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Wireless poker draws a blank

Turns physical game into a virtual one

Mike Yamamoto Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Mike Yamamoto is an executive editor for CNET News.com.
Mike Yamamoto
Hammacher Schlemmer

We're all about poker here at Crave, and we could go on obnoxiously about how we've been stacking chips years before today's bandwagon jumpers knew the difference between a bluff and a blind. That's why we're none too pleased by products like the "Wireless Multi-Player Poker Game"--not only because it degrades the hallowed traditions of Texas Hold 'Em ("the game of champions"), but it's just ridiculously unnecessary.

So far as we can tell, this basically replaces a perfectly good deck of cards with six handheld controllers that wirelessly transmit images to a TV screen while keeping track of pots and winnings. In other words, it ends up making your real-life game look like online poker, even though you and your buddies are all physically there. Are we missing something here?