Texas Hold'em free on Xbox 360 for another few hours

Goes up to $10 after give-away period ends

from JoeUser Forums
Quick note for those that hadn't heard the news...

If you own an Xbox 360 you can download Texas Hold'em poker for free on the box, even if you only have the Xbox Live Silver level membership. The game is a free download for the first 48 hours (of which approximately 16 hours have passed as I write this) after it's initial release, after that the price will be approximately $10 (depending on where/how and how much you get your Microsoft points at and for).

Play against real players from around the world.

The game is a decent rendition of Texas Hold'em and institutes a unique perpetual bankroll feature that lets you wager virtual money from your own online bank. It's not real money, and is not a way of wagering real money (unless someone negotiates with others to use the virtual bankroll and online funds to represent real money). It is a virtual bankroll which can go up and down over time, but which can also be completely wiped out.

If you wipe out, you will find that you must start the game over with a "loan" that has to be paid back when you leave the table. In other words, you can bankrupt yourself and be stuck playing in low level games to get enough money to play in the higher stakes games where the bulk of the virtual money will change hands.

In anycase, again if you weren't aware that the game is free -- DID I MENTION IT WAS FREE?? -- for the first few days, get it now. Even if you don't think you'll play online, grab it so you'll have some free stuff to play on that expensive Xbox 360.
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9,820 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Oh, if you do venture online to play the game, keep in mind that you'll run into lots of idiots that go "All In" if you don't set limits on your table. It's just the way some people like to play, but it can be frustrating. Hopefully over the next few weeks things will settle down and the "All In" folks will find their way up to bigger stakes tables leaving the recreational players to enjoy the fun.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I love the Idea of companies giving out free full game trials like this. Every time Steam does something like this I always download it and if I had a 360 then I'd try this too. As for your second post, has there ever been an x-box live game that doesn't have idiots running around it?
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
I love the Idea of companies giving out free full game trials like this.


Actually the cool thing with Hold'em on the 360 is that it's not just a trial game, it is the complete game that you are getting during this free give away period. There's no difference between the game you can download now (for free) and the game you'll get a few days from now (which you'd be paying for).

Giving away the full game during a special introductory period is a nice way of finding out just how many people will use Xbox Live to get software like this, and just how much interest there may be in playing such games once they've been downloaded. Xbox Live's managers will get stats on all of this stuff and be able to use those stats to do more marketing to other developers (potential partners) and hopefully get more games like these in the future.

Eventually they may make some money by selling customers new card decks, themes, backgrounds, or other special bonsues that have to be purchased. They can also -- as has been suggested by some people -- get sponsors for tournaments and charge advertising costs for the sponsorships and such.


As for your second post, has there ever been an x-box live game that doesn't have idiots running around it?


Very true. It's obviously some what human nature to want to "bluff" your way into winning a pot, or seriously raise the stakes so that a win gets you back a huge pot. I understand that, but playing against people that do that all of the time isn't much fun in the end.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well, the bad news update is that the game isn't free anymore.

The good news is it is still available, but it now costs $10 (800 Microsoft points).

Still fun if you like Poker