.1
Wow, this is a really good poker game. The A.I. engine is fabulous, the graphics are really strong and the game's overall dynamic is spot-on. This is a kick-butt online experience and I can hardly wait for those proposed tournaments that I keep reading about online.