Texas Switch

Question 1 - [00:08]

Michael: Hi this is Mike Shackleford at the 2015 Cutting Edge Table Game Show at the Paris Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. I'm here with Heather Gooze and her game Texas Switch. Hi, Heather. Can you tell me more about the game?

Heather: I would love to. This is basically the next evolution of the Ultimate Texas Hold’em inside of the player's pit. So, basically, all you're doing is you're playing Ultimate Texas but you have that option of switching out your two cards when you get them. How many times have you sat at a poker table and you get that two eight off suit, and you're like, "This sucks. I don't want them. I got to fold them." Well, now we're giving you that chance, light bulb, switch them out. So you got to love that.

Michael: That's a nice twist.

Heather: [laughs] You know what, as a poker player and as a dealer, I actually approve of that twist. So--

Question 2 - [00:53]

Michael: Okay. Can you lead me through the fine details of the game?

Heather: When you first walk up to the game, there's two bets that you require to make. That's the ante and the switch bet. They have to match each other. Once you do that bet, you have an optional bet, which is a bonus bet. Now, it's going to go from a three of a kind up to the royal flush. That's your poker play. Once you do the ante and the switch, the game is going to start.

I'm going to deal out two cards to every player that's playing, two cards to myself, five cards are going to go right in the middle. That's your flop. That's going to be your river. That's going to be your turn. Once we do that, we're going to start the betting. We're going to start with the first person on the right. They have the option on their ante bet to either go two times their ante bet, one time their ante bet. They can check, which is a really nice aspect because you're not going to be throwing a ton of money in right away or-- Here's that twist, that light bulb-- if you don't like your cards, you place them on this square and, boom, you've already paid for this switch. We're going to give you two brand new cards.

We're going to continue on with the game. We're going to come to me. Same thing, we're going to do the two pre-flop cards. Once I do those pre-flop cards, you then have the option to go one time your ante bet or you can check again. Again, you don't have to put all your money in all at once. You can kind of wait and check and see it out. Once we've done that, we're going to do the post flop. The post flop is where you now have three cards showing. You are required to either pay the play, which is you have to match your ante bet, or you can fold.

The cool aspect about this game and the reason why you should definitely play the bonus, even if you fold the rest of your money and the rest of your cards, you still can win on the bonus. And a lot of games do not have that option. So now, once we've got everybody's money on the table, everybody's cards on the table, we're going to go to the dealer's cards. We're going to turn over the two rivers. So now we've got the five cards. The dealer's going to turn over their two cards.

My cards will play exactly the same way as the player. It's the player cards against my cards. You have a better pair than me, awesome, you win. I have a better pair than you, simple, simple Ultimate Texas Hold’em. It's going to be even money on the ante, the pre-flop, the post flop, and the turn river. Once we do all that, cards are done, time for the next hand.

Question 3 - [03:07]

Michael: All right. And the bonus bet, how does that win?

Heather: Whether I beat you or not, if you have a three of a kind up to a royal flush, you're going to get paid on it either way. Anything from three to one to a hundred to one. So I could have a straight, you could have a flush. It doesn't matter who beats you, you're going to get paid on that bonus no matter what happens.

Michael: All right. Sounds simple enough. Thank you very much for the explanation.

Heather: You know what, even if I wasn't a dealer, I think I could understand this game. It's fun.

Michael: Yes, I get it, too. Thank you very much.

Heather: You're very welcome.