Game Programming using VB.NET
-
-
If you are only making a simple poker game, you really don't need to get all fancy and do tons of research. You have 52 cards in a deck. You can select at random a number 1-52, each number representing a different card (1-13 = ace-king hearts suit, 14-27 = ace-king spades suit, etc), and you store what cards you have out on a 2 dimensional array to show who has them. For four players (3,4), unless you are using more than 5 cards. Once you have that down, you are left with the graphics. You could use labels, picture boxes, but from your post, I assume you want to get really fancy. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9216652f-51e0-402e-b7b5-feb68d00f298&displaylang=en[^] DirectX. I use it, but never really read any books on it, but I know tyhere is one out. You can make a fancy table object and use a cube object to handle the cards, just use different textures on them for different cards. http://www.wings3d.com/[^] ^ is a good modeling program, but DirectX mainly users the .x or .m format, so you will have to convert your objects. Sorry I can't be of much help, but good luck.
-