Tezos Commons :: Inside The Heroes of Holdem Tezos Game
July 18, 2024A closer look at one of the latest Tezos games to pop up, Heroes of Holdem.
The Tezos gaming ecosystem is growing quickly. The latest monthly report shows a “558% surge in active gamers.” Within that growth, many new games, such as Dragon Ninja and Heroes of Holdem, have come out that and I’ve just recently had the chance to play them.
This article will highlight Heroes of Holdem and show how to start playing.
What is Heroes of Holdem?
Heroes of Holdem is a digital card game that aims to use blockchain elements to enable players to have true ownership of in-game assets. If you’ve ever played Texas Hold ’em (poker), Heroes of Holdem takes a spin on it by introducing things such as abilities and magical equipment in between the traditional flop, turn, and river action of Texas Hold ’em.
In each event of Heroes of Holdem, you’ll compete against other players for H$RO and Gem prizes, with seasonal leaderboard competitions offering additional rewards and unique cosmetic items. Whether you’re into poker, collectible card games, RPGs, or mastering economic systems, the game offers diverse gameplay options.
In the game depicted above, I made it to a final table in the 9-player NPC mode. I went on to win the match, collecting 5 H$RO tokens, the game’s in-game currency that can be used to purchase more characters, emotes, equipment, and more.
Let’s show how you can start playing and some of the game’s mechanics.
How Do I Play?
To start playing, head over to the website. You’ll need to register an account for the site by providing your e-mail address, a username for your profile, and a password, and confirm the password once more. You can skip all this if you’ve already registered before or provide your new username and password to access your profile after completing the above.
Next, you’ll see a screen like this prompting you to choose a game mode. I recommend the tutorial first; it helps you understand what you’re doing and get accustomed to the gameplay. If you’ve played Texas Hold ’em poker before, you’ll know what to do with little explanation.
As we can see, we have access to cards, and there’s a health meter in the shape of a heart next to the number “2500.” That number represents our chips and health. Heroes of Holdem takes a detour from regular Texas Hold ’em not only in a player’s health but also in their chip stack and the ability to use the “ability phase.”
As we can see, the ability phase we’re introduced to is “identity,” which allows us to expose a random card from our opponent’s hand. The game has two types of abilities: Activate and Triggered. After playing the ability, we’ll see the opponent has exposed a King card.
We’ll then be prompted to use a new “Transmit Self” ability. The tutorial will ask us to select “pass” for the flop and turn. When we reach the river, we discover we are against a better hand, pocket kings. To save us from losing health (and chips), we can gamble by using the transmute self ability for a new set of cards to beat the opponent’s kings.
After playing the ability, we learn that we struck a miracle out with two pair beating the opponent’s top pair of kings.
The rest of the tutorial showcases triggered abilities. They can be played outside normal game phases (flop, turn, river), where only ability phases can be played. As we can see, we were hit with a fireball. We can then use a counterspell to negate the damage done by the opponent who cast the fireball attack.
Next, we learn about equipment. These activate during certain game states or simply on chance. In this instance, we have “War Drums”. Similar to the fireball attack we experienced earlier, this piece of equipment will prevent all opponents from using such abilities in a single turn while allowing us to do so if we wish.
As such is the case in poker, you’re prompted to use any edge on opponents, such as position. Thus, we raised with our advantage of the equipment, and everyone folded. Next, we can see the concept of minions. Our characters can introduce minions in-game; if they win a hand, we’ll gain health and chips. The health notification and the bottom left corner tell us who our minion is.
Following this, we conclude the tutorial with pocket aces and rise victorious by eliminating the final player. We’re rewarded with H$RO tokens, essentially in-game currency for placing high in events. These can purchase treasure chests, new abilities, equipment, minions, and even new characters.
Leaderboards and Marketplace
After the tutorial, we’re ready to explore the other functions of the game. The first of those comes in the form of leaderboards. As we can see, there are prizes for your Hero rankings, with a $ prize pool in place for top finishers.
Scheduled events and Sit and Go (SNGs) tournaments offer H$RO tokens to top finishers. As this is in a beta phase, these tournaments will likely remain inactive.
Lastly, if we go to the top right corner next to our account username, we’ll see the “Marketplace” tab. From there, we can purchase gems to collect more heroes, chests, emotes, and skins. Our collection and purchase history are also visible in the same tab. Alternatively, we can purchase the items above with H$RO tokens as well.
For more details, don’t hesitate to visit the team’s GitBook, where a visible roadmap for further Tezos integration and Web3 in-game components is located.
Final Thoughts
As a fellow poker player, I enjoyed playing this game. A few options I’ve encountered make it fun and add a new twist to an enjoyable game. Having abilities in-game to aid in a highly competitive and edge-based game is really cool to me. Make sure to get out there and give it a try yourself!
Inside The Heroes of Holdem Tezos Game was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
