Texas Hold ‘Em poker widget

Online poker has to be one of the biggest-growing areas in online gaming and Scenario Poker brings Mac users the Texas Hold ’em version on their dashboard.

Scenario Poker allows you to play in a three-tier, freeze-out tournament against up to 27 simulated opponents. If you run out of chips, you’re out but if you win everyone’s chips, you keep advancing to the next table until you’re the champion. The good thing about this is that there’s no real money involved or even the temptation to get real money involved as it’s all simulated.

Scenario Poker is a customizable widget allowing you to change the style and color of the cards to your taste. You can’t, however, choose who you want to complete against and you have to play a minimum of nine players at a time which can be quite overwhelming, especially for beginners. All of the players are given human faces and names, although all are actually simulated by the computer. Dealing is simply a case of clicking ‘Deal’ then you click the respective buttons whether you want to call or raise.

There are no sound effects with the game, which could have added a little more atmosphere and both the cards and funds each player has remaining are a little small to see properly. However, the game is very slick with dealing and raising happening very quickly. In fact, unless you know the rules of Texas Hold ‘Em well, you may find yourself floundering very quickly.

Scenario Poker is an excellent poker widget that’s high on poker action and realism but won’t have you crying all the way to the bank if you lose.