Whenever
you visit an online casino, certain things are expected to be there. A huge
range of slots can be expected, plus traditional table games like roulette and
craps. But some of the most popular games that people will definitely expect to
find are blackjack and poker.
Those
traditional games have received a sprinkling of modernity thanks to online
casinos, and there are many modern variations of them which can be found.
Variety is a great thing on an online gambling platform, but in terms of new
card games being introduced, that’s more of a rarity.
Online
platforms sometimes add traditional card games to their catalogue. Take some of
the top sites from ratings platforms like casinosonline.ph,
which analyses casinos and their service, including games on offer. There you
can find traditional Indian games like Teen Patti and Andar Bahar, among other
things. But there's always the sense that there's room for a lot more. So,
which traditional Filipino card games would fit nicely at online casinos for
something new and exciting?
Tong-its
Tong-its
is a rummy-style game, where the goal is to create melds of cards to eliminate
value from the overall points in a player’s hand. When a player melds all of
their cards, they are declared the winner and the round is over.
The
great thing about tong-its is that it is a fast-paced game, whereas something
like European gin rummy, can drag on too long to be an appealing casino card
game. Tong-its is different because it keeps players engaged with quick,
exciting rounds.
For
fitting tong-its into a casino, bets could be placed on each round and the
payout would naturally go to the player with the lowest points value at the end
of it. This could potentially work even directly against a dealer or in a table
setting with other players.
Pusoy
Given
that pusoy is also known as Chinese poker, then it is a card game that would
naturally fit well in a casino setting. After being dealt 13 cards, players
then arrange those into three poker hands, two of those containing five cards
and the “top” (weakest) hand, having three.
A
straight comparison of the final hands for each of the players decides who is
the winner. Pusoy would be a great fit for online casinos, because it relies on
familiar poker hand rankings, which players know and understand.
Pusoy
is a challenging game of hand management, coupled with strategic thinking and
betting opportunities that could easily be worked into play and could be
adapted for a live dealer casino.
Panguingue
This
is another popular rummy-style game that Filipinos enjoy, and while the
building of melds is required, what sets panguingue apart is that it uses a
unique deck. For the game, 8s, 9s, and 10s are removed and eight of those
stripped-back decks are combined, so a game consists of 320 cards.
The
game has some historical roots in Spanish card games, and there are many
variations of it around. While being historic, is it a complex game, so it
would probably need some modern adaptation to simplify it for casino play,
which could start with cutting the number of decks to remove variations.
There
are also some extremely niche melding rules, particularly involving the 3s, 5s,
and 7s (valle) cards which could be trimmed. Simple betting options instead of
complex conditional payouts would also benefit the game’s presence at an online
casino.
The
Best Fit?
Arguably,
pusoy would be the best fit because it is poker-based, whereas rummy-style
games are a little more complex when it comes to working in fixed or
conditional payouts for casino gameplay.
In
a structured game like blackjack, the house has quite a lot of control over the
odds that they set based on the outcomes. In contrast, rummy-style games are
based on player skill and strategy, so it would mean the house potentially has
less control.
Another
reason why rummy games aren’t so popular at online casinos is that they are, by
nature, slower to progress, due to the complexity of having so many different
ways to meld.
Adaptations
It’s
hard for any card game to come in and break up the monopoly that the likes of
poker, blackjack and baccarat have at casinos. But adaptations of the popular
Filipino games above could work, because it would just be about hitting the
right market. There would at least be an instant recognition of them, which
online casino players in the Philippines would naturally be interested in, even
if those games would, in the larger picture, be a niche.
