Ever sat in the middle of a Scrabble game, being faced by the most worthless set of letters and wish you could just cut your losses and fold? Ever get sick of being outdrawn by fish on the river, wishing you could control your own destiny of who gets the pot with skill? Have you never thought of either of these things, but still feel intrigued by the idea of combining word games with poker?
Well the game’s here, and it’s called Word Poker. It’s fresh on the shelf, so to speak, in the App Store. Blackberry even has their own version called Word Poker with Friends, also made by Synqua.
How it works is you have 3 opponents at the table and get dealt 5 “cards.” These cards are like Scrabble tiles in that they have letters and associated point values. These are essentially your hole cards, as you will be the only person allowed to play them. You then can choose your betting size, or you can just outright fold. The game eventually comes down to who can arrange their letters and the eventual community letters into the most points. This means that hand strength pre-“flop” is a delicate balance between 1) having usable letters that can arrange into a lot of words, 2) having tougher letters that can net you a slew of points if used wisely and 3) skill! Unlike in poker, the biggest variable isn’t how the board runs out or what your opponents’ cards are, but how crafty you are at using what you’re given.
Not only does being able to fold or wager on your hand save you the frustration of playing hopeless boards, but it also allows you to extract maximum value when you get hands that can score you a ton of points. And, on a not-so-minor note, you can bluff! Scoop the pot with a hand with nothing but Ks and Xs and have your opponent be none-the-wiser.
And this is only the first round of betting. Just like in Omaha and Hold’em, a community board then gets run out with three more rounds of betting. By the end of it, you’ll have 10 letters to work with: 5 in the pocket, 5 on the board.
Finally, the word aspect comes to the fore in the 90 second lightening round where you and all remaining opponents arrange the letters into as many valuable words as you can manage. The person with the highest score at the end of it scoops the pot.
Every player starts with 10,000 chips with the minimum bet being 100, so you get plenty of breathing room to let your skill and hustle shine.
Word Poker is available on iPhone and iPad. The Blackberry Word Poker with Friends app allows you to invite friends to a table and play with them.