Best Poker App for the iPhone

Online Poker was a fad a few years ago, now it’s more of an institution. Hundreds of thousands of players are visiting online poker rooms on a regular basis to play either for real money or just for fun.

On the iPhone you won’t be able to gamble away any real money, but there are several good time-wasting poker apps that you can play for fun on your iPhone. Even Apple itself has developed an iPhone poker app, plainly named “Texas Hold’em.”  This one is pretty good and offers a nice playing experience over Wi-Fi, but there’s no real online mode.

For those who want something more reminiscent of the ordinary online poker experience, then “Live Poker” by the gaming network/developer Zynga is one of the best alternatives, if not the only. In Live Poker you get to play Texas holdem with well over a million other players from Zynga’s gaming network, although the most interesting feature of the game is that it’s integrated with Facebook – letting you log in via your iPhone and play against people from your friend list.

If you have prior experience with online poker, the interface in Live Poker offers few surprises, which might be a good thing as you can essentially get started right away and skip the learning curve altogether. For the most part Zynga Live Poker looks and behaves like an poker room, with the added benefit of having it on your iPhone and with touch functionality.

Pros and Cons

Although not specific for Zynga, the major problem with play-money poker is that most people don’t play their best when there’s no real money at stake. Poker is based on careful decision making and the fact that you stand to win or lose real money depending on which way you go. This element is often lost in fun-money games, which then tend to become more of a lottery.

That being said, Zynga Live Poker is still a highly enjoyable game – and the possibility to connect with your Facebook friends is quite ingenious. Although there are several other good poker apps for the iPhone, see more here, there are really none that come close to this one in the multiplayer department.