If you are one of the millions of people who have jumped on the online poker bandwagon in the last few years, you have probably already (unsuccessfully) looked around for an iPhone app that lets you play Texas Hold’em online. Unfortunately – due to Apple’s stance on online gambling – there are no official poker clients in the app store that allow for real-money poker.
Still, even Apple knows the value of a good poker app for the iPhone, as is clearly demonstrated by Apple’s in-house developed “Texas Hold’em” app. While this poker app looks great and implements the iPhone’s UI admirably, it is also fairly limited. It bears little resemblance to the “real” online poker experience – although it’s possible to play against some of your friends over Wi-Fi.
If you want a poker app where you get to play with thousands of other players online, have a look at “Live Poker” by Zynga instead; it offers Facebook integration and an interface that closely resembles the ones you’ll find in regular online poker rooms. Of course, there is no option to play for real money or play in Titan Poker freerolls, but you do get to play in a very online poker-like environment for pure entertainment purposes, which might be good enough.
As with all free poker games where no money is involved, there is no real challenge to be found in Live Poker – you get a reasonably sized stack to start with, plus you may add more every time you play. But that’s the nature of play-money poker – with nothing to lose; you usually don’t play good poker. This is fine if you’re just looking for entertainment, but don’t think that you’ll do just as well in real poker even if you make millions with Zynga Live Poker.
Admittedly, there are no new or unique special features in Zynga’s Live Poker, but it builds on the tried and tested, user-friendly Texas Holdem recipe that you find online. Zynga has done a nice job in adapting this experience to the iPhone. If you have played any poker game before, you will be able to navigate Live Poker’s interface with ease. A bell will tell you when it’s your turn to act, and you get to chat with the other players at the table, or buy them a virtual drink to celebrate your big wins.
In all, Zynga Live Poker is definitely one of the best ways to play poker on the iPhone while we wait for a real-money poker client to come along, which may unfortunately never happen.
Zynga Live Poker requires the iPhone 2.0 software update and is compatible with both the iPhone & iPod Touch.
May 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
You’re right, it is the best Iphone app. I use it to go to sleep every day ;) Most Iphone apps, I barely use at all!
July 6th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
If you played this app you’d realize it’s severely flawed. First, it’s buggy:
–It frequently complains of having insufficient network bandwidth, on a full T1 with full strength wireless. If not for the avatars, it should only have to transfer bytes, if not bits, to represent a hand. And the avatars are tiny.
–Twice I’ve lost hands, and once I’ve won a hand, when the winning hands were not the best on the table.
–A half-dozen times it’s folded on me contrary to my selected action, and NOT when the elapsed timer runs out. (The timer is great. Even with the timer it’s torturous waiting for some players to decide what to do. I can’t imagine playing without the timer.)
–dealt cards display in odd ways, including over your own cards, over the chat window, etc.
–and the odds seem outrageous. In 500 hands, I’ve seen 9 (NINE!) 4 of a kind hands, and 4 straight flushes (for example). The odds of a straight flush in 7 cards are approximately 0.0311% (1 in 3110). I have no reason, other than the staggering number of certain hands, to believe the game is fixed, but it’s the hottest game I’ve ever seen.
–the social bloodsucking is also a pain. You are constantly prompted to buy chips for cash (ha!), give your email address, give your SMS address, join in Facebook, etc., etc. You’re also confronted with an ad for another Zynga game every single time you fold. EVERY FOLD. (Dear Zynga, I don’t give a toss about vampires.) It’s hard to get too worked up over this, because it’s a free game, but if there’s an inexpensive paid version that cuts out all that fudge, you’re better off with that.
I haven’t looked for another game.
July 21st, 2009 at 8:06 am
um if i buy more than one zynga will i get the chips too?
August 5th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I played this app way too much but got feed up with it and just dumped my 1 mill my chips stack today because I got tired of people playing crap hands and losing constantly to crazy hands like 4 of a kinds and crazy runner runner straights and full houses. I have played poker for many many years and have never hit a straight flush. Of course on wonderful Zynga poker, I hit one and many other crazy hands. I got back to back pocket Aces last night?? I agree that it must be set up. Also the big problem is that you can play with a low stack even when you have 1 billion chips. What people do is come in with a small stacks, win a couple of nice hands and then deposit the winnings to reserve They then come right back with the small stack they started with to minimize their looses. No matter what you do, 2-4 will always call your all in..chips are traded and bought. The top guy has some billion range chip stack. Keep playing this and you will loose big time at your home games kids…there is 0% skill here..
August 5th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I meant a I hit a royal staight flush??? What are the odds again?
September 29th, 2009 at 5:05 am
I agree with steve (posted 8/5/09). I’ve played for 2 weeks daily and I’m up to 700K starting with 5k plus 500 a day ave chips I get for signing on. Like the other poster said too many runner runners (which I’ve taken advantage of). One night I only lost two hands out of 50+ hands. When I mucked I’ve would’ve won most of those! The app loves me!? Nice to chat with some people, but not real poker. Not had a problem with the app itself crashing or using 3G network on my iPhone 3G. Tournament play is a little better, but still way too many good flops and hands. In the real world I’ve seen one straight flush in 5 years, and not too many 4 of kinds.
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 am
I purchased the 100k and 300k and never have received the 2,000 chips per day.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:54 am
I made an account on my ipod before facebook…..I just wanted to know if you could somehow use the account from the ipod on facebook. I’ve got 100k+ chips I don’t wanna waste.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Zynga is full of bugs. Irritating when you are kicked out off a 25,000$ tournement due to “bad connection” messages. 2 out of 3 tournements requires a restart. No other online app. generates this message.
I have removed it from my iPhone and will wait till Zynga cures the bugs. The idea is good, poker is a hype so there is a need for app. like this.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:39 am
i have played for over a year on online accounts and received an ipod touch for christmas and would like to play on there, so i downloaded the app on itunes and synced it to my ipod but for some reason it keeps showing error, if anyone could provide helpful info it would be appreciated
January 11th, 2010 at 12:55 am
can someone explain to me why you would ever “buy” chips on here for REAL money (via paypal)…I don’t get that..what is the advantage of that..you can get the chips for free? Also, there has been tons of complaints about people’s chips getting “stolen” or “hacked” from their accounts..what would be the reason someone would want to steal your fake money chips..i don’t get that…..
January 19th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
THIS IS A CRAPY GAME ON IPHONE. I HAVE PLAYED THIS GAME, EVERY DAY AND ALL DAY LONG LIKE I’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…..IF YOU HAVE THE GAME GET READY FOR SOME ODD FRUSTRATION…IF YOU ARE A BEIGGINER BETTER LOOK FOR SOMETHING ELSE/
January 20th, 2010 at 8:57 am
The search engines helped me find your site. Glad i found it because i have learned a lot here. Thanks for all your work!