Pure Hold'Em (Xbox One) - Review

Pure Hold'Em is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £15.99.

I'm actually pretty good at poker. I mean real poker where you can see peoples faces and call them out on their bluff. But when moving over to playing on a console I turn into a complete poker idiot.

I know my hands and I know when I have good ones. But I ALWAYS seem to encounter AI's that fold if you ever raise the bet. Does everybody else? And I've never before felt brave enough to take my poker playing online. I know I'd be playing against real people, but they are still people that I cannot SEE.

I've played a few versions of poker games on consoles and can honestly tell you that Pure Hold'Em is one of the best. I mean obviously they're all the same game at their core, but with Pure Hold'Em I feel like there has been more attention to detail then I've seen previously, at least. THE CARDS ACTUALLY BEND when you go to look at your hand, something that excited me MUCH more than is normal. But seriously, I don't recall playing any other poker game that actually bent the cards like you;d looked at them with actual hands, rather than just hovered them in front of your face like a magician.

BENDING CARDS!

For me Pure Hold'Em seems pretty realistic. The chips seem like they actually weigh something, and the sounds of the chips hitting the table are awesome. You can't seem toe scape customisation in any games anymore, so obviously there are a raft of customisable cards, chips and tables for you to unlock.

There's also a little mini game you can play once daily for free that's reminiscent of a game played on Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right, where, you've guessed it, you have to predict whether the next card will be higher or lower than the one you have just turned over. In doing so you get more money to play more poker, which I thought was a pretty good way of dealing with keeping your pot going.

There are a few different ways to play, namely Online in either an open table or a Tournament, or you can set up a private table online. For the Offline mode you can test your mettle against 7 AI's on a variety of different tables.

At £15.99 I'd say it is a little pricey, unless you're really looking for your poker fix wait it out for a sale. It is a great poker game, with plenty to keep you going, but I think this would have been better priced at around the £10 mark.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.