Texas Hold 'em patched

Those of you pitching up on the hunt for a new Xbox Live Arcade game will have to go to sleep for another week - this week's "arcade action", we're told, is an update to Texas Hold 'em.

If you sign into the game after 8am GMT, you should find you're prompted to download the update automagically. You'll also discover that the leaderboards for the game have been reset.

"This update incorporates much of the feedback that we have heard from the community over the past couple of months," writes Xbox Live director of programming Major Nelson, who adds that early next year will see the team as Live Vision camera support, too.

Here's the full list of changes Microsoft says is being put in place this morning:

• Game-play has been sped up.
• Post the blind and play right away! - Players can now, if they wish, start playing immediately when joining a table by posting the big blind, rather than having to wait for the blind to come to them.
• New 'Away' mode - Players can now set their status to 'Away'. Hands will be auto-folded and blinds auto-posted until the player returns.
• New 'Auto-boot' mode - Players who continuously let the timer expire (more than three times in a game) will be booted from the table.
• Faster overall pacing - Timers and messaging durations have been adjusted to speed up game-play among experienced players, but still allow novice players plenty of time to play.
• Improved blind structure - Initial blinds, as well as blind increases, are now more proportional to table stakes, ensuring more meaningful increases during game-play.
• Matchmaking improvements - Players are no longer matched into games they cannot afford.
• Improved interface controls - Improvements to controls, such as increasing/decreasing stake amounts.
• Leaderboard display - A player's full winnings and rank are now properly displayed.
• Art and text improvements - Game art and spelling issues have been addressed.
• Online exploits addressed - Certain known exploits that enabled cheating have been addressed. As a result, the online multi-player leaderboards will be reset to eliminate inflated scores as a result of these exploits.