Pick’T Poker

Poker doesn’t seem to be a multiplayer game any more. Gone are the days when gnarly tough guys challenged each other in battles of wits, nerves and rigged betting. There are more solitary versions of poker now than there are cards in a deck, but that doesn’t mean originality isn't possible.

The oddly titled Pick’T Poker is the latest of a long line of games that use well-established poker rules, dealing another single player hand. Yet by shuffling up the mechanics of play with new rules and unique strategies it deals a completely fresh game.

The game seats you at a round table with eight cards dealt out in a circle. Your hand is shown along the bottom of the screen.

Your task is to take three cards from the table to create the strongest poker hand possible. Doing so fills up an energy meter at the bottom of the screen, depending on the quality of the hand you managed to put together. Once this meter’s full, you level up.

Any spare cards left over from your hand are retained for the next round, unless you managed to use up all five cards, in which case two new ones are brought in from the pack. Pretty standard stuff for a solitaire poker game. You're sure to pick it up pretty quickly.

Your energy meter, however, can also move in the other direction. If a hand is completed with more than two cards remaining, the extra cards are destroyed, costing you energy. Likewise, if you leave a card on the table for too long it can also explode and further drain your meter.

You’re entirely at the mercy of fate. If you’re dealt a bad hand, even the most stolid poker face can’t save you from losing points. And this is where the real brilliance of Pick’T Poker comes into play.

As you level up, you’re awarded different kinds of magic that allow you to manipulate the cards in different ways. For example, some allow you to send a card back to the table to change the suit, add one to its value, or subtract one from its value.

You can use each magic once per round and only five times before levelling up, at which point all your magic is replenished. So, for example, you could use the magic to return one of your statutory cards to the table and then change the suit of another card to form a flush. All of a sudden Pick’T Poker takes on a superb and challenging twist.

There’s no such thing as a bad hand. If you fail, it's because you’re unable to figure out how to make use of it, or you mess it up by using your magic on the wrong card, or you fill up your five card hand with poor choices.

Sometimes the magic even misfires, requiring you to choose even more carefully from the table. For example, the -1 magic might affect the third card position in your hand, so choosing a pair to go in that spot would result in mismatched cards.

It’s a remarkable take on the well-trodden paths of solitaire poker, which deepens with every hand and new level. Combined with the excellent soundtrack, this is a devilishly addictive casual game - a must-have for anyone who regularly passes their work day playing Freecell.