Poker Club

Poker Club is good for anyone interested in a very realistic looking poker sim with a big emphasis on tournament play. What you see is what you get, but it is much slower and more flashy than one might expect. The customisation options are impressive, but the beauty only goes skin deep.

With plenty of game modes, an active online community, crossplatform compatibility, and a top-notch visual environment, Poker Club knows how to deliver a realistic poker experience. Where Poker Club doesn't deliver, however, is where the Nintendo Switch handheld capabilities are concerned - the game requires a constant internet connection, which seriously harms playing on the go, and its visual quality on the Nintendo Switch screen decreases significantly. Players at home, though, will find a fun and immersive experience.

I was surprised by Poker Club, because my initial impressions of the game were not very strong. I found the online challenges to be frustrating and the game’s overall speed to be tedious. But as I continued on, I had reconciled these problems without really even noticing. That’s not to say that these issues are not pervasive to the entire experience, but because I had merely grown numb to them. Much like taking a seat at the gambler’s table for the very first time, many frustrations will pass as you take in the easygoing, yet exciting atmosphere of this common pastime. Though it could be better, Poker Club is a charming and lovingly crafted recreation of one of the most popular pastimes around.

I love Poker Club's design and philosophy, but unfortunately, where Ripstone's other games on Switch are exceptional, this is a vastly inferior port and experience.

Poker Club on Nintendo Switch does a good job at providing a truly immersive poker simulation. Unfortunately the entire package of Poker Club isn't great. The incredibly poor AI will teach you nothing in offline mode and the overall slowness of all action makes for a boring experience. Playing online is even worse, as players can take an impossibly long amount of time on each turn. It's just painfully slow enough that you'd likely be better off just playing poker in real life.

While gambling-oriented games, whether straight cards of some kind or casino, are generally pretty niche I will admit that every once in a while one will stand out and catch my attention...

You can't get a more immersive poker experience than Poker Club so if you enjoy Texas Hold 'em then you'll love what it has to offer.

Having fixed most of the technical and visual bugs that plagued the initial release, Poker Club cannot overcome the issues that haunt all the poker simulators. The unpredictability of the human element brings tediousness and a slow pace, without being able to replicate the thrills of playing face to face with another human being.

After overcoming some issues in its launch week, Poker Club has stabilised as an ambitious, functional yet unremarkable poker simulator. The innovations that aim for increased immersion manage to slow down the action to the point they become almost tedious. There’s more than a few issues that still need to be remedied in Poker Club and Ripstone have promised fixes are on the way. The potential is not yet realised but there’s every chance this game might fluke a win at the river.

It wants to be poker of new generation, however it is just average poker game with some good and bad parts.