This poker article is a review of free online poker games and is specifically looking at the quality of the games in terms of their usefulness as training aids for poker players wanting to play against real people for money online.

To make clear, what we are looking at are download poker games you play against the computer by yourself as opposed to the kind of free online poker game downloads you're able to play at most online poker websites that feature free practice game play versus other beginners or people trying out tactics.

Our review focuses on the most popular title around, namely the Governor of poker games series and the links are going to parts 1 and 2, suitable for both Mac and PC downloads..

Truly free?
Each game is $6.99 however, you can try free before you buy since they provide a poker games download free complete edition test for pc and Mac, so there's nothing to lose.

Now on to the details, what are these games like? Here is my summary of what you could call the sales pitch/description:

Governor of Poker One
Governor of Poker, a poker game like you’ve never seen before. Discover if you've got what it takes to go up against the Pro players of the old west? Dare to join a tournament or a cash game and perhaps bet ‘all in’. How do you think you'll feel if you can totally clean out all the players, take all their money and even their houses, horses and land! Can you rise to the challenge and become the Governor of Poker and lord it over all Texas?

But once you're done with Governor of Poker 1 you won't have had enough! Lucky for you there is Governor of Poker 2 Premium with lots and lots of extra’s!

Governor of Poker 2
In this fully packed sequel lots of things have changed. Cities have grown, new people arrived… It’s all good, but some things cannot be accepted just like that! Lots more cities to conquer and tournaments to play, interactive wallpaper, downloadable theme music, an extra ‘Pro’ difficulty mode and more.

And the biggest challenge of all awaits. It's the most exciting adventure in the Wild West, fighting the ban on Poker!

In Governor of Poker 2 you can also learn how to play the best poker with the poker-tutorial. There are many new tournaments, multi table with up to 120 competitors spread taking place in 19 cities and 27 poker rooms and casinos. Also very popular is the bounty hunter game, where you win money prizes when you knock out marked opponents!

Plus you can set up your own tournaments and, for real risk takers, get bank loans. You can choose to get to your next games by train, river casino boat or stage coach, naturally you can play poker while travelling.

Buy the hats that suit you best or to get admitted to new locations. Judge your opponents based on new emotions, including nervous, on fire, steamy and tilt. And to regain your Governor status beat the 9 most notorious poker players in the west!

User feedback - Is Governor of poker any good?
The Governor of poker games reviews I've found have been mixed. Seems Governor of poker games are love it or hate it - so get the free poker games downloads version first and try it and see what camp you're in!

A common theme is that it is more of a poker fun game as opposed to a real life poker training simulator. If what you are after is a real life poker training system then this is not quite it simply as there are not other people there and your computer is not an AI. For that you need to play the poker game free downloads for pc training games that you can find on most major sites, try NoPayPOKER.com for a beginning.

One area where the Governor of poker games can help even those who want real life simulation is with the processes of the different types of games and the terminology, so they are good for beginners as you can learn all about how poker works which can save you some blushes and maybe a few tart comments when you play against real people.

So you'll be fully familiar with position, the blinds, betting, raising, folding and so on and hopefully an idea on what hands to play and NOT to play. It is also possible to set a difficult skill level which some have said is much harder that most real life games so it may help you get ready to go up against some real sharks!

But if what you want is a fun poker game, one that is also suitable for kids to play then the Governor of poker series is one you should look at. Give the Governor of Poker games free download for pc or Mac a go today.