The Review title pretty much sums it up. While the similarities to poker are negligible, the feel is similar. Each card has a figure printed on it, either a good dragon, an evil dragon, or a mortal, as well as a numerical figure between 1 and 13, and an event description. The numbers are the strength of the card, the dragon's color and alignment affect the event (ie good dragons=cards, evil dragons = gold). You play in Gambits which consist of 3 rounds. each round the first player lays down a card, and his event (described on the card) triggers. Usually events involve taking gold or cards from other players. The next player then lays down his card. In order for his event to trigger, the strength of the card he lays down must be less than or equal to the strength of the card the previous player laid down. The next player does the same, and so on, until everyone has played a card. Three of these rounds completes the gambit, and the winner with the strongest flight (the cards in play in front of you) takes the stakes (the money). There are also special events that trigger when players get 3 of a kind strength-wise or color-wise.

The only real drawback to this game, is the instructions. While they are well written, they are very jargon-heavy in order to keep this game realistic to the content. Once you get past that, it's easy to pick up. There's even a section in the back of the manual describing further vernacular phrases, like "Playing like a dwarf" indicating that a player would rather give up cards than gold when the choice is given. But on your first read-through it's a little overwhelming.

A simple game that can last all night or just a few gambits, it's a good warm up for a night of gaming, or while waiting for people to arrive. Chips or counters of some sort are an absolute necessity, as gambling is an integral part of this game. I suggest using 3 colors (value = 10g, 5g, and 1g) of the glass counter stones to keep the game in the DnD world. The cards are well produced, and quite nice, sporting some decent art (what you might expect for a tavern game). They are a heavy stock and of a larger nature than a regular playing card size. More akin to the physical size of a Tarot card. For further DnD fun, there's rules for playing the game in character, and utalizing your Skills to affect the game.