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World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets

6.5 based on 0 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 4 votes Read user comments Rate this game

• Official Website

In World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets, players challenge over 30 of the world’s top poker champions. With intense heads-up tournament play, expansive poker tutorials, and strategy clips from Phil Hellmuth's Ultimate White to Black Belt Course, players can learn from the very best in the industry and take on all opponents in real-world locations such as Las Vegas and New Orleans. The game features Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth Jr. -- owner of a world record eleven WSOP bracelets -- in a special Beat The Brat Heads-Up mode and thrusts players deep into the high-stakes world of tournament poker to face off against other A-list pros such as Johnny Chan, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow on the quest to win the championship bracelet for the $10,000 Main Event and over $60MM in total prize money. [Activision]

PUBLISHER:	Activision
DEVELOPER:	Left Field Productions
GENRE(S):	Card Games
PLAYERS:	Multi
ESRB RATING:	T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE:	November 6, 2007

The average user rating for this game is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ike B. gave it an8:
I'm going to have to say that Battle for the Bracelets is probably the best poker game developed to date, if not simply for the features and extras available in this iteration of poker simulations. Through six weeks of WSOP play, you are able to compete in every type of game that the Series has to offer currently (the actual number and type of events change slightly each year in the real world WSOP). The time frames are accurate for the individual events, meaning if you really want to compete in a $1500 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold’em tournament with 54 players that will take 1 day to complete, don’t compete in the 1700 entrant pot-limit Omaha game scheduled the day before, because you will miss your game as that one will likely take 3 days to finish. Additionally, the availability of side game action is vast and various, allowing you to compete in all different types of poker at many different buy-in levels. These cash games are invitationals, and from time to time, one of the pros featured in the game will actually stake you for your buy in (for the first sitting, anyway). The great thing about these invitationals is that you can cash out and keep your profits/minimize your losses at whatever point you wish, but if you would like to continue and try to beat the field of pros sitting at the table, there is a collector chip waiting for each invitiational you take down. Also, there is a really cool heads up ladder competition against 10 of the featured pros (for no money, unfortunately) and at the top waiting for you is Phil Hellmuth. When you eventually get there, there is a Ramboesque montage cutscene where he dons his poker regalia and taunts you a bit. Pretty cheesy, but hey, it’s Phil “Poker Dork” Hellmuth. Other than the poker, there are a few other casino games included which are fun for a minute, which is cool if you don’t have the time to concentrate for an entire tournament. The games include video poker, Caribbean stud, three card poker, let it ride, and of course blackjack. A great thing is that these side games are free, so you won’t find yourself minus one bankroll due to a compulsive ‘let it ride’ bender. The new inclusion of various poker tools to a game is certainly welcomed. The tools have to be earned through play, but I’ve found that they all are earned by the end of the third tournament you enter. There is an odds calculator to help determine the value of calling bets with certain hands, an outs counter to show you how many and which cards are still left in the deck that can help your hand, and a hand odds calculator which shows you the ranking of your hole cards and the probability of drawing to each 5-card poker hand. There is also a ‘play style’ tool that will tell you if you are playing too tight or too loose, but I personally can’t put much stock into its usefulness, because right now it’s telling me that I’m a tight player, but through 4 weeks of tournament play, I’ve seen the flop with over 40% of my hands. If you know anything about poker, you know that that is not tight. The play style tool also doesn’t take into consideration post-flop betting , re-raising, or what the eventual outcome of the hands you see and play. The character customization feature is updated in WSOP ’08: BOTB, and there are quite a few new faces to choose from. I think there are 50 different face detail options per gender, however they are all very similar, and as small as the PSP screen is, it’s hard to tell the difference between them. You can also now earn ‘rooms’ and ‘stuff’ to put in the rooms. You start out with a garage (that I assume you live in), and eventually you earn a basement, and finally you get to move upstairs into a rec room. There are over a hundred unlockable items that you can eventually earn to put in the rooms, but I’ve found that the interface for room customization is so tedious that it’s hardly worth it. I’m just into the game and not really the stuff, although I have decorated my rec room with all the signs and rugs I’ve earned, as well as a guitar, a drum set, and a keyboard. All rooms come stock with poker tables, of course, but there are no chairs, and there are no chairs to unlock, so I guess you just have to place various items of furniture around the table for you and your virtual buddies to have your home games on. As far as gameplay is concerned, it is still poker against a computer AI, which over play time becomes predictable, however, I've seen this particular AI switch up it's play more than any other game I've played so far. Also, it seems to me that each character in the game has a particular play style. David “Devilfish” Ulliot, for example has a style of play that is quite similar to his real world style, that is, very very loose-aggressive. Looking at his stats I see that he sees more flops than me, and he raises every single one. I see a lot of flops, but I’ve only raised half of them. Another in game character (not a pro) called Spencer Oxford is a true calling station and will call to the river with any Ace. He’s one to drag money out of, but not to bluff. So you see, there are definitely elements of this game that mimic real world play. A basic historical data tool is available during play for your opponents (as well as yourself) for current game and year to date which is useful in determining who is a tight player and who will call any raise. Use this to find out if you might be able to steal some blinds or if someone is trying to steal your blinds. WSOP ’08: BOTB does seem to foster a winning play style because it seems that aggression is king. A tight-aggressive strategy in the beginning of the tournaments will keep you in, but when the blinds get big, switching to a position dependent loose-aggressive game will win you bracelets. Big stack poker is the name of the game here just as it is on live felt. And speaking of live felt, the PSP wireless capability does allow you to play over Wi-Fi with other PSP players within proximity, or over WLAN with up to nine players. I would like to see in the future the availability of larger than 9 player tournaments over an infrastructure gameframe, and maybe if the interest is there, that can be made possible. In infrastructure or ad-hoc games you can actually put up as a wager collector chips that you’ve earned in playing through the tournament series. WSOP ’08: BOTB has certainly raised the bar and set the new standard for simulated poker.

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