Poker apps have already been a big hit for the iPhone and the action looks to heat up even further with the release of World Poker Tour Texas Hold’em for the iPhone and iPod Touch. If you’re a fan of the WPT televised poker broadcasts you’ll be immediately right at home with the World Poker Tour Texas Hold’em app, as it includes the voice of announcer Mike Sexton and familiar avatars of famous players at the poker table.

One cool feature of WPT Texas Hold’em is that it features different gameplay modes that let you play alone against computer opponents or in multi-player mode, just like you’re playing online poker. You get the best of both worlds, playing solo when you want but also jumping into multi-player games on their dedicated poker network,where other mobile users or gamers at desktop PCs can join in on the fun. That’s a pretty unique feature for a poker game, as most existing apps are either one or the other, as far as emphasizing solo play or only providing multi-player action on a network.

As far as the gameplay, it’s pretty straight forward and simple, as you can muck your cards by flicking the touch screen and elect your betsizes by using a sliding virtual wheel. The menus to access various parts of the game are intuitive and easy to use, and audio clips from Mike Sexton make you feel like you’re playing at a WPT final table yourself. You can play various types of tournaments in both solo and multi-player, choosing betwen either No Limit or Pot Limit Texas Hold’em, get the game here.

You love online poker, and now that you have your fancy new iPhone you want to play poker on it, as well you should. Fortunately for you there are a number of exciting poker apps for the iPhone, each differing depending on the kind of poker you like to play. Here’s a breakdown:

Video Poker on the iPhone: Jacks or Better iPhone Poker

If video poker is your thing, iPhone has you covered with Jacks or Better iPhone poker. This simple app plays just like the real thing, allowing you to play up to five credits at once to win. Payouts occur according to a standard pay table, and you can draw as many cards as you want one time to improve your hand just like in the casino.

Friendly Poker on the iPhone: Apple Texas Hold’em

The first poker application many iPhone users find themselves experimenting with is Apple Texas Hold’em. This is a great app for those who want to kill a little time by themselves or with friends.

The graphics are high quality and the game play is smooth, and you can play against computer opponents or a group of friends who also have the application. You can make full use of the touch screen with Apple Texas hold’em to move chips around or select your actions with just one finger.

Online Poker on the iPhone: Zynga Live Poker

When you’re ready for the iPhone poker big leagues, it’s time to download Zynga. Zynga is as close to an online poker site as you can possibly get from your iPhone wireless device. You can join a variety of games with iPhone players from all over the world, including players linked to social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

It’s important to be aware that you can’t play for real money; Zynga has the functionality for it but Apple doesn’t allow wireless gambling on their mobile devices. Still, you can get a full interactive poker experience using Zynga, and if you want to work out privately with your competitors what your virtual chips are worth, that’s entirely up to you.

If you’re one of the millions of players who have jumped on the online poker bandwagon, you may have searched for a way of playing real-money online Texas holdem on your iPhone. Probably without finding any.
Because of Apple’s resistance towards opening the iPhone platform for gambling, there are no real-money poker games available for the iPhone today.

Meanwhile, Apple is very well aware of the value of having a good poker app for the iPhone. Their own “Texas Hold’em” poker game is proof of this.

Even if “Texas Hold’em” is a neat game which makes impressive use of the unique iPhone interface, it’s also rather limited. It doesn’t look much like real poker, although you can actually play against a few friends over a WiFi network.

Instead, if you’re looking to play poker online against thousands of players around the world, you should take a look at Zynga’s “Live Poker”.

And Zynga has done a great job in adapting the experience from real poker to the iPhone format. The interface looks a lot like real online poker. If you have played online poker before, you won’t have any problems with the Live Poker interface.

A clock tells you when it’s your time to act. You can chat with the other players at the table and even buy them a drink to celebrate your big wins.

This iPhone game integrates with Zynga’s enormously popular poker game on Facebook. On Facebook, Zynga Live Poker often has more than two million simultaneous players, an astounding figure that beats the crap out of even the biggest online poker sites.

As stated above, you cannot play for real money. At least it’s not supported by the application. But at least with Live Poker you play with great entertainment value in an environment that feels a lot like genuine online poker.

As usual when you play poker without real money, or some other kind of real value, there’s no real challenge in Zynga’s Live Poker. You receive a decent amount of chips and it will be refilled along the way.
Nevertheless it’s in the nature of the play money game – if you have nothing to lose, you won’t play good poker.

This is fine if you’re just looking for some entertainment, as long as you don’t start believing you’ll do well in real poker just because you make millions in Live Poker.

There are really no new or revolutionizing features in Zynga’s game, but the game we’re playing is the popular Texas holdem that so many players around the world fancy so much.

All in all, Zynga Live Poker is definitely one of the best ways of enjoying poker on the iPhone, while waiting for a poker game with real money to pop up. Which might very well never happen.

To play Zynga Live Poker your iPhone must be upgraded to iPhone 2.0. The game is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.