Most new table offerings are new riffs on familiar concepts. Every so often, that leads to different game developers hitting on similar ideas at the same time. That happened a few years ago when a walk around the Global Gaming Expo display floor found four blackjack side bets that paid when the dealer busted.
This year, I tried out two games that paid off on flushes of varying lengths, American Gaming Systems’ Chase the Flush and Shuffle Master/Scientific Games’ Flushes Gone Wild.
Both were fun to play and both seem like they have a chance to carve out a following in casinos, though an operator might not want both in the same pit,
The object in Chase the Flush is to make the longest flush among seven available cards.
You start by making ante and X-tra Bonus bets of equal size. Players and the dealer each receive three cards face down, and four community cards also are dealt face down.
There are additional betting opportunities after you see a two-card flop, a one-card turn and a one-card river. To beat the dealer, you must either have a flush with more cards or, if you and the dealer have flushes with the same number of cards, yours must have a higher rank.
However, if the dealer does not have a 9-high three-card flush or better, he does not qualify and the antes in action push.
In Flushes Gone Wild, deuces are wild – enabling your flush to go wild, of course.
You start with equal ante and blind bets. Players and the dealer each receive five cards face down, and two community cards are dealt.
After you’ve seen your cards, you may make a Play bet of double your ante. The dealer then reveals his cards and the community cards.
Using your five cards and the two community, you win if you have a flush with more cards than the dealer, or if your flush is of the same length but higher rank.
Winning ante and play bets pay even money, while blind bet payoffs depend on your margin of victory. The max payoff of 200-1 comes with a margin of five, meaning your flush is seven cards and the dealer has no more than two in the same suit.
