Texas Hold 'Em 360 dated

Texas Hold 'Em will be making an appearance on Xbox Live Arcade next month after all, Microsoft's confirmed.

The game wasn't included in the line-up of titles that make up Microsoft's current "Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays" promotion, which sees a game released every Wednesday until August 9th. That led most of us to believe we wouldn't see it for a while afterward.

But now it sounds like Microsoft was simply hedging its bets - the US arm of the company has now confirmed a release date of August 23rd for the poker derivative, in development at TikGames.

You won't be able to make actual money playing Texas Hold 'Em, however many Microsoft Points it ends up costing - but then that's fairly realistic, isn't it?

What you will get is three game modes - standard, tournament, scenario - and dozens of variations, along with the option to make custom multiplayer ones for up to eight players.

The game will also support 1080i progressive-scan resolutions, apparently, although we can't imagine that'll make much difference to anything.

The other games due out on Live Arcade before the end of August include Cloning Clyde (this Wednesday, July 19th), Galaga (July 26), Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (August 2) and Pac-Man (August 9).

Now all we need is a surprise Lumines Live announcement and our summer's complete. Come on Microsoft, get on with it.