Ultimate Texas Hold'em Goof
In a discussion of Ultimate Texas Hold'em (UTH), I read the following:
I found a venue that will allow a 4x bet on the flop. Surely there is some sort of edge there?
The rules for UTH allow the player to raise 3x or 4x pre-Flop, 2x on the Flop and 1x on the Turn/River (see this post). If the player is allowed to raise 4x on the Flop, then the pre-Flop bet is rendered irrelevant. The player will either raise 4x on the Flop, 1x on the Turn/River or fold. This obviously will give the player a huge edge over the house, as he can wait to see if certain hands improve on the Flop before raising.
For example, A/K is a drawing hand. If it doesn't hit on the Flop, then a 4x raise may be unwise. Similarly, if the player holds a pair 2/2, and the board comes with two over-pairs, 3/4/4/5/5 (or similar), then those deuces look pretty bad.
Checking 2/2 is correct. Only the pairs T/T and higher give the same EV if the 4x wager is made pre-Flop or on the Flop.
Recognizing the potential edge this goof might give, an AP responded:
I wouldn't have posted the above.
With this goof in the rules, the player has a 17.7252% edge over the house. The following spreadsheet gives the details:
This reminds me of the Crazy 4 Poker goof that happened back in 2013. In that case, the Hollywood Casino in Columbus, Ohio didn't require a Super Bonus wager. This rule goof gave players a hefty 31.3606% edge over the house. The C4P rule blunder only lasted a couple of days, but it must have been a lot of fun for the APs who found it.
The problem with the proliferation of novelty games is that dealers, staff and management are forever struggling to learn yet another game. No wonder novelty games are so often targeted by APs.