‘Survivor’ Rupert promotes new table game in Vegas

By Ken Miller (contact)

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011 | 5:34 p.m.

Full disclosure: I’m one of those people, Survivor geeks who seem to have an endless capacity for season after season, if those “seasons” are scant weeks apart. (Hell, I even took a trip to Santa Cruz years ago to hear Survivor: Africa contestant Lex van den Berghe’s band play!) Now, I’m not such a geek that I could list every winner by memory—the years (and Guinness) have not been kind to my memory. But I do remember who I grew to love and hate over the years. Two of my favorite villains, Boston Rob and Russell Hantz, are on the show’s most current season, Survivor: Redemption Island. This is a show about outwitting everyone else, which usually requires a level of deception and duplicity that all but guarantees you’ll have very few “heroes” in this game.

But there are a select few good guys, and one of them is in Las Vegas this week. Rupert Boneham didn’t win the million on Survivor: Pearl Islands, but he stole America’s heart with his winning combination of survival skills, larger-than-life personality and tie-dyed shirts. (He ended up winning $1 million eventually, courtesy of a vote from the viewing public.) What’s more, his persona on TV wasn’t an act: This guy practices what he preaches, and has started his own organization, Rupert’s Kids, a nonprofit with the goal of assisting at-risk youth through community partnerships, volunteerism and mentoring. Yeah, this guy is pretty cool in real life as well.

His Vegas visit this week was to promote “Rupert’s Island Draw,” a new table game that’s in the trial stage at the Golden Nugget. Boneham hopes to generate enough funds from said table game to take Rupert’s Kids nationwide—and establish the nonprofit’s first Las Vegas satellite office.

I, personally, was hoping “Rupert’s Island Draw” would mirror the mini-games from Survivor itself: You know, maybe a good game of matching up items, rotating answer cubes or cracking tiles by throwing a well-placed ball. But it turns out it’s basically a variation on blackjack:

1. 16 24-card decks are used. Only the ace through 6 value cards are used, with aces counting as 1 and all other cards scored at face value. The 7s through kings are removed.

2. The object of the game is to obtain a hand total lower than the dealer. Zero is the lowest, and 12 is the highest.

3. First, players must make a wager. Two cards are then dealt face-up to each player and the dealer.

4. If the dealer’s first two cards total 6, 7 or 8, the dealer stands and an extra card is given to each player to be added to their totals. If the dealer’s first two cards total 9 ,10 or 11, the dealer will be given an extra card to be added to their total. If the dealer’s first two cards total 2, 3, 4, 5 or 12, each player will decide whether the dealer or the player will be given an extra card by placing a marker in the “card to player” or “card to dealer” circle.

5. The winning hand is the one with the lowest final hand total. Any hand total exceeding 12 will be deemed to have scored zero, and will win automatically. If the player and dealer have a final tie score, it will be deemed a push, unless it is a final tie score of 7, in which case the player loses half of his wager.

6. All winning hands pay 1 to 1.