Crooked Aces

Crooked Aces is proper no-limit Texas Hold'em, with blinds, side pots and all-ins, played at a table where every single player is cheating. Including you. The cards are only half the game. The other half is not getting caught.

You've got four tricks up your sleeve. Peek at an opponent's hole card. Swap one of your cards for the one hidden up your sleeve, then palm a fresh one at the end of the hand. Nick a card's corner so you'll know it from the back for the rest of the night. And when you hold the dealer button, stack the deck. Each cheat is a quick sleight-of-hand game played in slow motion: the room drains of colour, the camera leans in, and your heart starts thumping.

Every cheat raises your suspicion meter, and it rises a lot faster if someone's looking. Watch the eyes over every player and the dealer: yellow means they're turning, red means they're staring right at you. Let the meter hit the top and it's off to the back room, which might mean a dumpster, a very short plank or four thousand glasses to wash. If the table gets twitchy, someone will make you turn out your sleeves. Anything up there and you're done; empty sleeves and they apologise, in chips.

The other crooks have tells. Two-Bit Terry jerks his elbow, Lucky the dog can't stop his tail wagging, Granny Dot's spectacles flash, the Pinkerton twins scratch their noses at exactly the same moment, and the CALC-U-8 robot's antenna blinks red. Spot one and accuse them: get it right and they're thrown out of the hand and pay you a bounty; get it wrong and you pay them, and the whole table watches your hands. The computer players bet properly too, weighing hand strength, pot odds, position and the cards they've cheated their way into seeing, each with their own style, from tight to maniac.

Work your way up the campaign from a back-alley cable drum to a riverboat, a speakeasy, a penthouse 88 floors up and finally Velvet Vance's private table in the Vault. Stakes rise and eyes sharpen, you unlock new cheats as you go, and the tailor between tables sells a mirror ring, a silk sleeve, tinted glasses and velvet cufflinks. Or just sit down for a Quick Game with every trick unlocked. It's all real-time 3D under a single hanging lamp, with cigar-smoke haze, glossy chips and a live jazz trio, and it plays in portrait or landscape with touch, mouse or keyboard. Play chips only: there's no real money and nothing to buy. It's just for fun.