Best New Table Game on G2E Floor

In the spirit of not trying to hijack the G2E Venue thread, I'll start this one. I was going to make this a poll, but I am sure the list of potential games is too long. So what was everyone's opinion on the best new table game on the G2E Floor? Any game with 0-5 installs is eligible.

My vote is for Lucky 9 as can be seen here: http://www.abuangaming.com/

I was surprised. Nothing was really impressive to me, though some were good.

I liked "Money Market" at Shufflemaster (but not crazy about the name), but felt it required too many units to play, and also like their three-sided poker game with a High, Middle, and low hand.

I saw some games that were "a little interesting" in some catchy ways, but almost nothing that was very strong, IMO.

There was little in terms of new stuff for Roulette and Dice; almost all of the new stuff were card-game related, mainly BJ and poker.

Thanks for the report Dan. I always feel a little bad at these types of trade shows when I am just collecting information for myself, and not really a sales target. I wonder if the salesperson is letting a real (or THE) sale walk by while they are wasting time pitching to me.

Were there any cool freebies?

The business of new table games is VERY rough, expensive, and hard to break in to.
You need a home run of a new game to bust down the gate. Anything luke-warm doesn't catch fire.
I saw a couple of red hot new games being readied for the market outside of the convention.

Money Market.

Miplet and I met at about 12:00 on Tuesday and more or less hung out and walked the show together.

There were three games in particular that I liked. I believe Miplet liked the first two also.



Pai Jack.

You get 5 cards and have to form 2 BlackJack hands. Then, similar to Pai Gow, if both beat both of the dealer's hands, you win. If both lose, you lose. Otherwise, it's a push. We had fun with that one for a while. In fact, it's the game where we started to use the expression "Don't Tell Dan."

In one hand, I had been dealt two faces, two aces and a deuce. While the dealer wasn't looking, I made two hands of ace-face, and palmed the deuce. Mip saw that and we said, almost in unison, "Don't tell Dan," and started laughing.

When the dealer turned over my hands, she feared that she only gave me 4 cards. I let her off the hook quickly. But then she said that if I wasn't screwing around, I could have set the hands as two 12s to win the Tie Bet. Doh! I don't remember much else about how the game works or where the edge comes from.

FYI: We ran into Dan shortly after that first stunt and burst out laughing. Of course we immediately told him.

But it started a tradition where, at many of the exhibits, I would be past-posting, capping or pinching bets, or we swapped single cards. Don't tell Dan. LOL.



There was a card based horse race game. I forget the name. The betting layout kinda reminded me of Sic Bo with all the different betting positions. Then the cards are pulled from the shoe, while a card reader sees the cards and advances horses on a monitor. There's no skill involved. Just pick a horse, or exacta, or trifecta, and hope for the best.

The first few times we played, the game's inventor was handling the game, and doing race-track style announcing. It was fun.

Then he had to talk to someone, so the eye-candy dealer took over the next game. She had a boring drone of just announcing the cards. No energy.

We liked the concept, but knew that it would fail without a good, animated dealer.



Wednesday I went to the TCS John Huxley event at the GhostBsr by myself. Three Dice Football was there. I played it and enjoyed it. If the player makes a Touch Down, he then goes for an extra point. For the extra point, it best roll of the dice is three 1s. So I'm about to roll, and fumbling with the dice. I then slit them across the table and said, "Look! Three 1s!" The eye candy dealer was flabbergasted, but the inventor and I had a laugh.



Those are the three games that stand out most in my mind - at least those that stand out without me looking at my notes, or checking any of the literature for memory triggers. I'm sure there were additional games that I liked. There were also plenty of games that I did not like. But I won't mention those without checking my notes for fear of naming the wrong name.



For the record, I am concerned that come of the game inventors would mistake my enthusiasm for genuine enjoyment. I mean, its very easy to look like you're enjoying a game when you're only losing play chips, and/or capping and pinching bets.



The Wiz did mention Money Market to us as his pick, so we played it Thursday. We were less than impressed, although I can't remember exactly why. I do remember thinking it was a stupid name for a card game.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I always feel a little bad at these types of trade shows when I am just collecting information for myself, and not really a sales target. I wonder if the salesperson is letting a real (or THE) sale walk by while they are wasting time pitching to me.

I thought the same thing. However, on more than one occasion, a salesperson gave me the brush-off to talk to someone more important. And that's completely understandable.


On the flip side...

There was one situation that has me entirely shocked. At one point, after spending about 10-15 minutes each at two games, a rep asked us to step away from the tables. This was on Thursday relatively early in the day. He explained that the girls were complaining and needed a break.

While I can understand the girls complaint, doesn't he realize that our sitting at the game, playing it, looking like we're having fun, makes that game seem more appealing to the casino exec that walks by?

If the girls complaint was the true reason for asking us to leave, then he should have been prepared with more girls so he could rotate them and give them breaks more often.

For the record, I wont name the company. It was a biggie. [edit]

To be honest, I think it is overstaying your welcome to go more than 15 minutes at one table, unless you have a specific business interest in that game. The argument about being a shill for the game I don't think holds much water in a show environment. Everyone will think you're just sitting there to ogle the dealer.

We weren't trying to "be a shill". Nor were we oggling the dealer.

We really were trying to figure out the games.

However, I do see your point.

Highjack away.....I have no problem with it. The more the communication, the better.

There was the crazy dice game that was a varient of roulette. Scisson or something like that. Too lazy to dig out the table card from the bag. Sorry

Quote: TaxmanCPA

There was the crazy dice game that was a varient of roulette. Scisson or something like that. Too lazy to dig out the table card from the bag. Sorry

Scossa. It was discussed quite a bit here recently.

Of all the new games this year, I liked Shufflemaster's Money Market the best. It combines elements of Mississippi Stud and Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, which are both great games. I think the name could use some work (and the rack card begins oddly with "Welcome to Money Market, let's go shopping for easy money!"), but it's a very enjoyable game overall. I hope it catches on.

Somehow the descriptor "Money Market" doesn't conjure up visions of volatility and high returns ... more like a 0.000023% A.P.R. :)

Quote: teddys

Somehow the descriptor "Money Market" doesn't conjure up visions of volatility and high returns ... more like a 0.000023% A.P.R. :)

Good catchy names for table games are hard to come by. They could have called it, "Get four cards, discard one, and raise up to four times if you want..."

Edit: Money Market is a good game - unusual in its ability to raise on a very good hand for a house-banked game, no less, - extremely appealing. I think the name should have been something like "Raise It High poker," or something more descriptive to that effect.

Quote: Paigowdan

Good catchy names for table games are hard to come by. They could have called it, "Get four cards, discard one, and raise up to four times if you want...".

I think Cincinnati Stud (another new Shufflemaster game was called Cincinnati Seven Card Stud, or something close to that) is a good name. They could've saved that name for this game, which I think has a great chance of success, and not used it for the game for which they actually did, which I thought was one of their worst offerings this year. But I realize it's impossible to know which games will succeed and which won't. I just think "Money Market" is an especially bad name--it must have been decided by committee :-)

Naming a new table game after "the mystique of some city location" is generally a great idea: Hong Kong Poker uses that (an exotic but easy-to-play version of poker with 5 hole cards and three community cards.)

As well as:
New Orleans Stud,
San Fran Hold 'em,
Houston Draw... even
Chicago no limit -

...are all good catchy name examples that people will associate to some new game's style of play once shown:
- easy to remember,
- and catchy.

However, I am not too crazy about "Shanghai Poker" (a game name in current use) because of the English connotation of being "Shanghai'-ed..." or robbed...

Names like "Rabbit Hunter" or "Money Market" connote active activities that are too unrelated to table play; people say, "Huh?"
A city's name with "poker/stud/no limit/Hold 'em" attached to it is a good idea. Think about it...

Edit 1: the city or State name should be a reknown American, Asian, or European area. Add Seattle, Savanah, St. Louis, New York or Georgia, or Milan or Lisbon, or even London, Bangkok, or Osaka or Tokyo to the list. It is the "ring" to it that counts without negative connotation. Do not consider Tehran, Istanbul or Krasnoyarsk.

Edit 2: add a "game pace" or "house" term to the name is also good: "Tokyo minute no-limit," "New York Front Door," "Savannah Slow Draw" or "Savannah Ranch Poker" would work.
"Tehran Slow Draw" and "Bagdad Sudden death" would sound tourtuous. As would "Athens Back Door," "Bulgarian Hayride," etc.
If it rings good, it's probably good.
If it rings bad, it's truly bad.

Question. In MM, the dealer receives only 2 cards and the 3 community cards or? Or if the dealer receives 3 cards, how does the discard process work?

Thanks,

Oscar