New Pricing Game Idea: Texas Hold ‘Em

[PimpinJC]

Prize: Car (+$2,000 & a small prize)

Gameplay:
At the start of the game, the contestant is given $2,000 in “Price is Right” poker chips and is shown 4 small prizes ($10-$99 each).  The contestant picks one of the small prizes to use as their “hand”, which price is revealed.  The dealer’s hand is the price of the car, revealed in order, in rounds like a Texas Hold ‘em game would play (flop reveals the first 3 digits, turn reveals the 4th, river reveals the 5th).

At each decision point like in the regular game, the contestant is allowed to stop (“fold”) and take their remaining chips + small prize they picked, or risk it by continuing on.  Risking it requires betting $500 from their chips, beginning after they pick their SP and the price is revealed but before the flop.  The last bet would be after the river is revealed but before the other prices of the small prizes are revealed.  If they have the best 5 digit overall hand, they win the car + $2,000 + the small prize they picked for their hand.  A loss wins nothing.

Optionally, to make it more interactive, the other 3 small prize “hands” can be “played” by the models / George / Drew, and the show could rotate in different “dealers” (for example, Rachel could be a dealer, and Drew could be a player).  Their bearing serves no overall effect on gameplay other than for entertainment / banter purposes.  They can fold throughout the game as well, but their “hands” aren’t revealed until the end.

[LiteBulb88]

If I'm understanding correctly, there are going to be 4 poker hands here, one per SP. Before the game begins, the contestant chooses one of the SPs and hopes (and bets) their hand is the best using Texas Hold 'em rules (but with flushes excluded, I presume). This feels like an attempt to bring back Poker Game, but based on Texas Hold 'em instead of 5 card. Two problems here:

1. Unless the contestant knows the price of the car and every SP to the dollar, which SP to "bet" on will be a random guess, just like choosing prizes in Poker Game was really random guessing.
2. If the contestant has never played poker before, they're going to be lost.

I say this as someone who loves poker--poker and The Price is Right don't mix, especially now that on-line poker & TV poker programs have taken a big hit in popularity the last couple of years.

[SamJ93]

The only way I could see a poker-based pricing game working out is just making it a simple comparing game--i.e. the player is given a $1000 stake, puts in a $250 "ante," picks one of four prizes they think is the most expensive, then can bail out or keep raising their bet as the prices of the other three prizes are revealed one by one. At that point, you're basically just playing Most Expensive with more chrome, though.

Also, I don't really like the idea of the show's cast being in an antagonistic role, even if it is just for fun.

[garffreak]

And here we are with the knowledge that "Hit Me" was confusing to contestants...

[Teddy]

And here we are with the knowledge that "Hit Me" was confusing to contestants...

It wasn't that confusing to me. Now Poker Game was a whole other story, probably since I had never played the real game before...

[name456]

Are we also not counting straights? I am also assuming like Poker Game 9s are high and 0s are low.

I’m a poker player, so it makes sense to me. To the average contestant under the lights, probably not.

[pannoni1]

I feel that the game should be simplified by having a Make Your Mark-type wager after the flop: a contestant may "give up" his/her remaining chips for a different SP if s/he feels that a better hand could be made (i.e. having $13 and choosing a remaining GP). But that is the only point that a player can switch his/her GP, and obviously, if the switch is worse off than the previous, it results in a loss since the hand the player discarded would go back to the house (which for those who don't understand, has all three two-digit "hands" of the remaining GPs. Straights would not count just like Poker Game to simplify things a bit. But I'd just reboot this and call it "The New Poker Game", with the car price being inspired by Texas Hold 'Em.

Setups would vary based on budget, with easy ones having GPs ranging from $13, $24, $50, and $99, and more difficult ones having ARPs of $55, $66, $77, and $88.

Alternatively, "The New Poker Game" could be played for non-car prizes, with a 4-digit format containing just two digits in the Flop instead of three.