Others say...

"Very good Poker Trainer "
I am a begainer at texas holdem and wanted a tool to get me started and the program worked as advertized. The tips are great for a new player and it's good that they can be turned off when you've seem them a few times also it's good that the speed of play and player comments have controls all in all a good investment

"WORTH CONSIDERING and FUN TO PLAY"
Easy to load. It has an easy 'play format' to comprehend! Offers various Texas Holdem venues and offers various degrees of difficulty for each. Gives tips and pop-ups regarding play (can be turned on or off during play) and has progressive hand percentages alongside your hold-cards. Has an option (separate from play) offering tips regarding play, as well as other benefitical options. FUN AND EASY TO PLAY. CAN BE USED AS AN EFFECTIVE EDUCATION TOOL FOR BEGINNERS WANTING TO IMPROVE THEIR GAME.

My only negative comments are as follows: 1) Tips tend towards being rather tight (very conservative in all respects: probably better for beginners), and that's not how T.J. actually plays, and; 2) you will find repetition of hands because the size of the random data-base (for possible hands) is limited! The former is not something of real concern, however, the latter, in my opinion, is the product's biggest limitation and one worth considering.

CAUTION: Here's a personal comment, for what it's worth. Having played some, make that a lot of, poker over the past 40 plus years, I can assure you that most professional players are, shall I say, set in their ways. This doesn't mean they cannot or will will not vary their play as they perceive it opportunistic. I think what I'm trying to say, and probably not doing a very good job of it, is this: these computer games, such as they are, are not, regardless of what some poker players may think, designed for 1) advancing you to the level of a professional poker player or for 2) the education of professional poker players, but, they are fun to play. Simply because one rises to the challenge of these games does not mean s/he is going to be successful playing for "real money" either at a brick-and-morter establishment or on-line! BEWARE: There are professionals waiting at these places for you! The probability of the aforementioned is probably a fact and the odds will, therefore, be against you! The lessons you learn while playing for "real money" will probably be, at times, very expensive! Practical experience (same as on-the-job training and herein refers to playing for real money) includes losing pots, and losing pots is a necessary and valuable part of one's overall poker education: plan on it and for it economically, and learn from it. I advise that you not, REPEAT NOT, play poker for "real money," unless you can afford to lose more than the amount you play for. If you decide to play poker for "real money" and you lose the farm and your livestock and you pick-up truck and your autographed picture of Elvis, do not blame others for your lack of knowledge, skill, and good judgement.
HEY! PAY ATTENTION HERE: I'm making no admission, but, only an idiot would ever think that the odds on his poker hand are/were good enough to wager his only autographed picture of Suzanne Pleshette.

"Solid introduction to poker, but only for beginners"
Long before the young guns and the hidden cameras helped turn poker into a national franchise, TJ Cloutier was busy racking up a record 59 wins in professional poker tournaments; including 36 appearances at the final table in the World Series of Poker and three consecutive wins. World Class Poker is a solid title with sharp graphics and quick, fun gameplay. Alas, I'd be lying if I said this will turn you into the next tournament champion.

World Class Poker takes up about 800MB of hard drive space, but you can save half of that by running the videos off the CD. I was disappointed to see the maximum resolution is only 1024x768, however you can choose to play either in full screen or windowed mode. Once the game boots up, you enter your name, then select from three difficulty settings and the game you wish to play. You're given a choice of Omaha, 5 Card Draw, Seven Card Stud, Texas Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit Hold Em. You can also choose from various tournaments including No Limit, Limit, and Pot Limit Texas Hold Em in both single table satellites and multi table shootouts. Finally, you can compete against computerized TJ in the granddaddy No Limit main event, provided you've won enough to afford the $10,000 buy-in.

Options are prevalent, but statistics are limited. The dealer's voice gets annoying as he says the same thing over and over, plus the players make some really asinine comments such as, "I've seen better hands on a mannequin" or, "I'm going to make like a lawn-chair and fold." Uh... yeah. You'll be adjusting these settings real quick. As far as statistics, you can pull up the history of the past few hands you played, but there are no options to summarize so you'll be forced to read everything line by line. You can also see the amount of time you played, the number of hands won and the amount won, but that's it. The best feature of the game is what is known as "TJ's tips." As the play moves around the table to you, a small box appears on the bottom right with TJ telling you how he would play the hand. If it's the first time he's giving a particular piece of advice, a small video screen pops up with him explaining what he would do. Masque wisely made it so that the video will only show up once so he's not saying the same thing over and over. After that, it'll just be in text. Another nice feature, especially for beginners, are 88 questions involving hand analysis. TJ pops up on a small video screen along with a multiple choice question involving how you would play a certain hand. Once you make the selection, he will tell you how he would have played it and why.

Everything up to this point is fine. Masque has a solid track record of programming great gambling related software and I think their Slots programs are some of the best on the market. But the most important part of poker software is competent A.I. and, unfortunately, this program just doesn't cut it. This is evidenced by the fact that I, as a beginner, found myself easily able to battle back in ring game tournaments even after taking some bad beats. I was even able to knock out TJ personally and win the main event after only a few plays. This is from a beginner. Something tells me TJ won't be so easy in real life. As far as the different players are concerned, I was able to detect some differences in the way they play. Some were tight and passive, while others were loose and aggressive, but this was only at the highest difficulty setting. In easier settings, the play was completely illogical.

Since I am a beginner in Hold Em, it would be unfair of me to speculate on the weaknesses of the AI as I could be wrong. However, I am competent enough at Seven Card Stud that I could tell the problems are severe in that game. In one instance, a player would check down all the way to sixth, then bet out with only a pair of fours. In another instance, the AI would aggressively bet into me with a pair of deuces even though it was obvious I was drawing to (and likely made) a flush. When playing against one another, computer players will bet aggressively on 4th and 5th, then suddenly fold even when the other player catches ugly. If a computer player checks to you on 5th and you bet into them, they will almost always fold. Even at the highest difficulty settings I saw the AI call down an ace high four flush on board even though they had no chance of drawing better. The AI seems to play based on the strength of their individual hand, but doesn't take their opponent's hand into account. The most glaring example of this was a player who insisted on capping the river with threes full. Considering her threes were all showing on board, it should be obvious the reason I was raising her was because I had a better hand. If you're going to cap a hand like that against me, you better at least have quads.

After a while, it seemed that, even on the highest difficulty, I had the computer's method of operation down pat. On third street, the highest card always raises. On fourth, highest on board always bets out. Not until fifth street does the computer appear to bet on strength and usually if they don't improve a pair, they'll simply check down to the river. Knowing only this, it becomes really easy to bully players around. I turned $5,000 into $10,000 in an hour. Sigh, if only it were so easy...

So the search for good poker software continues. I know Pokersoft makes a program called Poker Academy that purportedly has the most advanced AI out there. Unfortunately it appears you're only getting a "dumb" version of the AI when you buy it from Amazon. In order to get the "smart" version, you have to shell out another hundred bucks. I think I'll wait for "Stacked" when it comes out in 2006. It claims to use the same "Poki" A.I. that Poker Academy uses. Developed by researchers at the University of Alberta (wacky Canadians...) Poki claims to be able win consistently against average players as it can adapt to an individual player's style. We'll see if it lives up to the hype.

"This game has become . . ."
a practice game for me, before playing my weekly poker game. It has a really good AI, its challenging, and gives you a lot of good tips.

I only had it for three weeks, but it certainly has helped my game. It stopped me from playing a lot of the throwaway hands I use to. The visuals are good, and the amount of control you have on the game variables are nice. The only knock, is that a lot of the players AI strategies are either really easy to figure out, or really hard. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground.

I would strongly recommend it, if you want to build up your poker skills.

"Fun and Informative!"
I really didn't know what to expect when I bought this software and I was pleasantly surprised! Cloutier plays a good game of poker and he helps the player attain those good attributes as well. He makes interesting comments and the tips sections with regard to the math of poker and other concepts are really helpful. The only knock I had against the software was the lack of statistical data presented to you during the course of a hand. I would like to see more of it. Of course it is possible I didn't dig deep enough into the software to find it. I can't comment on how "realistic" the AI is for the game because I figure nothing can be as complicated as real play. Unfortunately, the only way to get real life experience is to play with real life money, but this software will give the player a good fundamental base.

JK