Stacked with Daniel Negreanu is THE game for Texas Hold’em players of all ages and experience levels. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve played the game, Stacked will teach you how to become a better player there is no doubt in my mind. When loading the game one of the first options you have is to attend the Stacked Poker School. Here Daniel Negreanu, a former Player of the Year in Texas Hold’em, hosts a series of video tutorial’s designed to teach even the most inexperienced player how to play the game of Texas Hold’em. These can also be useful to Texas Hold’em veterans as he passes on tips and tricks that he has used in the past to win tournaments.

Ok, so you’ve went to school and got a passing grade (and I’m not talking about a D+) and you want to really start the game now. Well you have two options; you can either select career mode where you begin your career as a pro poker player or you can simply enter quick play mode which allows you to go straight to playing cash games or tournaments without creating a player ID.

Quick play is good for when you don’t want to get involved in something and just want to play a quick game or two. The career mode is what really makes this game fun. In career mode you start off with a small bankroll and increase your wealth over time as you get better and better at the game. The more money you have the bigger the tournaments you can enter. The bigger the tournaments the more money you make. Amazing how those tend to go together huh?

Also as you progress through the game you will be given the chance to play against seven of the worlds best poker players. Of course, Daniel Negreanu is one of them. I won’t tell you who the other six are as that would be ruining all the fun. Once you unlock these players you will get the chance to alter your character's appearance (which I will explain shortly) to look like one of these players in the Quick Play and Career modes. However, while playing on Xbox Live you are unable to use these player’s appearances. Why is that you ask? Well, its to reserve the professional player characters for use by the professionals themselves! That means if you are at a table on Xbox Live and see Daniel Negreanu playing beside you then you are REALLY playing Daniel Negreanu. How cool is that?

When starting a career mode you are given the chance to customize your player ID with eighteen different character types to choose from. You can also edit your skin type, clothing, hair style, ball cap, sunglasses and tournament winner rings (if you have any). I even found a hat that said “Viva La Raza” ala the late (GREAT) Eddie Guerrero. So I’m a wrestling mark, wanna fight about it?

The user interface is so useful and easy in this game. Your bet amounts are increased or decreased by pressing up or down on the D-pad or left thumbstick. Something else that is new to this game is the scroll out window. It is located down in the bottom left of the screen and is activated by pressing right on the D-pad. You can do several things with this wonderful little window.

First, you can look at your cards. If you don’t know what that means than please go back to school. Secondly, and my personal favorite feature, is the Pro Tip/Ask Daniel option. This little feature allows you to ask Daniel Negreanu what to do under certain circumstances in the game. The Ask Daniel messages are basic messages while the Pro Tips, which are activated when certain scenarios are triggered, are more extensive. The next option in the scroll out window is the option to switch between the multiple television camera view or the 1st person point of view. You can also choose to smile or frown using the scroll out window.

The last two options are only useful on Xbox Live. The chat keyboard is next in the scroll out window. When playing Xbox Live, or any other networked game for that matter, this will activate the keyboard interface and chat window allowing you to type and send messages to your fellow players. You can also simply open the chat window with the last option on the scroll out window which will allow you to receive and track chat messages.

The rest of your HUD (Heads Up Display) lets you know the following about each player at the table: name, bankroll/chipstack amount, a player’s last play, a player’s poker hand at the end of a hand, the make a play alert informing you to make a play and your hand strength which is how good your hand is. All of that can be found on the upper left side of your screen. The pot indicator can be found in the top right hand corner of the screen. This tells you the game type, blind levels, tournament level and time remaining until the blind levels raise. When there are multiple pots in play (or side pots) these will also be displayed here.

Lastly, the board indicator and look at cards window can be found in the lower right hand side of the screen. This display’s the community cards that are face up on the table. Also, when activating the look at cards feature in the scroll out window you will see your cards displayed in this location above the community cards.

Considering this is a poker game the graphics are second to none. I thought the graphics in World Championship Poker 2 were good (which I’ve also reviewed) but this game’s graphics put’s WCP 2 to shame.

All and all Stacked with Daniel Negreanu is the be all end all of Texas Hold’em video games. If you are a Texas Hold’em player or just a novice fan who would like to learn the game then this is for you. The Stacked Poker School is worth the price of the game alone as any player can learn something from it. World Championship Poker 2 was good, but Stacked is all World Championship Poker 2 was and so much more.