A five-card pai gow poker game under field trial at Harrah’s Las Vegas is about to go mainstream in Nevada. The Nevada Gaming Control Board has signed off on the new game brought to the market by Casino Gaming Development, a Colorado company owned by crap dealer Angel Espino. Board members appreciated his innovation and said they hoped to see more of his games in the future when they recommended approval to the Nevada Gaming Commission.
The new table game is a variant of the traditional seven-card pai gow poker.
“It speeds up and simplifies the game a little more,” Espino said. “You have more hands per hour. You minimize dealer and player error. It makes it simpler for the next generation of casino table-game players.”
Traditional pai gow poker is played in such a way that five cards create the high hand and two cards the low hand. in 5-Card Pai Gow, it’s three cards for the high hand and two for the low.
“There’s not too much confusion with the house way of how you break down the game,” Espino said. “The whole objective is the guest plays against the dealer. You split the two hands and you have to win both hands to win the wager. If you win one and lose the other, it’s a push.”
Lucas Botsis, casino manager at Harrah’s Las Vegas and point person on the field trail, said it went well. It’s a new game, so it can be hard to draw in players. But by being the variant of an established game, it helped to pique interest.
Botsis said it was simple for the dealers compared to regular pai gow, in which the splits are more complicated. “Whatever hand you get, there’s no if, ands or buts for (5-Card Pai Gow),” Botsis said. He noted that a lot of players asked questions, but there were no major disputes.
Players get to see the dealer’s cards before they see their own. That’s an advantage for the players; they can see the dealer’s cards, then and sort out their cards, Espino said. Also, there’s no random generator and the game starts from left to right like poker. And the game is available online at the Linq Hotel to play for free for anyone wanting to learn how it works.
Dustin Brown, a vice president of gaming for Caesars Entertainment who oversees Harrah’s Las Vegas, said they would like to see a progressive added to the game, so it aligns with many of the other poker derivatives on the floors.
“They all have lofty progressives that attract some of our best players,” Brown said. “I believe at Harrah’s, the next step is to get that progressive on there and see if we can get another lift in our hold percentage, drop, and win. As the success of the game continues, we hope to spread a game at the Flamingo. I oversee games at Harrah’s, Linq, and Flamingo. I currently offer Mr. Espino’s other game on our casino floor called 3 Shot Poker. He’s been a great partner to the operations here in Las Vegas, so I’m interested in any product he creates or puts out. 3 Shot Poker has done well for us.”
Espino said he’s excited to expand the gaming library to all of Caesars properties in the future. The addition of a progressive jackpot will give the game more play and attract more players. “I think that’s the future of most pai gow poker and poker-derivative games,” Espino said. “We’re excited for the future of what the game can bring to Las Vegas clientele.”
The hold percentage for the house during the trial was 33%. Espino credited that high of a hold to newness for players.
