Finally the free, not free, free (but for a limited time) Texas Hold'em has been released for XBLA. Until 1am Pacific Friday, August 25, you will be able to download the game for free. After this time, the game will cost a whopping 800 points.

Give it a go and tell us what you think in our fourms.

OK I promise that will be the first and last rhyming headline.

Microsoft announced yesterday some new details about the future of XBLA Wednesdays including:

• Texas Hold-em will be released Aug. 23 and will be free for the first 48 hours.
• 4 Cloning Clyde picture packs @ 100 points each are available today.
• A PGR3 themed deck for UNO will be available later today for 100 points.
• Time Pilot will be available August 30th for 400 points.
• Scramble will be available September 6th for 400 pointsMajor.

Nelson later updated the free poker info with this:

I don't know about you, but I'm interested to see what gameplay changes the PGR3 Deck will bring as Microsoft has stated in the past that there won't be any UNO Decks that are just a rebranding, that all decks will bring gameplay changes in line with the theme itself. Don't know how you would play racing UNO or Kudos UNO, but for 100 points, I'm willing to try.

UPDATE: it seems that Microsoft has removed all references to the UNO PG3 Theme pack, guess were not getting it today.

The 12 achievements for the highly anticipated (and no longer free) XBLA poker game have been revealed. They seem like a decent set...decide for yourself.

I have just received my September 2006 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, which has a pretty nice section of Xbox Live Arcade goodness. While it shares everything that we already know, there is one part that caught my eye, as will yours:

It says that before Labor Day, which is September 4th, we will be seeing four additional arcade games released; Texas Hold 'em Poker, Time Pilot, Scramble, Lumines Live!. Other details include:

- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 will have Live Play, (Of course?)
- Vision camera will work with Uno, Texas Hold 'em Poker, Hardwood Hearts, Hardwood Spades
- Scramble will feature side by side competitive multiplayer, for two (No co-op?)
- Lumines Live! will be 1,200 Microsoft Points

Joystiq has interviewed XBLA's Greg Canessa, and some interesting things came out of this, including:

- Texas Hold 'em Poker will not be free
- Texas Hold 'em Poker will have a 'bankroll' system
- The next batch of XBLA games will be announced in around a week
- Releases have been secretly cuing up

Visit Joystiq for the lengthy interview.

Texas Hold 'Em Poker now has a release date of August 23rd, 2006, according to Xbox.com. Which is exactly two weeks after Pac-Man, on a Wednesday. It seems 'believable' after the recent announcement.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: Believe it when you see it. After all of the delays, and broken promises, it's hard to believe anything... However, I would forgive them for the rest of the year if Lumines did make it in July.

UPDATE: August 23, 2006 has now been replaced with Summer 2006. It comes to no surprise after what happened with the recent Frogger, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, or the entire Arcade in general.

Thanks again to Stoffs for all info.

Xbox.com has removed Frogger (Summer 2006) from the "recent addition" under Xbox Live Arcade today... and put it under a new category, "Coming soon to the Arcade". Along with 4 other Xbox Live Arcade games - Cloning Clyde (Summer 2006), Texas Hold 'Em Poker (TBD), Lumines Live (July 2006), and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (Summer 2006).

Who knows what to think? What to believe?

Following it's temporary 'recent addition', Texas Hold 'Em Poker now has an official forum on Xbox.com. While we haven't heard anything concrete regarding a release date to any titles, it was said plenty of times back in March, that intentions were to have a "double-header"; Texas Hold 'Em Poker, and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting releasing at the same time. While that was 3 months and some days ago, could it still be the case...? With both titles added to the forums, are we going to see at least one of titles release in the coming weeks? Is the "floodgate" opening soon? Only time will tell, folks.

We'll keep our eyes open, and our ears peeled.

Well, not really, but that's what Microsoft claims on their XBLA games page. Today they added this much anticipated poker game to the "recent additions" section, placing it right up there with the 5 month old Marble Blast Ultra. News on this game was basically nonexistent for a few months, but with all of these mentions of Texas Hold'em over the last few weeks, it has to be getting close...a July release is seeming more and more likely.

My favorite part of this is the estimated release date of March 2006.

UPDATE: As noted above, Microsoft has now removed Texas Hold'em from the recent additions page. They probably realized that a March 2006 release might not work out.

I recently discovered the DreamStation podcast and they have been running a multi-part interview with Ross Erickson, XBLA Portfolio Manager, over the last few weeks. Although the first 2 parts of this interview have been entertaining, they have revealed nothing new. However, while previewing part 3, expected to be available next week, they revealed some of the discussion with Ross involving the upcoming XBLA release of Texas Hold'em Poker.

Apparently, the game will allow up to 8 players at once and will support the upcoming XBox Live Vision camera peripheral. Along with this information, they also revealed that this camera functionality is at least part of the cause of the delay because they are having difficulties getting 8 camera streams to run smoothly...that's really not that surprising.

We'll keep you posted on any other news from part 3 of the Ross Erickson interview, but in the mean time, you can listen to the first 2 parts of this interview here.