Break Poker at The Orleans, Vegas; competing against Pai Gow poker?

Break Poker is played using a standard deck of 52 cards plus a Joker. To begin, players place a Main bet and optionally one or both of the bonus bets: Break Bonus and Dealer Break. The object of the game is to use 5 of the 7 cards to make a Lucky Break: a two-card low hand, consisting of a pair, and a three-card high hand, consisting of a straight or three-of-a-kind (Trips). The Joker can be used in a Straight, Trips, or as an Ace. If a 5 card Lucky Break cannot be obtained, the player's three-card high hand must outrank his two-card low hand. Card value combinations ranked from highest to lowest are:

Three-of-a-Kind, Straight, Pairs and High Card Values [no Flush]

Main Bet
> Dealer's 7-card hand must qualify with an Ace-high if his hand does not have a pair, straight or trips. If the dealer's hand does not qualify, the player's Main Bet is a push. Any optional side wagers made remain in play.
> Dealer must set his 5-card hand House Way.
> Any Lucky Break hand outranks any non-Lucky Break hand.
> Dealer's Lucky Break vs. Player's Lucky Break, or Dealer's non-Lucky Break vs. Player's non-Lucky Break
* Player wins 1 to 1, if the player's high hand beats the dealer's high hand and the player's low hand beats the dealer's low hand.
* Player pushes when either his low hand or high hand wins and the other one loses against the dealer's low hand or high hand.
* Player loses when the dealer's high hand beats the player's high hand and the dealer's low hand beats the player's low hand. Note that dealer wins hands with equal ranking (i.e. copy).

Break Bonus

The Break Bonus side wager pays odds according to the paytable, if the player's hand consists of a Lucky Break.
- Lucky Break Hand Payout
- Five Aces 200 to 1
- Five of a Kind, 2s-Ks 100 to 1
- Pair + Trips 6 to 1
- Pair + AKQ 3 to 1
- Pair + Straights 1 to 1

Dealer Break

The Dealer Break side wager pays 4 to 1 if both the dealer's hand and the player's hand consist of a Lucky Break. If only the Dealer's hand consists of a Lucky Break, the player is paid 1 to 1.

Check out the game at The Orleans, Las Vegas or Boomtown, Reno or www.etablegames.com.

To qualify my vote, for me "definitely try" includes trying an online sim of the game. But it sounds interesting enough to see how it plays.

I will give it a Try.

Yes, it seems like Pai Gow.

Curious that they don't count a flush as a winner. Or even in the 7 card bonus.

I'd give it a try, but wouldn't bother with the side bets.

My eyes started to glaze at" dealer must qualify".

This is nothing like a rummy game or a Mahjong game. Are you sure?

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Curious that they don't count a flush as a winner. Or even in the 7 card bonus.

Perhaps (1) just to be different from all other games - not a Pai Gow game (2) to simplify [How many casual poker players can not "see" a flush? a lot] (3) how often would one get a 3 card flush out of 7 cards? very very often (4) did not hurt anything. Just my opinion. Tried it and liked it.

I should have a page on the game within a week.

Quote: etablegames

Main Bet
> Any Lucky Break hand outranks any non-Lucky Break hand.

* Player pushes when either his low hand or high hand wins and the other one loses against the dealer's low hand or high hand.

So, even if the players "luck break" contains a 2-3-4 straight (is A-2-3 the lowest straight, or the second highest?) in the three card hand, and the dealer does not have a pair, but makes 3-4-5 for the straight, the player still wins?

I can see potential problems when the dealer incorrectly mucks the player's two card hand thinking it was the two discards.

Can a player request that the dealer set their hand "house way"? If so, does it get set before or after the dealer sets his hand?

The game appears vulnerable to a full table of players sharing information on their holdings. It would mean more pushes than wins for the house.


Check out a demonstration on youtube here

Quote: Ayecarumba

(1) So, even if the players "luck break" contains a 2-3-4 straight (is A-2-3 the lowest straight, or the second highest?) in the three card hand, and the dealer does not have a pair, but makes 3-4-5 for the straight, the player still wins?

(2) I can see potential problems when the dealer incorrectly mucks the player's two card hand thinking it was the two discards.

(3) Can a player request that the dealer set their hand "house way"? If so, does it get set before or after the dealer sets his hand?

(4) The game appears vulnerable to a full table of players sharing information on their holdings. It would mean more pushes than wins for the house.

(1) The dealer told me, (A-2-3) is lowest for the 3-card high hand, just like the regular poker / 3 card poker, unlike Pai Gow poker. A lucky Break is a 5-card hand, thus say [2-2, A-2-3] wins over [A-K, K-Q-J] which is not a luck break. They said a lucky break is either a full house or a "straight house", both are 5-card hands, thus, it is higher than a 3-card straight (obviously, lol). A 5-card lucky break trumps all non-lucky breaks.

(2) The two discards were removed first, then the dealer opens his cards and set hand, and then the dealer opens players' 5 card hands. I did not see any errors. I saw The Orleans allows player's for one time "mistake", e.g. low hand is set to be higher than high hand.

(3) Players' hands are always set prior to the setting of dealer's hand, house way or not (see (2)). I saw dealer help player set house way.

(4) Sharing info at The Orleans seems allowed. (I don't know how this would change anything.) The pit boss said BP has a lower push rate than Pai Gow poker. Only about 32% for Break Poker vs Pai Gow Poker's 41.5%, see WOO.

The dealer in the Youtube is super cute, but I did not find her at The Orleans.

Okay, here is my promised new page on Break Poker. As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, corrections, etc., before announcing the page to a wider audience.

The page describes the game thoroughly.
A couple of concerns about the game (aside from game play mechanisms that seem to be "borrowed" from at least two other games without research/checking) are:
1. The Lucky Break hands go against the natural order of the hands' ranking, and can cause as many bad beats for the player as it can "good beats." In other words, the lucky break can be an unlucky break; if so, then why not use the natural hand orderings?
2. The absence of flushes as a poker element in the game. I understand that from seven cards, the majority of the hands would form a three card flush, and so would have to be eliminated from consideration as a poker type element that's unnaturally too common. But this also is against gamblers' common poker knowledge, having a gap or an absence of a primary poker hand type, the flush.
There is another 5-card Pai Gow poker product where the final hands played are also split 3-and-2 during the hand comparisons, Pai Gow Express which maintains both the natural order and ranking of hands, as well as retaining all poker hand type rankings, including the flush.

The simple answer to Dan's comments is Break Poker is a new game. We will let market decide. And Gold Coast casino will install the game as soon as the layout is ready. Players love the new nature.

Quote: Wizard

Okay, here is my promised new page on Break Poker. As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, corrections, etc., before announcing the page to a wider audience.

Wizard, I note on your analysis table that the probability of a "Player Lucky Break/Dealer not Lucky Break" is 0.216354, while a "Player not Lucky Break/Dealer Lucky Break" is 0.220729. Is the difference due to copies?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: Wizard

Okay, here is my promised new page on Break Poker. As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, corrections, etc., before announcing the page to a wider audience.

Wizard, I note on your analysis table that the probability of a "Player Lucky Break/Dealer not Lucky Break" is 0.216354, while a "Player not Lucky Break/Dealer Lucky Break" is 0.220729. Is the difference due to copies?

Its from the dealer not qualifying with K-3-2 in the high hand.

Thanks miplet. I'm curious where the 5% banker commission is made up. Are there 5% more dealer losing hands turned to pushes than dealer winners turned to pushes?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Thanks miplet. I'm curious where the 5% banker commission is made up. Are there 5% more dealer losing hands turned to pushes than dealer winners turned to pushes?

Yes, thanks Miplet. I reworded the table to make that more clear. Indeed, the 5% commission is made up by the player only pushing when the dealer gets a really lousy hand.

Imagine playing poker where everybody puts in an Ante. However, another player pulls out his dollar and throws in his cards when get gets 2-7 off-suit or worse. That would give such a player an advantage, should he be allowed to get away with it.

Played Break Poker game at Gold Coast last night and had dinner at Ping-Pang-Pong, love both. Game was fun and meal was great. P-P-P opened till 3 AM, man... I wonder how the other Chinese restaurant "Noodle Exchange" (?) is, also at Gold Coast. Rarely see two Chinese restaurants in one casino. BP is a good game, I think WOO said it's at The Orleans.