In either case, tournaments start with a $20,000 buy-in and progress across numerous hands until you either run out of cash and get knocked out or are the last one at the table. Poker Night 2 sticks closely to the original game's format, though you do have the option of playing either Texas hold 'em or the somewhat more forgiving Omaha hold 'em. From there, it's time to throw down the chips and watch the silliness unfold. A humorous opening sequence leads you down into the Inventory, introduces the characters, and offers enough setup to give a touch of context to the proceedings.

The addition of Portal's murderously passive-aggressive GLaDOS as the dealer rounds out the group perfectly. Brock Samson from The Venture Bros., Ash Williams from The Evil Dead, Claptrap from Borderlands, and Sam, the canine half of Telltale's anthropomorphic freelance police duo, make for a quirky crew to compete against. This time around, the return trek to the seedy underground nightclub sports an all-new cast with an equally unusual spread of characters. The original Poker Night at the Inventory sat you down at the card table with the Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Penny Arcade's Tycho, Max from Sam & Max, and Strong Bad from Homestar Runner for rounds of high-stakes Texas hold 'em punctuated by an abundance of wacky conversation. The quirky cast of characters is a real delight. That's fine for the first few hours of entertaining antics, but as the jokes grow stale and the matches become more predictable, the charm fizzles, leaving you itching for actual human opponents to play against. Serious poker playing often takes a backseat to the funny interactions that unfold between this group of likable misfits culled from a few well-known game and TV/film franchises.

If you've ever gathered around a table with a gang of buds who aren't particularly great at playing cards but still carry the evening with their oddball banter, then Poker Night 2 will feel very familiar.

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