I took a trip back east to visit a few casinos. I managed to get out to
Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, some AC and Philadelphia Park. It was utterly
unremarkable from a VP perspective. All short paytables. I saw surprisingly
many Bally GameMaker machines, which is a stark contrast to the number I see
in Reno casinos (about 0%).
Anyway, I found one little oddball. It was in the Mohegan Sun. It was
"Double Down Stud" game, and it had glass advertising this. It was in a bank
of VP but the game itself was one of a kind. I've never seen or heard
anything about this. It offered Any Pair Poker, 6s or Better, and 7s or
Better along with 3 other games which I can't remember.
Being sleep-deprived and an idiot, the "stud" part of the glass didn't
register in my head. So I hit "Any Pair Poker" and saw any pair paying 1, 2
pair paying 3, etc. Full House paid 12 and Flush paid 9. RF paid 1000 (at
all bets). I knew this was too good to be true so I stuck in a bill and
played it.
Here's how it works. You're dealt 4 cards and you can choose to "double
down" or not. Double down is just what it is, in the Blackjack sense.
Whether you choose to double down or not, you are then dealt a 5th card.
There is no redraw, your 5 cards are evaluated against the paytable, and
that's that.
I played it for a very short time and it was a lot of fun. I managed to
break even at the end. Whether you should Double Down or not is a simple
calculation that can be made on-the-spot which is another appealing factor.
That was the only machine I saw in the entire place, and I walked the entire
floor. I thought I'd just throw this out in case anyone was interested in
such a game.
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