Poker has seeped in to every part of our society and it’s a modern day leveler of the classes. Everyone that plays today probably grew up with the impression that poker was a game for the rich and cowboys. That is of course unless they grew up in Las Vegas in which case they believed it was for both. The fact there is so much poker being played on television, on games consoles and even poker games handheld means it is mainstream. It is now a game for the masses and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for the time being.
You only have to take a look at the amount of the poker games handheld that are on sale in Amazon to realize that this is a phenomenon. It has formed its own industry in handheld poker game makers and one of the leading manufacturers has to be Radica. The company that was purchased by Mattel in the 1990s started off just making electronic handheld souvenir games for casinos. Thanks to the success of its poker games it has managed to take a commanding position in the niche of handheld poker games.
They brought out Big Screen poker a handheld poker game that was popular with many people that caught the poker bug. It had a lot of followers and its ease of use meant that it was always going to be popular with novices as well as more capable players. The large screen lights up when you play and the buttons have a nice feel which players liked. So all in all, this is a very good introduction to the handheld game. With the success of this model, Radica has gone and made many more units for poker fans.
The ‘Executive Handheld Electronic Draw Poker Game’ has quite a nice screen compared to some of the other offerings from Radica and is very popular amongst people who player their poker games handheld a lot. A quick look over the forums will soon give the impression of a game that is up on its competition. People who have played Big Screen Poker & Ex Calibur Black Jack will appreciate the much faster game play. It’s ideal for passing time away when travelling or sitting in waiting rooms because the fast play makes gives you the ‘just one more’ feeling.
The Electronics industry may have the head start when it comes to technology but poker is a game that belongs to the card manufacturers. Well at least that’s what Bicycle, one of the world’s largest makers of playing cards wants you to believe. They have brought out a competitor in the form of the Bicycle Illuminated Touch Screen 3 in 1 Poker handheld game. This neat little bit of kit has its own stylus just like the Nintendo DS and has a screen that carries lots of details on the game you are playing. If there is one bad thing you could say about this unit, it would be its speed. The game is just too slow and it almost makes you not want to win so much. For every thousand points won in a hand it takes about a minute to count them down in to the players stack. Imagine those big hands when the player wins four or five thousand points.
There are competitors on the market though and one that has to be mentioned is named after a World Series of Poker big player. John Hansen 7 in 1 hand held poker game is a must for poker players whether they are a John Hansen fan or not. The screen on this unit is slightly better that most of the Radica offerings and it also has some good features like the battery saving feature which knocks the system off after two minutes of inactivity. It would be safe to assume though that the power save feature could become a bit annoying after a while especially if you are in the middle of a game whilst trying to juggle other things.
There are countless poker games handheld that are doing the rounds that are designed purely for the fun player. That is without even mentioning the ones available for the GameBoy Advance and, Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. In fact it’s probably a good idea to keep the handheld poker game purely for poker so that the kids won’t be so keen to take over it. Apart from being able to access and play the game, one of the main things to make sure is that the game can move quickly. Everything else will become secondary after a few games and you know how to play it. You’ll forget about the screen and buttons and it will be just down to the game play.
