Aaron Nagy thinks he might have the next big thing in terms of casino gaming.
The Yorkton game creator said he came up with the idea while playing a card game he loved, and a game most people are already familiar with; cribbage.
"I was playing cribbage and doing a little bit of gambling, so I sort of put two and two together and thought why not do something with it," said Nagy, Friday night at the Royal Canadian Legion in Yorkton where he unveiled the game to friends for some feedback.
Nagy added, "I actually thought of it a while back," but just put the idea into motion recently.
The game is one Nagy said is very simple to grasp, even for those who have never played cribbage, and so it could be quickly picked up by casino patrons.
Six players can play at a single table.
A player places a bet, and then is dealt two cards, while the dealer gets three, the third is face down. At this point the player may up their bet, before the third dealer card is revealed.
"You want to make the best crib hands," said Nagy.
Once the third card is revealed, players are paid based on building the best five-card cribbage hand, with pay-outs starting on a scoring hand of six, or more.
"You get paid according to the strength of your hand," said Nagy. "If you get six points and above you're going to win."
As an example 29 is the perfect cribbage hand, and it would pay 1000-to-one.
Of course like any gambling game the odds favour the house, but that is why what Nagy is calling High Stakes Cribbage, may have a home in casinos.
Nagy said he has patents pending on the game, and is now looking to get High Stakes Cribbage ready to offer to casinos.
With the basic mechanics of the game in place, Nagy has looked to others for some help, including Curtis Anderson who said his strength is running his own businesses.
"Aaron came to me with the idea," he said. "I looked at the idea and thought it was a really great game to play at a casino Right away I realized this is a great business."
Anderson said one of the keys to the game is the ease of learning how to play it.
"You play one or two hands and you figure it out, and learn to play and then you really enjoy playing," he said, adding "it really is a lot easier than blackjack.
"If you've played crib, or any other game, you'll catch on very quickly and simply."
Convinced the game will attract players, Nagy said the next step is putting the numbers in place in terms of the odds for different hands occurring, and the percentages a casino can bank on in terms of winning. That process means handing the game to somebody with expertise in numerical analysis of card games.
They have had initial talks with the University of Saskatchewan who may take it on as an in-class project, said Anderson.
Once they have the numbers to show the potential returns for a casino they'll take the game to casinos to hopefully add to their gaming floors.
Anderson said he is hopeful "by the end of summer it will be in a couple of casinos." He added in a preliminary discussion with personnel at Casino Regina there was definite interest in the game.
Anderson said he believes High Stakes Cribbage can be a success.
"I believe with proper promotion we can make it a big deal in Canada and eventually across the world," he said.
