When it comes to exhilarating live casino games, Texas Hold’Em has to take the top prize. There are lots of advantages to other popular games like Blackjack and Roulette, but it’s hard to compete with the adrenaline rush and level of competition it takes to be a winner at that iconic live casino game.
Extreme Texas Hold’Em is Evolution Gaming’s attempt at cornering the market and providing the definitive live game, but how does it compare to the rivals and to the bricks and mortar version? Let’s take a look in our Extreme Texas Hold’Em review.
Swedish developer Evolution Gaming bill themselves as the world leading provider of live casino games, and it’s difficult to argue with them. Their games power a laundry list of the top gaming sites’ live offerings, not to mention the online offerings of big Vegas brick and mortar casinos, and their games are widely considered the definitive versions of many classic casino favourites. They’ve just opened a big new studio in Latvia with TV quality broadcast options and a full size casino floor, and it all shows in the presentation of Extreme Texas Hold’Em, which employs a live dealer in an expensive looking casino setup.
The big strength of Extreme Texas Hold’Em is the powerful augmented reality software behind the game. You and an unlimited number of other players can play against the dealer’s hand, with great looking and well designed virtual menus overlaid on the real footage of the game so that you can place bets and make decisions intuitively without getting in the way of your experience.
The game itself is a traditional game of Texas Hold’Em without rule variations, in which the player’s objective is to assemble a better hand than the dealer and to make as much money off their winning hand as possible while minimising losses on a losing one. You’re able to set an initial bet, or ‘Ante’, which is then matched with a second bet, or ‘Blind’. You and the dealer are then dealt two cards, the dealer’s face down and yours face up, at which point you can raise your initial bet or choose not to bet anymore depending on how strong your hand is (or how strong you want the dealer to think it is!). Five more cards are then turned over in order, with each revelation giving you the opportunity to bet more if you’d like, before you and the dealer must reveal your hand to determine the winner. There’s a big paytable available to determine the winning hand, and how much it’s worth, because it can be very complicated. It’s worth making sure you know what constitutes a good hand before you play.
The Extreme Texas Hold’Em live game is a faithful reproduction of the casino game, so there aren’t any bonus games that you’d usually expect in slot games, but there is the opportunity to make a side bet if you choose which can seriously boost your winnings. When the ante and the blind are placed you can place an optional third bet on whether or not you will have at least a Three of a Kind in your hand. This is independent of the main betting, and is just a nice little extra if you win.
Thanks to the powerful technology behind Evolution Gaming’s Extreme Texas Hold’Em, it’s hard to imagine how you can improve on the experience. A great balance between tech, high quality physical surroundings, great dealers and exceptional quality streaming mean there’s no part of the experience that lets it down. It’s an amazing way to play one of the world’s great casino games.