Governor of Poker
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| Governor of Poker

When you work at Pocket Gamer, you play a lot of poker.

Having never picked up a pack of cards for anything other than a quick game of Snap before my days here, recent years have seen me develop something of a habit, all in a bid to keep on top of the wealth of hold 'em titles thrown across my desk week after week.

In all fairness to my wife and kids, they stuck by me through the dark times, and I maintain they'd still be with me to this day had I not had to sell them for a few extra chips.

Playing with poker

The irony is, of course, that such intensive schooling is usually unnecessary - most poker titles tend to be mirror images of one another.

This certainly isn't true of Connect2Media's Governor of Poker, which – after a successful splash on the web – appears on mobile proffering a whole new brand of poker play.

Dropping standard Texas Hold 'em encounters into a Monopoly-style Career mode, Governor of Poker makes winning property your priority. This means going from town to town and playing out mini-poker tournaments to win each and every building on offer, with the ultimate aim of taking over the entire state of Texas.

Every property you own then brings in cash as the minutes pass by in true Monopoly style, ensuring you're got enough in the kitty to take on the folks at the table.

Building your empire

The matches themselves are fairly standard affairs. You'll usually find yourself taking on somewhere between five and seven competitors.

There's a genuine level of intelligence employed in the AI - players don't simply fold if you up the stakes, and you can quickly find yourself blowing your entire wedge if you try and bluff when those around you have strong hands.

Those who have no thirst for hoarding houses need not pay too much attention to the game's structure, however.

In truth, it's employed simply as a framework, ensuring you have cash coming in (which, in turn, means busting out during one match isn't the end of the game as a whole) and marking off your progress as you go.

However, even if Governor of Poker's boardgame structure is somewhat token, combined with the fluent nature of the actual matches Connect2Media's Monopoly merger comes equipped with a substantial pay out.

Governor of Poker

Bringing a fresh structure to poker games, Governer of Poker might not be the revolution it initially appears, but its new angle ensures it stands out in the long run
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.