Casino Party Games

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Hosting a casino party and need to know what games to play or how to turn your casino party into a contest? Casino games are games in themselves, but if you want to add to the excitement here are some other game ideas.

Highest Bidder

Ingredients

Just Add Guests! ™

To Play

Before the games start, announce that prizes will be awarded to those who have the highest chip counts.
At the end of the night count out everyone’s chips.
The person with the most chips wins the big prize. Award prizes for second and third as well.

Traditional Casino Games
Here are a few traditional Vegas games. Raise the stakes and award your guests prizes when they win.

Texas Hold Em’
At the start of the game, two players to the left of the dealer put out blind bets. Usually the "first blind" (the player to the left of the dealer) puts up half the minimum bet, and the "second blind" puts up the full minimum bet.

Each player is dealt two cards, face down. These are known as hole cards.A round of betting takes place (clockwise), beginning with the player to the left of the second blind. Each player can call, raise, or fold when it's their turn to bet.

The dealer then flips the next three cards face up on the table. These cards are called the "flop", and are are community cards in that everyone can use them in combination with their own hole cards to make their hand.

Betting begins again with the player to the dealer’s left. The dealer plays another card face up onto the table. This fourth community card is called the "turn" or "Fourth Street." Betting begins again with the player to the dealer’s left. The dealer plays the final community card, the "river" or "Fifth Street."

Players use any combination of seven cards to form the best possible five-card Poker hand. The final round of betting occurs, starting with the player left of the dealer. All players who remain in the game (if you didn't fold) reveal their hands. The player with the best 5 card poker hand wins.

Black Jack
Blackjack is a counting game. Each of the numeric cards are valued at the number of the card (2, 3, 4... etc). Face cards (jack, queen, and king) and 10's are worth 10. Aces can be used by the player as either one or eleven, whichever is best for their hand.

The ideas is to accumulate cards with a total value as close as possible to twenty-one without going over. A player wins if his hand is closer to twenty-one than the dealer's hand, or if the dealer goes over 21, which is called busting. Players can take as many cards as they wish from the dealer until they stand (stop taking cards) or bust (the hand goes over twenty-one).

If a player busts, he automatically loses the hand, even if the dealer busts. A player also loses if the dealer's hand is closer to twenty-one. If the player's hand and the dealer's tie (and do not bust) it is called a "push" and no money is won or lost.

If the initial two cards of a player's hand or the dealer's hand add up to exactly twenty-one (like an ace and a queen) that is called blackjack. A blackjack beats any other hand, even if the other hand adds to twenty-one. Additionally, if a player is dealt a blackjack and the dealer is not, then the dealer has to pay the player 1.5 times his original bet (if player bet $10, the dealer pays him $15).

At the start of each hand the dealer starts by dealing two cards to each player and to himself. One on the dealer's first two cards is dealt face up. The players' cards are either dealt all face up or all face down.

Then the players have a choice, starting with the player to the right of the dealer:

Hit - The player wants another card from the deal, which is then dealt.
Stand - The player does not want any more cards for this hand.
Split - If the player is dealt two initial cards having equal value (two 7's), the player can choose to split those cards into two separate hands and play them individually. This also requires that the player match his original bet by making an equal bet on the newly created 2nd hand.
Double Down - After receiving the two initial cards, the player can double his original bet on the hand, and the dealer gives him exactly one additional card (for a total of three cards). The player cannot take any more cards after that.
Surrender - If the player is dealt the two initial cards, hasn't split them, and concludes the chances of winning are low, he can concede the hand and only lose half of the original bet.

These five choices are the only ones available to the player. The player can continue to hit additional cards on the hand until he stands or busts. At that point, the play of the hand moves to the next player to the dealer's right.

Here are a few more tutorials on popular casino games:

Roll the Dice: A Kids Casino Game
If your casino party is going to have kids you need to keep them entertained so they don’t jinx your chances of winning. Unless of course, they are good luck charms!

Ingredients

Cardboard Boxes
White Paint
Paint Brush
Black Paint
Rope or String
Packing Tape

To Play

Put together 2 cardboard boxes.
Paint the boxes all white. Then, paint on black dots on each side of the boxes to resemble dice.
Set up an area large enough for the kids to run around.
Place the rope or string at one end of the room.
Gather the kids.
All of the contestants line up in 2 rows.
Give the kids at the start line one of the dice. They have to roll it to the finish line and back. The first one back to the start line gets a point. Keep going through the lines several times. The player with the most points wins.
Another way to play is to have each player roll the dice and the player with the higher or lowest number wins a point. Or, you can have each player guess what number they will roll and if they roll that number they win a prize.

Casino Go Fish

Ingredients

2 Decks of Cards
Poker Chips

To Play

Set up 2 tables that will seat 5 kids each.
Place a deck of cards at each table and some poker chips.
Gather all of the kids and have them sit at either table.
Hand out 5 cards to each player and set the rest of the deck in the center of the table.
Each player has to collect groups or books of 4 ranking cards, 4 fours etc. Each player asks if the others have the cards they are looking for to complete a group. If the player has the cards they hand them over. If not they “Go Fish” drawing a card and poker chip.
The player who goes out first and collects the least amount of poker chips wins a prize.

Prizes

Playing Cards
Chocolate Gold Coins
Vegas Gift Basket with Cards, Bling, Chocolate, Poker Chips, Light Up Tiara, and other Vegas souvenirs
Fuzzy Dice
Poker Chip Key Chains