Deck of Dice or how to combine poker and dice in an online gambling product
News on 7 May 2014
News on 7 May 2014
How do you combine the most exciting elements of poker and dice to develop a truly unusual online gambling game? The publication VentureBeat reports that this disparate combination has been achieved by “… 57-year-old Carmelyn Calvert, an empty-nest grandmother in rural Illinois.”
Calvert loves games and had a great idea…put an entire deck of 54 playing cards (jokers included) on a set of nine six-sided dice, combining dice and playing cards in an entirely new kind of game she called Deck of Dice.
The commercial virtue of such an entirely different product appealed to Tom Donelan, CEO of the Cleveland-based company that has adopted the title of the game, who acquired the rights and patents and, in his own words intends to “…create a new casino style gaming venture….reinventing the thrill of chance games.”
Donelan needs more capital to fully exploit the new game, and is currently looking for investors in a project which will start out with a mobile version but then move into the social gaming and online gambling sectors.
Donelan has some experienced people on board at Deck of Dice, including chief operating officer Bob Lindsay, a 25-year game industry veteran.
The tale of how Calvert developed her idea is entertaining in itself:
She began by cutting some wood dice in order to practically work out the right combinations of playing cards to put on each die. For instance, she decided that any time an Ace of Spades is needed, you don’t also need a Six of Spaces. So she put those on the same die.
By trial and error, she was able to preserve the ability to get all 40 different kinds of straight hands in a game of poker, making it possible for players to roll the dice and get every kind of straight or royal flush possible in poker.
