Poker Mania for Windows

Poker Mania offers a single game of draw poker, but leaves a lot to be desired. While it was easy to pick up, we quickly grew bored with the program's lack of variety.

Even though we are not regular poker players, we felt instantly at home with this simple interface. The program's onscreen instructions were great and the Help file's list of winning hands clarified a lot. Poker has countless variations and we were expecting to find at least a few to choose from. Instead, we were quickly disappointed to find that the program only consisted of a game of five-card draw and nothing else. It was simple to learn how to draw, hold, and win. Another letdown came when we realized we weren't playing against computer players, but ourselves and the luck of the draw. This eliminated all the strategizing and problem solving that many love about poker. The program featured the ability to create multiple characters, but never let them play a hand together, so it was only useful for people who share a computer. While the program worked as a single poker game, we were quickly bored with its lack of different poker styles and lack of computer players.

Poker Mania is a freeware program. Since it only offers five card draw and that game quickly gets boring, we do not recommend this program.