Error at Ohio casino game gives players the edge

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Incor­rect rules at a pop­u­lar poker table game led to a wind­fall for play­ers before the Colum­bus casino detected the error and shut it down.

The Hol­ly­wood Casino Colum­bus declined to say how long the Crazy 4 Poker was oper­at­ing with incor­rect rules or when it was shut down. But The Colum­bus Dis­patch reported Wednes­day that the advan­tage led to peo­ple stand­ing in line to play the game and even pay­ing oth­ers to give up their seats at the table.

One player said it was “like a free hol­i­day” for poker players.

The prob­lem was with the game’s “super bonus bet” require­ment. Play­ers are required to put down a “super bonus bet” that is equal to their ante. The table wasn’t requir­ing that bet, tip­ping the odds in favor of the players.

In Crazy 4 Poker, play­ers get five cards and pick four of them to cre­ate the best pos­si­ble hand.

The table was shut down, but reopened last week with the cor­rect rules in place, turn­ing the odds back in favor of the house.

“There was an issue with the rules, so the game was with­drawn tem­porar­ily and resub­mit­ted” to the Ohio Casino Con­trol Com­mis­sion for approval, casino spokesman Bob Tenen­baum told the newspaper.

Tenen­baum declined to com­ment on the amount of money the casino lost from the Crazy 4 Poker mistake.

The Colum­bus casino opened in Octo­ber as one of four voter-approved gam­bling houses statewide.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Feb 20 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.