Poker Night at the Inventory Guide!

Poker Night at the Inventory is a single player poker game that was developed by Telltale Games November 22, 2010. The basic idea of the game is the four main characters all play Texas Hold 'Em within a secret club hidden underneath a warehouse.  The game features the following four main characters which I’m sure you’ll know at least one of them. There’s Tycho, Max, Strong Bad, and the Heavy of course. The game features a load of humorous dialogue between the characters as well!

In the name you’ll notice it says at the Inventory. The Inventory is a secret club that was built underneath a video game storage warehouse in 1919. Fictionally a draft of the 18th Amendment was found by a group of gamblers and released news that it could outlaw the gaming and amusements, such as poker. In case Congress decided to set prohibition into this law, the secret club The Inventory came about. This way yourself and several other gamblers would have a place to gamble in peace.



Now lets get down to the characters a bit more precisely, as I’m sure the names might not of rang a bell right away. There’s Tycho Brahe, whose a well known character from the Penny Arcade. The Penny Arcade is a web comic focused on video games and video gaming culture, written by Jerry Holkins and drawn by Mike Krahulik. The comic first came about in 1998 under a different website called loonygames.com. The team Holkins and Krahulik are also known for creating a major children’s charity named Child’s Play. Also a large annual gaming convention called PAX. Tycho Brahe may sound familiar to any history buffs as he was named after the astronomer Tycho Brahe.  He has a tendency to be sarcastic and is very laid back throughout the game. You can unlock The Enthusiast’s Timepiece which features a Pac-Man symbol for Team Fortress 2.

Then there’s Max; the rabbit/lagomorph, from the media franchise Sam and Max, the Freelance Police. This franchise has created a name for itself in various forms. It began as a simple comic strip in 1980 where Sam and Max would fight crime as vigilante private investigators based in New York City. The comic strip really sparked in 1987 and in 1995 all of the comics and The Adventurer strips published to that date were made into a 154 page book. It’s also done successfully in video gaming through Lucas Arts. Their first released in 1993 and they’ve been making games with Sam and Max to this day. And wait, even more, they had a TV series running from 1997 to 1998. Despite it’s success, there was only one season. The Sam and Max franchise have influenced the gaming industry in various ways.  You can unlock the Lugermorph and License to Maim from Max for Team Fortress 2.

Lets not forget Strong Bad from Homestar Runner! The idea for the flash animated internet cartoon began around 1996. It was originally a hand book sketch made by Mike Chapman and Craige Zobel. In 1999 the first cartoon was made through Mario Paint. Around 2000, the Homestarrunner.com domain was live and they put flash into action. Mid 2001 Strong Bad make a bigger appearance with his humorous Strong Bad Email program. This started to kick start Homestar Runner and grab some attention allowing them to pull off selling merchandise to maintain the site. Strong Bad is featured in other episodes but is very well known for replying to emails in funny ways through flash animations. In Poker Night at the Inventory, Strong Bad often raises. You can unlock the Dangeresque, too? from Strong Bad for Team Fortress 2.

Last but not least, the Heavy class from the Valve Team Fortress game. Team Fortress began as a team FPS multiplayer mod in 1999. The game featured 2-4 teams at the time, red, blue, yellow and green. Team Fortress is a class based game where each class has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. Each mode was usually to achieve a team goal such as capture the flag or control a point. Then in 2007 the sequel Team Fortress 2 aka TF2 came out. The game continued the success of the first and to this day is still loaded with players. It recently became a free to play game making things interesting. The Heavy is a support class in TF2 and is often backed up by a medic. In Poker Night at the Inventory, the Heavy tends to go all in often. You can unlock the Iron Curtain from the Heavy for Team Fortress 2.



Now that you’ve learned the characters, lets make sure you the rules of Texas Hold ‘Em before you jump into the game. The game starts out with a player being the dealer and then two players to the left of the dealer putting down the first bets, called blinds. The first blind is half the minimum bet, the second is the full bet so people always have something to be playing for. The dealer deals a standard card deck of 52 and deals each player two cards face down; known as the “hole cards”. You can only view these cards. Now things get interesting and each player gets a turn in which they can call, raise, or fold, in some cases check. To call is to put down as much as the current bet to stay in. To raise is to raise the current bet. Checking is basically passing the turn without betting. You can only check if nobody has bet yet, if someone bets, then it comes back to you and you have to call, raise, or fold. To fold is to give in your hand. After the first round of betting finishes, the dealer flips the next three cards from the deck face up. These are called the “flop”. Then another round of betting occurs. In this round you’ll know whether you’re in or out most likely. After this round of betting, another card is flipped; called the turn. Then lastly after one more round of betting, another card is flipped; called the river. At this point there are the five community cards on the table and the hole cards you have. You can use these seven cards to create the best five card poker hand. The lowest hand is a high card, then a pair, then two pair, then three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, and lastly which you’ll be lucky to ever get, Royal Flush. As you play poker you tend to learn tricks here and there to make other people play long or to make them fold. Poker is a game of manipulation and bluffing, always remember that.

So now that you’ve learned how to play Poker and may of experienced playing it from Poker Night at the Inventory, are you ready to take it to a new level? You can look into online poker at a nice site called Poker Listings. And if you want to just jump right into it, you can start playing poker now!