YMMV / Poker Night 2

• Adaptation Displacement: One of the conversations Claptrap starts lampshades the fact that most modern Sam & Max fans don't remember the comics.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Unlike the previous game, this one keeps the player's gender more ambiguous, with Sam even pulling the "You don't even like girls" gag when Max gives them a smooch (albeit still not being able to identify the player's gender) and while GLaDOS is very sardonic towards everybody at the table, she has a much more notable hatred of the player. Several fans have assumed that the player is actually Chell this time around.
• Awesome Music: A jazz cover of Still Alive.
• Cargo Ship: Ash and Wendy, who was the Anti-Necronomicon in the guise of a woman. He wasn't aware of it at the time, though.
• Crack Ship: Claptrap has a crush on GLaDOS, and he constantly tries to put the moves on her, much to her chagrin. Even in one of the PS3 unlockable skins, he's where Chell was when GLaDOS awoke in the sequel, offering her a rose.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Much like in his home series, Steve is this mostly because of the Borderlands-themed eliminations.
• Gateway Series: Just like the first game, particularly in regards to The Venture Bros. and Evil Dead.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In another conversation, Brock mentions that a video game company used his image for one of their games, which later "went bankrupt... with extreme prejudice". Context aside, it's hard to listen to the line nowadays and not think about Telltale, who featured Brock in this game, announced their bankruptcy years later and due to the numerous controversies that followed, one could say the company's reputation went down in flames. Ouch.
  • Claptrap getting hacked by Gearbox to keep him from voicing his dislike towards them is a bit of a funny gag. At least that was the case until years later in 2019 when Claptrap's voiceactor, David Eddings, came forward with stories about abuse and injustices he suffered at the hands of Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox.
    • In the same vein, Max giving Claptrap a "Wet Willy" ^note licking his finger and sticking it in Claptrap's "ear" is significantly less funny if you're aware that Claptrap's voice actor claimed Randy Pitchford pulled the same prank on him during a recording session.
  • Claptrap being an Abhorrent Admirer of GLaDOS becomes awkward when Borderlands 3 was announced as a timed exclusive on Epic Game Store, a move that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford supported to the point of wanting future Borderlands games to stay off of Steam indefinitely. Needless to say, the relationship between Valve and Take Two/ Gearbox is not as pleasant as it once was.
• He Really Can Act: Yes, that is Danny Webber from Birdemic doing a surprisingly good Bruce Campbell impression, good enough to fool many into thinking it was a pseudonym for Campbell himself.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Poker Night at the Inventory, Max recalled a story about Flint Paper beating up Artie Flopshark (deceased) because he was a teaching a "made-up" game called Omaha and "scamming" people. Guess what's an actual alternative to Texas Hold Em' for Poker Night 2?
  • Within the same game: Ash thinks highly of the fact that Brock is like a second dad to Hank and Dean, and Ash says he's thinking of starting a family himself with Wendy, provided his "swimmers" aren't cursed. Once you unlock the full Evil Dead set, GLaDOS mentions to Ash that when he time-travelled back to the 14th century, he did end up getting a woman pregnant, despite sleeping with her "once, twice tops". Said woman ended up being one of Brock's ancestors, therefore, Ash is related to him through time-travel. Whoops!
  • Max's new voice actor is known for playing Lexaeus in the Kingdom Hearts series. Sam's old voice actor played Goofy, who assists the hero, Sora, in defeating the Organization Lexaeus works for.
  • Ash complaining about not letting franchises die is even funnier after the announcement that more Evil Dead movies and a Evil Dead TV series are on the way.
  • The Heavy is in the game, even if The Heavy isn't.
  • Ash asks Sam about his car and mentions that it growled at him, with Sam replying that it must have been possessed when they were in Hell. In Ash vs. Evil Dead season 2, "The Classic" gets possessed by demons.
  • In "Beyond the Alley of the Dolls", an optional dialogue selection can have Max throw his voice into a radio; he sings the first line of "King of the Creatures" before Sam tells him to stop. In this game, Sam himself will sometimes randomly sing a line of the same song.
• Ho Yay:
  • The game has some fun with Sam and Max’s relationship, simultaneously debunking their romance and giving some teasing toward them actually dating. For example, Ash speaks to Sam about his 25-year relationship with Max as if he's talking to a couple that's been married for a long time.
  • When the rest of the table explains to Ash that they know his exploits through comic books, collector's edition DVD's, and other merchandise, Sam mentions that Max has a rare, "Naked Ash" variant action figure.
    Max: Yowza!
  • Max also rewards The Player with a kiss at the end of the Sam & Max 25th Anniversary Tournament, despite both Freelance Policemen admitting that they can't tell what gender The Player is.
    Sam: You don't even like...whatever gender that is.
    Max: Call me.
  • When talking about HELPeR in the Venture Bros table set, Claptrap gets distracted with the idea of a robot head getting stuck in Brock's shirtless torso. And in another conversation, Claptrap flat-out tells Ash that he'll always be "his one true man-crush".
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • While the game does have its good share of content and reason for people to buy it, the Borderlands 2 and Team Fortress 2 DLC unlockables were the main, and for some- only reason for many players to buy this game.
  • Some people bought the game just to see everyone's favorite homicidal AI as a dealer.
• Obvious Beta: The iOS version, which is a mess of bugs. Most of the time when launching it, it crashes right back to the Springboard before it can get to the first Loading Screen. And when it actually loads, your dealing with a huge amount of Loads and Loads of Loading in game because it slows down a lot, mostly unresponsive touch screen controls, and (if you playing on an iPod or iPhone) cards that aren't easy to see depending on the skin.
• Older Than They Think: According to a forum post by writer Mike Stemmle, Sam and Max's "Prophecy" subplot is actually a retelling of the story for the cancelled 2004 game Sam and Max: Freelance Police, with some details changed.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: In regards to getting items. For the special items, in the first game, the chances to get them came up randomly, and you had to specifically knock the character out to win the item. In this game, you earn a shot at one of the special items by completing certain objectives, and once you get the chance, all you have to do is win that tournament to get the item. You're given more forewarning, and you don't have to change your strategy to try to win the item, so it's less nerve-wracking overall. And for the tables, card backs, and chips, you buy them with inventory tokens, and you'll get some tokens even if you lost the tournament, so you'll unlock everything eventually.
• Tainted by the Preview: The lack of Homestar Runner characters wasn’t met with much warmth from the fanbase, who at the time were desperate for a sign that the site wasn’t dead.
• That One Achievement: Fortunately, unlike the first game, there's none requiring you to get specific hands. Unfortunately, "We are the 1%", requires you to get $1,000,000 in lifetime balance, which means winning several games in a row without losing too much. If you're not good at Poker, you're not gonna be getting this for a long long time.
• That One Level: Well, challenge. Winning with a high card is terrible, because in addition to being entirely luck based, it requires you to win with both the worst condition possible. Get a pair and win? Too bad, you're out of luck. Your opponents fold when you would've won with a high card? Again, out of luck. While also terrible (but not anywhere near as bad) is winning a showdown with at least two players in it, since your opponents will likely end up folding rather than going all in. Unless you have a pitiful amount of money that won't change their stack much even if they lose.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The use of characters like GLaDOS, Brock Samson, along with various references to game and pop culture at the time (Brock can sometimes be heard to say he'll be "home in time for Downton Abbey", as an example) pegs this game pretty exactly as an early 2010's game.

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