Most everyone has a means of escape from the daily grind of work or other activities that keep our lives moving forward and productive. Some pick up a book to read, others an interactive story. And if you're a regular visitor here, it's probably safe to assume that your escape involves some form of casual gameplay.
But what if your daily chores include playing and reviewing games? Would you still wish to pick up a game to relax and unwind? The answer, at least for me, is a resounding, "yes!"
When I need to escape from the daily grind, the games I usually turn to are dominoes and poker, two quintessential casual games. For dominoes, I play Clubhouse Games on my Nintendo DS, an irresistibly good collection of 42 all-time classic card, board, and parlor games that I find myself coming back to time and time again. For poker, my latest addiction is TripleJack.
TripleJack Poker is similar to other browser-based, free-money poker sites with a few extras that set it apart from the rest. If you were a fan of last year's Last Call Poker, you will find that TripleJack contains a lot of the excitement that made Last Call so popular and addictive.
I'd like to suggest getting familiar with the basic rules first. This poker beginner's guide is a good start.
Registration is totally free and sets up an account that you can play with right away. A quick and painless email validation and then it's time to hit the tables.
Once inside you can choose to play a cash game or play tournament style at any of the tables already created. Or you can create your own. You are given $500 in chips to start with, but you can always get more if you lose it all. When you do lose everything, a "Rebuy" button will appear that will restock your account with $500. You can only rebuy once every 5-minutes, however.
Since money is free at TripleJack, what you're really playing for is score, or rank. The points you earn are based on your average rate of profit. So, it's not about how much money you have won, it's about how fast you are able to earn it. Your score is always displayed above your avatar while you're playing so you can watch your score change in real time with every hand. It's really quite remarkable. I've watched mine grow from 0-396 points in just two days of playing.
You can choose from a wide assortment of cute little avatars to be represented by, and even change the color of it at will. After winning a hand you earn a "bomb" that can be sent to any other player at the table. Pies, anvils, balloons, and tomatoes, are all sent as cute animations that bombard the target player's avatar for a brief period of time. It's a fun way to work off some frustration when someone just nudges you out of a sweet pot with a higher kicker. There are also medals to earn that will appear next to your avatar when certain conditions or achievements are met, such as a crown if you happen to get a royal flush in a Texas Hold'em game.
Analysis: If you enjoy Texas Hold'em poker, TripleJack is one of the finest free-money sites I have seen. The background graphics, animations, sound effects and avatars are all highly appealing and the Flash-based site runs quick and smooth, even on my pokey little PowerPC-based Mac laptop.
In terms of criticisms, the betting interface could stand a little tweaking as it may take some people a bit to get used to. For example, at first I found myself clicking "Fold" when I really wanted to call, and vice versa; and I still sometimes call a large raise not knowing that someone just increased the stakes significantly. Perhaps a higher constrasting sound effect would help when someone raises, but the current bet indicator is just too small for my liking; it gets lost amongst the various other clutter in the game. Thankfully there are buttons that allow you to make your choice ahead of your turn, and there is even an advanced auto-betting mode available in the options that will really help speed things along once you're familiar with the game.
All things considered, TripleJack is great multiplayer fun for most anyone that enjoys Texas Hold'em style poker. Add to that the potential to win prizes with a paid subscription to the game and what you have is a unique new offering that may be highly addictive, so be careful. =)
Cheers (and curses) go out to Patlents for introducing me to Triple Jack!
How do I get into a game here? I have signed up, and am at the main menu, but there is no play button. Do you go in through a forum? Please help!
beth - are you at the lounge main menu? If so, click on either one of the lounges, it tells how many people are in there at the bottom. There will be more people in Zen than the newbie lounge, and there probably won't be anyone in the Jayisgames private lounge until we get more people interested in that.
Once you're inside the lounge, there will be a listing of all games currently in progress. Since you start with only $500, I suggest starting at a $500 table. You need to have at least half as the maximum buy-in to sit at a table.
The tournment tables work a little differently, but also have a buy-in amount. Tournaments cost the amount of their buy-in and you don't get that money back. You have to place in the top 2 (or sometimes 3) to win any money back.
Did that help?
Ok, it says on the main page that you can play as a guest, which I wanted to do just to try it out. But every single table I tried to join said "sorry, members only". Am I doing something wrong? Meh, maybe I'll come back later and register but that's kinda put me off for now.
I wonder if this could work on the Wii...
This games seems fun enough....now if only I understood how poker is played...
lab_brat - I've never seen any guests playing at any of the tables, so I'm not sure what the guest accounts are good for quite honestly. The registration part was so painless that I completely skipped signing on as a guest.
Iced - I haven't tried yet, but with how much I love this game I am sure to give it a try real soon. I'll post an update with my findings.
FlyingSheep - here's a page that describes how Texas Hold'em is played.
hehehehe... cool!
you reviewed the game... ^__^
no one else suggesting a game? =D
"Cheers (and curses)..."
--> hahaha... no problem... =P
Tried playing the game on the Wii.
It needs flash 8 :(
The game still loads though, but no text and some pictures aren't displayed (Example: All the buttons have no text in them, no chatbox, no avatars)
I'm not usually a poker person, but this is REALLY fun!
I love it!
Where are the lounges?
Beth - the lounges are visible and selectable as soon as you login to the site. You can't miss them.
If, however, you have already logged in and closed the browser window, the game remembers which lounge you were in and will automatically take you there next time so you don't have to select it each time you want to play.
To change lounges, there is a "Go Back to lounges" button at the top of the table display window.
This is a fantastic game that has many people working to keep it friendly for all the family. I would recommend going to the zen of poker lounge even if you are a newbie. Don't be scared to ever ask for help as there are plenty of people who will offer it. If you do need help look for red names in the rooms - they are admins and will help you if they can. This is definately poker with a twist, great fun and has a fantastic community - just look at the forums to see that (particularly the uk tj party picture one) see you all on the tables ~ BeeSting :)
I agree with Beesting - I've only ever played in the Zen lounge and never had trouble. There are players of all skill levels there, so just find a cheap table to start with (I think $500 is the cheapest) and start playing. What have you got to lose? The money at Triple Jack is FREE! xD
I just love this game, I had been playing last call poker before but that site seems to be quite dead these days. It's great that I can now get addicted again :p A great time waster during the holidays.
I did like the interface of last call poker more though, it was easier to see what's happening. Like you said when someone suddenly makes a high raise you don't always see it and that can get annoying. nonetheless I find it a very fun game
Sorry to say Jay, I have to disagree on this one (might be a first!).
I found the Triple Jack site really annoying both visually and in its poker play. Lots of all in knuckleheads, and way too much going on with sounds and animations, etc. And navigation around the site was awful - couldn't even find the log in page easily once registered. The only thing I liked was you got points for folding - which I do a lot ;).
Last Call worked so well because of the realism of the environment and the way the chat showed up in front of players. This made for a very strong community of players. (Even though it wasn't always the best poker).
Any of the cash sites (PokerStars, FullTilt) have a free side to them, places like PokerRoom and some others have no download as well. For anyone who actually likes to play good poker, I would skip this one and go right to one of those.
Hopefully Dragoneyepoker will be up and running someday soon, created by one of the players at Last Call to keep the gang together - it seemed promising in testing.
Hey slgalt! =)
I completely respect and appreciate your perspective, and sorry to hear you disagree. I was actually looking forward to hearing what you thought about Triple Jack and was hoping to see you there, too.
There is a lot going on, agreed. And some of the asshats can be annoying, but like with any place to play poker, you have to work your way up to the better players on the tables where the stakes are higher.
In terms of site navigation, I didn't have any problems understanding the organization at all. Anyone can join any cash game already in progress, or join a tournament that is in the "ready" state. I agree that tournments may be confusing to some at first. But if you're not happy with what's there, you can always create your own, which is a big plus. Add to that the fact that any site can have their own private lounge and, well, that's just not something I've ever seen before. I'd like to have a JIG poker night sometime with real tournments for prizes and such. In fact, I think you can expect that to happen someday soon.
There's a lot to like about Triple Jack even with its idiosyncracies. Those other sites you mentioned take things a little too seriously for my liking, which takes some of the fun out of it, too. To each his or her own! =)
Well I'd join you anywhere for a JIG night!
Sounds like fun, but maybe I'll try in a few days. New Years & all. I'm one of those who folds till I have $1 left & then I bet it all....& win. I'm evil that way.
Great game, but I have a question: how do you bomb other players?
Simio - bombs are sent via the chat window by typing the bomb type and the player's name you wish to send it to. For example...
/pie Jayisgames
/tomato Simio
/missile someotherplayer
/balloon allinknucklehead
/anvil RoxyMama
Hey, how do I join your guys private lounge? I keep seeing Peezer call for jayisgames
To get to the Jayisgames private lounge, you must log-in using the form above. Just enter your username and password and you should see a listing of all lounges, including our private one.
It actually sounds like you were there, because I just checked and there is a game (table) created call "Peezer's Game" where there are several people playing. Just click on it to be taken there.
Great game. Enjoyed playying with you guys last night. Hope to do it again sometime.
I like this site, especially when you compared it with gpokr.
There are too many kids, bullies, offensive people at gpokr not only in the chat but also in the forum. The rules and the warning system keep Triple Jack a relative enjoyable place by keeping the chat clean and not offensice (I don't know what would happen if you send/receive warnings from another player but I am guessing you would be banned?)
I also like the avatars. Creating a list of avatars for players to choose from prevent people from having offensive/sexual avatars and thus make the site more safe/friendly.
I totally enjoy the lack of realism of the poker environment in this game. If I want that feeling, I'd go to a casino. It is also another reason that makes Triple Jack fun and enjoyable and relaxing to play.
Thanks for another great treasure, Jay.
Ok if you turn off the sound, play in tourneys with Jay, and avoid staring into the annoying flashy thing in the corner, it's not too shabby.
I did find a bug that I find common on non pro poker sites - the reraises are wrong - they must be at least equal to the current bet (not including all ins).
This is a problem on Gpokr too.
Hey Jay,
I've been reading and loving Jayisgames for the past four months or so and I was thrilled to see you reviewed triplejack. I happen to be a close friend of the creator of triplejack. He goes by Zenblender in-game; maybe you've seen him? I'll let him know you like triplejack. He'll be glad to hear it!
good call on the triplejack poker, im temporarily addicted
P.S. I played a few hands with jayisgames.....100 grand, wow
Triplejack is relocating its server...
Triplejack is just moving the site to different servers. It may take up to 48 hours for the new address to propagate throughout the domain name server (DNS) network, so in the meantime, you can reach our private lounge by using this link.
now there is a server problem (temporary) ....
the sever is still down but it will b up and runnin in no time at all
I guess it's time for me to comment here :) Not having ever played poker before, but having wanted to give it a try for a long time, I found this a pretty much perfect introduction. I learned the game off wikipedia first, then went and started playing in the newbie lounge.. by now after about three days of play I've built myself up to 540 or so points and a decent bankroll.
About the site: I love the presentation, the avatars and the animation. Makes it a very fun and playful atmosphere; specially with the addition of pie-bombing, and my other favorite: the profanity replacement filter. If you use any bad words in the ingame chat, instead of getting removed or replaced with *s, they get replaced with completely random words, which makes for some hilarious conversation.
The poker interface is very intuitive; can't really compare it to anything else but it only took a minute to see how it all worked. The one complaint jay mentioned is something I've encountered too - sometimes I press call without realizing somebody's just tripled the bet amount. Still, you can get around that by paying a little attention and making good use of the pre-bet buttons - they automatically get unchecked if the betting situation changes.
Regarding the community - true, there are some knuckleheads who exist only to rebuy $500 and go all in every round, but not so many that it gets too annoying. Once you move up to more expensive tables, the problem largely goes away. And, of course, it's fun just playing tight and then cleaning them out in one go...
I have to admit its a really neat program: both triplejack and jig. I (poker5495) have been meeting and greeting Jay on Triplejack, and he has been announcing that jig poker night will run every saturday. Check back on www.triplejack.com for Jay's announcements on when the tournament will start and use the portal code above to go into Jay's lounge.
Have the Saturday night poker games stopped? Tomorrow will be my first free saturday night since the poker games started, i'll be bummed if there isn't one...
Hi Brieya - yes, the poker nights have been discontinued for a bit, I'm working hard at finishing up my graduate degree right now. We hope to start something up again soon, though.
Multi-table tournaments at Triplejack are almost ready for prime time play! =)
it is great more people should play it
Jay, there are new public rooms and tons of new features for games and power players!
anyone want to play in jay's lounge?
hello, i have been banned from triplejack for about 4 weeks and im really worries that ill never get unbanned. i just had a disagreement with someone well known and friends with admin. Ive learnt my lesson and will never risk being banned again but i just want to know if ill ever be unbanned? im so depressed about it. i love triplejack its awesome and im lost without it.
So is JIG Poker night dead and gone? I recently rediscovered this game and remembered the awesomeness packed into every Saturday night. This would be awesome to bring back, now that the site's all revamped and shiny. ^-^
There was simply not enough interest, Vault.
Sure there was *some* interest, but unless we announced it on the site every week, we couldn't get more than 10-20 players.
And announcing it each week produced complaints from those who were *not* interested.
So, the "would rather nots" won out in the end.
Aww, that's too bad. It was really fun while it lasted, at least. :P
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