Casino Video Poker

The team over at Hettema&Bergsten have an all new exciting product in development for Google+ Hangouts, aptly named Aces Hangout. If you don’t immediately recognize the name you are to be excused, but if you remember StrawberryJ.am (the popular Twitter Trend Tracker) then these guys were behind that too. Okay, back to video poker. Acer Hangout is an innovative new online application which pledges to deliver a unique perspective to online gambling, on account of its integration with Google’s all new multi-person video chat feature, Google+ Hangouts. If you’ve ever used Google Talk, or Skype for that matter, imagine that fused with poker and you’ve got a good idea of what we’re dealing with.

Contrary to the vast majority of other video poker games, in which players traditionally use online avatars or custom icons, Aces Hangout’s biggest goal is to feel a lot more like a genuine card game. You can view live video footage of your opponents using the visual capabilities of Google+’s Hangouts, similar to a webcam chat session. The key factor here is something which has until now been exclusive to the offline poker experience, and that is the ability to see who’s bluffing, and who has the best poker face.

Unfortunately, the project is still in a testing phase, but if you’re handy with using APIs and Developer Previews you can try out a multi-person poker session right now. If you’re interested in monkeying around with all that jazz then simply sign up here and experience the beta version for yourself.

“So is the application isn’t ready yet, why is this even considered news?” you may be thinking. Simply put, according to the developers Hettema&Bergsten the only thing preventing the product from being launched is Google+ Hangouts isn’t yet commercially available. Why are Google taking so long to get this off the ground? That is anybody’s guess, but certainly highlights a fundamental issue with Google in general; they rush their products to market before they’re ready. With the failure of previous products like Wave and Buzz, I suppose you can’t blame them for being hesitant.

Regardless of all that, the most important thing to note is that Aces Hangout is funded by Bwin.Party, a huge player in the sports betting and online casino industries. Don’t recognize the name? How about Party Poker? So at least we know this game should see the light of day… When Google get round to launching the damn thing already.