Overall, I think the game mechanics looked nice, if not a bit clunky (e.g. each time I tried to "throw in" my chips it took 2 tries b/c the first try never worked).
That said, why was the AI removed? I thought the first version, as just a poker game looked good, and that maybe the next version would simply be an upgrade. But...not only is it missing the AI so you can just play casually, it replaced the original so theres no going back.
Also, there looks to be about a dozen ways to spend money just to play...by sure I want to pay the game author so much $ for the privilege of playing.
Disappointing.