Scrabble and Poker in one game? Only Freeverse could come up with such a combination. And a great one! There are only two games that rate the honor of being on my desktop and this is one of them.

CrossCards delightfully mixes the two of the most popular games into one. Like Scrabble you begin in a certain area of the board and add to your winnings by "multiplier" tiles located throughout the playing board. But unlike Scrabble, you do not need a large vocabulary to feel superior to your computer opponent. Just wear your best poker face and know your poker hands! Using the same wining hands from poker, such as a straight, royal flush, etc, you filled the board at an exciting pace.

There are five scenarios. Classic I, the standard 13 x 13 size Scrabble board and one card deck with 5 jokers. Classic II, a 15 x 15 size board with two decks and 9 jokers. Crossword Classic, this is the standard board. The fourth games is "Reach for the Prize" which is played on a 15 x 15 size board, two decks of cards and 9 jokers. The board is arranged in such a fashion that without the right strategy you could find yourself trapped and unable to obtain the prize. But my personal is "Race to the End". The chances here for the "Big points" can be found in this game. I love to race to the other side of the board where I can gain points by five!! Five by hand and 5 by cards! Do you have any idea what this can do to the point spread?

So now that you have chosen your game board, you can choose your opponent. There are six players which can play from a level of one to ten. My personal favorite is Monty. (He is the elusive monkey) I love beating him! He flames when he loses (sore loser) I enjoy saying at the end of my winning game "Burn baby Burn!!

To play each player has a rack containing up to 8 cards. Every card has a

certain value (with Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13 and Ace = 14). Jokers only have a value of 0 but can represent any other card. I really hate this especially when I have to play one on a big five point card tile. Players take turns in placing up to 5 cards on the board to make one or more Poker hands. As with Scrabble, you can move up or down or side to side. You also have the option of passing a turn or trading your cards in at the end of your turn for new ones.

This game is very addictive. I play it every day and use it to relax myself when I come home from a hard day at the gym. Ok I spend an hour, but it seems like a full day.

This game is purchased and downloaded from the Freeverse site. You can also purchase an CD from the company for $10.00.

A Macintosh with an operating system of 8.0 or better.

This is a great solitaire game. I am not into games where I have to shoot everything that moves or save the world from destruction. I leave those to my husband and son. I love the mindless, fast, burn the monkey type of games where I win most of the time. (I am a very sore loser) So if you are like me and enjoy the strategy of Scrabble, but have no great plans to rush out and buy a Webster dictionary as light reading, then buy CrossCards!