Whatever happened to "Holdem Challenge"?

[sucka]

I recall a while back Sklansky talking about a table game he invented called Holdem Challenge. I think they were play testing it a couple places about a year ago (Ballys?) but ever since then I haven't heard anything about it.

Did the game flop (no pun intended)?

[Homer]

Think about the intelligence of your average pit game player. I'll bet in testing they got confused as to which hand won (reading the board) on lots of occasions. For example, say the three preflop hands to choose from are AT, A2, and 44. The board comes A26KK. I guarantee that players (and even some dealers) would be confused about which hand wins. Also, I imagine the game is fairly slow paced, in terms of number of hands per hour, compared to blackjack and craps. You might note that Roulette is a slow-paced game as well, but the difference is that the house edge in roulette is about 10X the house edge in this game, assuming perfect strategy (5.3% for Roulette versus <.5% for Holdem challenge). Essentially, I'm guessing that this game is profitable for the house than the other pit games.

Just some ideas...

-- Homer

[Clarkmeister]

Old post on the topic:

http://www.twoplustwo.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=smallholdem&Number=55525&F orum=All

[Homer]

Hmm, ok so I was heading in the right direction, other than not considering that no would actually be playing basic strategy. I wonder how much depatures from basic strategy in Holdem Challenge cost the player compared to departures from basic strategy in blackjack. For example, in blackjack, the worst possible player (not really the worst, but worst strategy that a non-maniac would use), who uses a "mimic the dealer", strategy will give the casino a HA of 5.5% (or something close to that). If a Holdem Challenge player decided to use a strategy such as the one below, what would the HA be?

Holdem challenge simple strategy:
(1) Is there a pair? If yes, pick highest pair. If no, go to (2)
(2) Choose hand with the highest card. If two or more hands are tied, go to (3)
(3) Choose hand from (2) with highest second card. If tied, choose hand with same suit, else choose either if both are unsuited.

-- Homer