If you’ve ever watched a movie set in the wild west, you’ve probably seen a card game end violently when someone cheats and is caught, causing a bar brawl to erupt. But what if you could play a game like that, minus the bar fight but instead with everyone cheating? That’s what Texas Cheat’Em tries to answer, and it does fairly well at it.
On its own, this can be played as a competent version of Texas Hold’Em, though this would require getting everyone to agree not to cheat. But the real attraction is the cheating system, as the game allows you to influence each hand in a variety of ways. Some are simple, like knowing what community cards will be dealt or replacing a card with another that is either randomly selected, or is within one point of value of the original. More involved cheats include stealing chips from other players, and an automatic ’I Win’ cheat. Believe it or not, even the inclusion of something like that doesn’t keep the game from going completely awry. Quite the opposite; there are some basic safeguards to prevent each hand from degenerating into complete chaos.