Quick Seven: Fast and fun new table game By Judy
Havelock
Larry Cockrell of Kenosha, Wisconsin, liked to
play blackjack, but he found it frustrating to go bust. Just like that, the hand
was over and the house had his money. That’s hardly a revolutionary thought. All
blackjack players have had it. But unlike most of us, Cockrell did something
about it. He invented his own game.
The result, Quick Seven, went onto the casino
floor at Harrah’s in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in May, shortly after the game’s
casino debut on the Discovery Sun cruise ship that sails from Fort Lauderdale,
Florida.
Quick Seven may have been inspired by blackjack
and have some similarities to blackjack, but it’s a unique game, one in which
it’s possible to win in one card without even seeing what the dealer has. A
total of more than a seven is a bust, but the hand doesn’t end there. The player
can discard a card to get back to a total of seven or less, and hit or stand
from there.
Early reviews from Council Bluffs: it’s fun, a
game players and dealers both liked in its initial days at Harrah’s. “It’s very
different. It’s simple. It’s unique,” said Patricia McCabe-Clarke, casino
operations manager at Harrah’s Council Bluffs. “We had a lot of everyday
blackjack players play it, and they really enjoyed it. What’s fun about it is
that the dealers and the customers are kind of learning about it as they go.
It’s very new for our blackjack dealers and our own dealers, they go from a
blackjack table to a Quick Seven table, and they’re so plugged into 21, this is
a very different system. It’s kind of funny how the customers are stepping in
and saying, ‘Oh, oh, are you sure about this?’ It’s kind of a learning process
for both of them.
“We’re not known for our dealers per se, but we
have a lot of regulars. So it’s nice to change it up for them and give them
something new to try. The dealers are really excited about it, and they’re the
ones who have really sold it to our customers.”
Cockrell, who’s built a company called Innovative
Gaming, Inc., thought back on the game’s beginning. “It started in 2003,” he
remembered. “I was preparing for a trip to Vegas, just kind of refreshing on
blackjack, just kind of catching up. Every time I was to take I hit, I was like,
‘Ah, I wish I didn’t.’ I thought it would be nice if you could discard a single
card. So I kind of played around with blackjack, and put it on the backburner.
It was actually pretty fun that way, but I didn’t know if it would work as a
game or not.
“Anyway, we went on our trip. Out there,
constantly being around those games, the idea was constantly in my head. When I
got back I said, ‘Let me see what else I can do with this. And eventually I got
Quick Seven down to three different versions. And what I did was to take the
best of each and blended it into one concept.”
What he came up with was a game in which all
numbered cards count as face value, while jacks, queens and kings each count as
one. The object is to beat the dealer, with seven as the perfect hand. If you’re
dealt a seven as a first card, it’s an automatic winner. However, you may want
to try to double your winnings with a challenge. You need not wager any more
money, but you do risk losing your original bet if the dealer winds up with 7.
If the dealer finishes with any other total, you’re paid 2-1 instead of winning
even money.
If you’re dealt six or less on your first card,
you keep getting cards until you have 7 or more. Then you discard a card to get
back to 7 or under, and decide whether to hit or stand.
If your first card is an eight, nine or 10, that’s
an automatic discard. If the next card is an eight, nine or 10, that’s a dealt
bust, and you lose, except that there’s an option. You can make a hazard bet
equal to your original bet. If the dealer then busts, you win even money on both
your original bet and the hazard bet.
Basic strategy: 2.63 percent, not as low as
blackjack if you know your basic strategy, but roughly in line for blackjack for
an average player. Basic strategy in Quick Seven is easy. Never hit after a
discard.
If you’re not in Des Moines or Fort Lauderdale,
you can still play the game, just not for money. You can play for free at
www.quickseven.com, and
the game also is available as an application for the iPhone.
Placing the game for free play online before
pitching it to casinos was a deliberate strategy on Cockrell’s part. “It took
about two years first of all, with research and development, getting to the
point where I had the facts and made sure it physically works. And that October
we went public at Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. I did get a few offers from
bigger table games companies. With my experience at that time and with it being
completely new, I thought that they wanted too much too soon. I was thinking if
I built this up, then when I approached them or when they approached me later,
I’d have a little bit more ground to stand on at that point.
“Instead of approaching the physical casinos, I
tried to take Quick Seven online. I ended up finding a company out of the U.K.
and we ended up partnering for Quick Seven. We’re in the process of going live
with it this summer (including online casinos). Once we had it established
online, we decided to do a little more, continuing with the electronic. Why have
it in a casino where a few hundred people might play it, as opposed to anybody
who has a computer or a cell phone?
“I’m trying to more or less build the brand first,
more or less let people know what Quick Seven is and just letting them know what
the game is and how it’s played.”
That the game is now live in Council Bluffs is
thanks to a good word from an alert dealer. “We were continuing along our route
for online and mobile distribution, and we were contacted by Lynda Hindt
(operations manager at Harrah’s Council Bluffs). One of her dealers was playing
the online version, and I guess playing it for quite a while and thought that it
was a great game and they should have it on their casino floor, so he actually
approached one of their shift managers and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been playing this
game Quick Seven online, I think that it would be a great addition to our casino
floor.’’’
From that point, it took about four months for the
game to get regulatory approval in Iowa and go live at Harrah’s.
“Because I was approached by Harrah’s, I had no
clue as to what regulations were required in Iowa,” Cockrell said. “Prior to
even contacting them back, I contacted the Iowa Gaming and Racing Commission and
found out exactly what was needed. You do have to have interest from a casino,
and we had that. The next thing was the three-month approval period, which is
just time, there was no cost with that. However, we found out that in order to
be a vendor and have a vendor’s license, it was $20,000 to get the approval. And
obviously we didn’t have that at those early stages. I found a company that I
had a previous contact with that was a licensed vendor, and worked out a
revenue-sharing arrangement.”
So now that it’s here, what’s to like about Quick
Seven?
“It has things that have never been seen before,”
Cockrell said. “Using just the initial concept where the dealer deals your
starting hand to where it has the seven value or goes over, and at that point
you’re allowed to choose to discard and have that option to hit or stand, that
has a comforting effect. You feel you have a decent amount of control over your
hand, compared to just hitting and busting. You actually get to see that card
flow and then discard, then you don’t have to hit if you don’t want to.
“We have such things as being able to win with one
card, and that’s never been done. My first card that comes out is a 7, that’s a
Quick Seven, I can win 1-1, before it even reaches the dealer. There’s no chance
of a push on that. With that Quick Seven, you can challenge the dealer’s hand
for a chance to win 2-1.” And for the house?
“They like that it deals similar to blackjack, so
they have this comfort zone. Dealers say they like the fast pace. Some games,
especially a lot of the poker variations, players tend to sit there a while and
think. The dealers say they get bored.”
Quick Seven isn’t slow, it’s quick. And now that
it’s here, we’ll see just how quickly players catch on to the game, and the game
catches on with players. |
