Microsoft announced that this Wednesday, November 29 around 4:00 a.m. EST, Texas Hold 'Em will get a much needed update to fix some of the biggest consumer complaints. A quote from MS regarding the update:
"We’ve listened to our community and as a result, a host of features and improvements have been added to Texas Hold ‘em to speed up game-play, eliminate cheating and ensure proper competition. As a result, the online multi-player leaderboards will be reset to eliminate the inflated scores that currently appear. In a future update in early 2007, we’ll be adding Xbox Live Vision Camera support as well."
Below is a full list of the new features and changes in the Texas Hold ’em update:
Game-play has been sped up:
- Post the blind and play right away! – Players can now, if they wish, start playing immediately when joining a table by posting the big blind, rather than having to wait for the blind to come to them.
- New ‘Away’ mode – Players can now set their status to ‘Away’. Hands will be auto-folded and blinds auto-posted until the player returns.
- New ‘Auto-boot’ mode – Players who continuously let the timer expire (more than three times in a game) will be booted from the table
- Faster overall pacing – Timers and messaging durations have been adjusted to speed up game-play among experienced players, but still allow novice players plenty of time to play.
Other Improvements
- Improved blind structure – Initial blinds, as well as blind increases, are now more proportional to table stakes, ensuring more meaningful increases during game-play.
- Matchmaking improvements – Players are no longer matched into games they cannot afford
- Improved interface controls – Improvements to controls, such as increasing/decreasing stake amounts
- Leaderboard display – A player’s full winnings and rank are now properly displayed
- Art and text improvements – Game art and spelling issues have been addressed
- Online exploits addressed – Certain known exploits that enabled cheating have been addressed. As a result, the online multi-player leaderboards will be reset to eliminate inflated scores as a result of these exploits.
