A New Addiction...

I have made a new discovery. I received a text from a guy who I met in Thailand nearly three years ago, who knew I was a fan of online poker, to tell me to check out pkr.com.

"It's 3D," he had said.

Seeing as I have two essays due in this week, neither of which I've started, I figured it was worth a look.

It's superb!

The idea is that being 3D it's supposed to be far more realistic to a real poker table than the other online poker sites. Your character can be created to the finest detail - with about fifty different 'heads' to choose from, male or female, and a seemingly unlimited variation of hairstyles, clothing, and accessories. As you play you earn pkr points, and these can be used to purchase clothes, hats and shades. If you save up a lot, you can even buy 'chip-tricks' that you character can perform at the table, such as the 'ten chip shuffle'. It's therefore easy to tell the experienced players from the newcomers, which is a nice touch.

After some deliberation I decided to go for a cross between Richard Prior and Samuel L Jackson, mainly because I've always secretly wanted an afro. I gave him a south USA accent, and so far I've purchased a nice pair of combat trousers, as the free tracksuit bottoms that you start off with just didn't do the character justice.

Here I am playing with my chips when waiting for another hand to finish (looking cool)...



When you're at the table, you can select a mood for your player, ranging from angry to casual, and your cards remain face down so you have to keep checking them, just like in real poker...



There's also about 20 different actions that you can perform, including tapping your fingers, shaking your head, yawning, coughing, cheering, booing, dancing and laughing. Check me out here, casually twirling my chips in my hand before folding. I bet he was worried...



It seems like there's a lot of 'loose' players around too, perhaps concentrating more on the tricks and interactions than the actual poker. In my first two days on the site I've managed to turn $20 into $47. Now I realise I said I'd never invest money into poker sites again, but this one was just too good. In any case, if it keeps going this well then maybe I will be able to go on holiday at Easter again after all.

Thinking about it, I'll probably have a few essay resubmissions due in around that time, so maybe not.