Regarding Chuck Donegan's post in this thread, I did watch some of the Celebrity Poker Showdown last night on the Bravo cable channel and thought it was quite good, even though I'm not into their game of Texas Hold'em.
Although this "Celebrity Blackjack" game seems to be interesting enough, my own suggestion would be to simply have the players play "Pontoon," a variant of the casino blackjack game that would seem to require as much in the way of skill and judgement as Texas Hold'em Poker does. Here's how it is played:
1. One dealer is selected from among the players. (There is no permanent dealer in this game as there is with the casino game.)
2. Only one deck of cards is used, which is dealt from the hand. The deck is shuffled, cut, and then the first card is shown to all of the players and then placed face up ("burned") at the bottom of the deck to indicate the end of the deal.
3. The players place their bets, and then the dealer deals one card face down to each player and to himself. He then deals a second card face up to each player and also to himself.
4. If the dealer gets a blackjack hand, he immediately collects twice the amount each player bet against him unless a player ties him with a blackjack, in which case he collects only the amount of that player's bet. The play of that hand is then over and the same dealer deals the next hand.
5. If the dealer does not have blackjack and any of the other players do, each one collects twice the amount of his bet from the dealer (instead of the 3 to 2 payoff in the casino game). In addition, the first such player to the dealer's left becomes the dealer for the next deal (after the play of the current hand is completed.)
6. After all blackjack hands are paid off, the remaining players "hit" or "stand" on their hands as in the casino game. The additional "hit" cards are dealt face up, but each player must keep one card "in the hole," as in 5-Card Stud Poker.
7. A player may split a hand consisting of a pair (such as two 6s) as in the casino game; in this case, he turns his second card face up, puts an amount equal to his original bet on his second card, and the dealer deals a new "hole card" to each card of the split pair. The resuting hands are then played as usual.
8. A player may "double down" after receiving his first two cards; in this case, he turns up his "hole card," doubles his bet, receives a new "hole card" from the dealer, and must stand on the resulting total.
9. A player getting a "21" total consisting of three 7s is paid off at 3 to 1. A player getting a "21" total consisting of a 6, a 7, and an 8 is paid off at 2 to 1. A player getting a 5-card hand totalling 21 or less is paid off at 2 to 1. A player who "busts" by receiving a "hit" card that makes his hand worth 22 or higher must turn up his "hole card" to confirm the losing total and then surrender both his hand and bet to the dealer.
10. If any players remain in the game after the last player has completed play of his hand, the dealer must play his hand. To do this, he turns up his own "hole card" and then "hits" or "stands" on his hand as he wishes. (He may "hit" or "stand" on any total; he is not bound by the traditional "must hit to 16 and stand on 17" rule of the traditional casino game.)
11. If the dealer "busts," he pays off all of the players remaining in the game at even money.
12. If the dealer "stands" on any total of 21 or less, the remaining players all face their "hole cards" and the dealer pays off (at even money) all hands that have a higher total than his and collects the bets from all players whose hands are equal to or less than the dealer's total. (In other words, "ties pay the dealer" in this game, whereas a tie is a standoff in the casino game.)
13. If the dealer did not pay off a blackjack hand during the play of the hand (rule #5), he deals the next hand as above. Otherwise, he passes the cards to the new dealer, who reshuffles the deck, has it cut, and then "burns" the first card before dealing his first hand. (Of course, if the dealer runs out of undealt cards during the play of a hand, then he must reshuffle all cards from previous hands that are not being held by the players in the current hand, have the deck cut by another player, and then "burn" the first card of the reshuffled deck before continuing.)
Let's see if this version shows up on GSN at any time in the future.
Michael Brandenburg
(and I have another zany idea for them, too, but that's for another post.)
