Publisher Myelin Media, MTV and developer 5000ft have come together to create the best Texas Hold 'Em videogame to date in STACKED with Daniel Negreanu. STACKED features the poker prodigy Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu giving tips on how to play the game as each game unfolds and taking players to school to learn the basics of Texas Hold 'Em. STACKED is a decent game because it doesn't dumb the game down for newcomers and gives them knowledge that they can use in a real-world games. Negreanu's tips and schooling make it easy for new players to learn and jump into a cash game with ease and further take the knowledge to most any other Texas Hold 'Em game on the internet.

Texas Hold 'Em at first glance seems complicated but the game is pretty straight forward. Each Player is dealt two cards called the "hole" or "pocket". Players can bet on these cards, or stay in the game and wait for the first three cards to be revealed (called the "flop"). From there players can bet again, call or check. Yet another card called the "turn" is revealed and betting, calling and checking can occur. Finally the last card is revealed called the "river," after which more betting, checking etc. can occur. Once all the posturing is complete your two cards are revealed and the one with the best hand wins. The idea of Texas Hold 'Em is that you use your two "hole" cards in conjunction with the cards on the table to create the best hand. You can bet on almost anything (high card, pair, two of a kind, three of a kind, Straight, Flush, full house, four of a kind, Straight Flush and Royal Flush). Obviously the best hand wins and takes the pot. Sure this is a watered down explanation of a game that can prove to be easy to learn but hard to master, but that's the basic gist of how it all works..

As the game progresses, small blinds and big blinds are increased -- depending on what the limit of the particular game is -- allowing you to wager more and more money. As you do this and win you'll clean other players out and eliminate them. The object is to be the last player standing in every game, although you can unlock things by meeting a certain placement level (5th or 9th for example). As you move along in each game type (Public, VIP etc.) you unlock things. You can unlock more game types, qualifying matches, pro poker players (Josh Arieh, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Juan Carlos Mortensen, Evelyn Ng and David Williams) and more. There is a lot to unlock in STACKED so playing though each game is worth the effort.

One of the nice things about the game is that even the most seasoned players can lose their shirt very quickly - it's all about Texas Hold 'Em, and if you play like a chump in real life and bet on anything then you'll get knocked out of the game in short order. Basically the game caters to every kind of player and if you look closely at all the mechanics you'll see that it all adheres to strict Texas Hold 'Em rules.

Once you get the hang of things in single-player, you can go online to play against other players in casual cash and single and multiple table tournaments. Once you feel out how things work online, you can join in on the official tournaments sponsored by MTV. These will eventually lead successful players to real world tournaments against stars like marquee player Daniel Negreanu.

Two of the key features that Myelin Media really delivered on in STACKED is the Poki AI system and PSP connectivity with the PS2 version. First, the AI in this game has been put together pretty well, with computer players offering a real challenge to players and quickly learning how players play hands. The AI truly proves that it is adaptive, as it adapts to player's style of playing hands, using every poker trick in the book. But beyond adapting, the AI isn't flawless which means that oftentimes it feels like you are playing against real personalities. This is even more so the case when playing against the pros, who play pretty closely to the their real world counterparts.

The other feature that is pretty sweet is the ability to sync the PSP version of the game with your PS2, allowing you to take your game portable or upload your mobile game to your PS2, maintaining all your stats money and characters. While this feature isn't amazing it is very convenient to those folks that are so fanatical about STACKED that they own several versions..

But STACKED is not without its faults. The biggest fault with it lies with the terrible character creation system that doesn't offer enough customization. You can choose character types, change their ethnicity a little bit and their outfits slightly but you can't create something from scratch. You also don't get to choose your personality and voice because it is tied to the character type and not something you can select separately. My only other complaint is that the pacing on the game can be a little slow, only speeding up when you fold a hand. I wish that the game had that kind of pace at all times instead of when I'm not playing.. But these small irritations are not enough to really hurt this excellent Texas Hold 'Em game..

In the process of playing STACKED I've had a TON of fun and learned two important game-related life lessons:

1) Stacked with Daniel Negreanu is the best Texas Hold 'Em videogame on the market currently. It lets you play cash games, single table and multi-table tournaments and online on all platforms.

2) I suck at Texas Hold 'Em.

STACKED is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and is available for the PS2, PSP and Xbox at a suggested retail price of $29.99. For more information about STACKED with Daniel Negreanu, check out stacked.mtv.com . - James Fudge.