While I’ve never been much of a gambler, or even a card-player in real life, I’ll admit that somehow well-made casino or card-playing games in video game form can be a lot of fun. Whether it was the SNES classic Vegas Stakes, up through the much newer and tougher roguelike masterpiece that is Balatro, I have at times enjoyed spending time with them. One such title I played what feels like a lifetime ago on PC, that I really enjoyed, was Poker Night at the Inventory, a poker sim that inexplicably managed to feature the characters of Max of Sam and Max fame, Strong Bad the internet darling, The Heavy from Team Fortress 2, and Tycho from Penny Arcade.

Here’s the thing, if you’re not familiar with any, or even half of the characters, the experience really takes a hit. I suppose you could still appreciate the banter that can come from this eclectic group of fellow gamblers, but this was always a game where familiarity with these different personalities was ultimately its strongest selling point. Combining the anarchic and sometimes violent tendencies of Max, the pretty uniquely odd Strong Bad, the deadpan and often unintentionally-funny Heavy, or the dry and somewhat sarcastic Tycho, the fact that this ensemble has very little in common is absolutely part of the appeal. But it really helps if you already knew all of that, rather than spending a little time trying to understand what in the world is going on.

Once you remove that layer of potential entertainment though, this is simply a decent but pretty ordinary Texas Hold’em simulator. If you don’t know the game, it will give you a rudimentary explanation, but in general if you’ve got a grasp on different poker hands you should pick it up quickly. Each of the characters does have their own approach for trying to bluff or psych you out, but for the most part you’ll learn to be careful and conservative since the fact is each hand can easily lie with the last card drawn, making it a pretty nerve-wracking variation at times. If you’re a relatively new gamer, and don’t recognize any of these characters, there may well be little reason to check it out, but if you’ve been around and may at least understand them a little bit, this is a gambling sim that is easily entertaining, at least for a while before you start hearing the same phrases and stories a few too many times.