Thanks to the involvement of MTV and poker champion Daniel Negreanu, Stacked has become one of the most hyped poker games to hit consoles in recent years. Now the series finally makes its way to the PSP, leaving gamers to decide if Stacked really has a strong hand or just a weak bluff.

These days, it seems like you can't turn on your television without seeing a poker game of some kind on the air, and for a while now videogame developers have been cashing in on the obsession. And while most of these games try to offer up a host of different types of games to distract players from some glaring weaknesses, Stacked with Daniel Negreanu sticks with one game (Texas Hold 'em) and does it well.

One of Stacked's biggest selling points has been its use of the Poki AI engine, which has been in development for a number of years at the University of Alberta and is built exclusively for Texas Hold 'em. The AI does a surprisingly good job of mimicking the behavior of human opponents, and also adapts itself to the player's particular playing habits. If you bet hard and fast, even on weak hands, the computer will smell fresh blood in the water and devour your chips like a midday snack. More timid players will see their pile of chips whittled away as the AI learns to bet strong and scare the player out of a head-to-head showdown. Although there are some minor weaknesses in the AI's behavior, it's still by and large the best AI in any of the poker games on the market.


Despite the popularity of the game, the truth is that poker really isn't designed to be a spectator sport. It's only thanks to things like table-mounted cameras, running commentary, and of course, the personalities of the players that poker fans can actually get drawn into the tension of the game. Unfortunately, poker video games don't offer up these luxuries, many times resulting in a weak overall presentation. Simply put, there's just not a lot of fun to be had watching people sitting around a table and waiting for other players to make a move. Stacked is no different in this regard. Your opponents have a pretty generic look and lack any real personality. The monotony is occasionally broken up by some commentary from Negreanu, who chimes in to offer up some professional advice for how to handle the situation at hand. And while the help is generally pretty good, there are times where the tips seem completely off base.