Dont hesitate to buy because of the ads and gems.

I almost didnt buy this because of the comments about the ads and gems. I have been playing continuously for about an hour. Stopped to shower and write this review... The only ad I have seen was when I first started the application. Thats unfortunate IMHO, but hardly anything to complain about. I am pretty easily irritated by ANY ads in a product I purchased, but this is minimal even by my standards. My guess is that if I quit the application, and restart that I will see the ad again. Again, I can deal with that. I am just happy the ads dont appear while playing. If at any point they do, I will regret this positive review.

The gems were another reason I almost didnt buy. I thought that you had to purchase the gems to play certain games within the application. MY game is DD Bonus. It plays without buying or earning gems. I havent tried the other games, but my guess is that they will be the same. The only feature I want to unlock is the changing of the random number generator from the middle position to the "casino" generator. After playing for about an hour, I have "earned" 53 gems. Need to get to 100 to unlock the random number generator options. I can deal with that. If you want to play with this feature right out of the gate, you do have the option of paying $0.99. Given the cost of a small bag of fries at the local fast food, I can deal with that too, but am having fun figuring out the application and dont mind "earning" the gems. If it gets hard to get to 100, I will again regret this review, but I doubt it.

While we are spoiled with VERY inexpensive applications for our iPads and iPhones, and this application is "much" more expensive than those other applications, I will say that this one is worth the money. Given how fast I put 20 dollar bills in the DD Bonus machines in Vegas, I believe that I will recover the expense very quickly as I am learning a few hands to hold that I was missing before.

Regarding the performance and gameplay... The application is lightning fast and responsive. When I play on a real video poker machine, I favor swiping the cards so play on the iPad is like sitting in Vegas. Now if I can sit at the kitchen table and have my wife bring me drinks and blare the stereo, I may not notice the difference... Except for the money in and out...

Paul

Paul J in So Cal about Video Poker + Perfect Play Trainer : Las Vegas ...