Today Microsoft is giving away Texas Hold ‘Em as a free download on Live (they will charge for it tomorrow). So I grabbed it.

Elena has never played poker. We walked through the help screens, then I started a single-player game with $150. I lost a few, I won a few, and I was at $120, as she kibbitzed on the side. Then she said she was bored. So I handed her the controller.

She then proceeded to take 15 consecutive hands. She’s up to well over $360 right now, and has only lost two hands since she took the controller from me. I may have created a monster. Kristen says she’s never playing penny poker with her ever. It’s frightening to watch — the AIs just quail in front of her bluffs and crumble. She pulls out full houses from nowhere.

I’m depressed again. She’s even unlocked three achievements in the space of ten minutes. I suppose I should be happy she’s playing on my login, so they count towards me. 😛

I mentioned she’s nine, right?
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And it’s going to be in Singapore! Well, that lowers the chances I’ll attend, I suppose! I haven’t made it to the last two because work pressures kept me away, but this year I was looking forward to it. Here’s the announcement for State of Play IV Asia, whose topic is “building the global metaverse.” Looks like Neal Stephenson will be a speaker.

Fortunately, there is the New York version in October.

JZigishness is from Ben Zeigler, a dev at Cryptic, and it’s been added to the sidebar.

…there are two basic rules. First, if you screw up something, always give players back more than what they lost. Second, if you get this urge to teleport a player into the sun, don’t do it. Even if they’re being an asshole. Seriously, not worth it.