Casino Hold'em is a Texas Hold'em variation that is popular is played
in Egypt, Austria, Seychelles, Australia, and Russia.
Rules
1. Play begins with each player making an ante wager.
2. Two cards are dealt face down to each player and dealer. In addition
three flop cards are dealt face up. The players may examine their
own two cards but sharing information should be discouraged. All players
and dealer may use the three flop cards as part of their hand.
3. Each player must decide to either fold or call. If the player folds
he gives up his cards and his ante bet. If the player calls the call
must be equal to two times the ante bet.
4. The dealer will then deal two more community cards, for a total
of five. The dealer will also turn over his own two cards.
5. Each hand shall be scored according to the best 5-card hand that
can be composed out of the 5 community cards and the player or dealer's
personal two cards.
6. The dealer must have a pair of fours or better to qualify. If the
dealer does not qualify then the player will win the ante and push
on the call.
7. If the dealer qualifies and beats the player then the player will
lose both the ante and call.
8. If the dealer qualifies and the player beats the dealer then the
player will win both the ante and call.
9. Whether or not the dealer qualifies, if the player beats the dealer
then his ante will pay according to the table below. There are two
variations of the bonus table, according to the preferance of the
casino manager.
10. If the dealer qualifies and the player beats the dealer then the
call shall pay 1-1 (even money).
| Hand |
Table 1 |
Table 2 |
| Straight Flush |
20 to 1 |
25 to 1 |
| Four of a kind |
10 to 1 |
12 to 1 |
| Full House |
3 to 1 |
3 to 1 |
| Flush |
2 to 1 |
2 to 1 |
| All other |
1 to 1 |
1 to 1 |
Strategy
Unfortunately there is no easy way to quantify optimal strategy
for this game. I can say the optimal strategy player will raise
85% of the time. So only in the worst 15% of hands should the player
fold. In general these are when the player has two singletons in
the hole that are low compared to the flop, with little or no chance
for a straight or flush.
House Edge
Following table 1 the house edge with optimal strategy is 2.68%,
and 2.20% under table 2. Remember, the house edge is defined as
the ratio of the expected player loss to the initial wager. In Casino
Hold'em I think this makes the game look more casino friendly than
it really is. The element of risk (ratio of expected player loss
to total amount bet) is only 0.99% and 0.82% depending on the pay
table.
I used a random simulation of initial hands to calculate the house
edge and optimal strategy to play each one. This was a time consuming
game for the computer to run through and the sample size is not
as large as I would like. Therefore the house edge could be off
by about 0.4%.
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