There's no point in playing Pro Evolution Soccer without keeping track of the score and you can't play Call of Duty without knowing who killed who. This is essential in every form of gaming.

In the aftermath of the online poker craze in the mid 2000s, many game producers wanted to jump on the bandwagon and get a piece of the poker action. Titles like World Poker Tour, World Champion Poker and World Series of Poker were released and players were supposed to leave the online-poker sites and grind it out on their Xbox and PS3 instead.

Some did, but not as many as the game producers might have thought, and the reason why is quite simple. The core of poker was lost in the transition from online-poker rooms to gaming consoles. The game producers had missed that poker isn't just a regular game where nominating a winner is enough to entertain the players.

Like it or not, but poker is a game with money involved. When you're pondering a big call on the river in a game of Texas Hold'em, the only thing that stops you from calling is potential loss. If there was no money involved, you could just call and see weather you held the best hand or not.

Furthermore, bluffing is an important tool in poker and is what makes the game interesting. Forcing your opponent to lay down a better hand or calling a big bet with a weak winner is what the game is all about. But how can you make your opponent fold if there's nothing to lose?

The core is about losing and winning money and not losing or winning the game. The difference between winning money and winning the game is huge.

So if you're interested in real poker action, don't buy a poker game for your Xbox or PS3. Use that money as a deposit in an online-poker room instead. You can play for extremely low stakes nowadays, so a $20 deposit will keep you entertained for a longer time than the same amount of money would if you decided to spend it on a crappy console poker game.