In casinos around the world, the games are somewhat similar. You might see a tiny variation on games from country to country, like the 0 and 00 in American roulette compared to the 0 in European roulette, but by and large, by games are the same and when a new game is invented, it usually finds its way around the globe quite quickly.

Well, not Two-Up. Two-Up is an Australian casino game that originated from the game “pitch and toss”, which sadly hasn’t came to other parts of the world. I can only hazard a guess that it’s too far for a game to travel!

Two-Up, like its grandfather, pitch and toss, involves the use of two coins and the game basically revolves around how the coins land. Simple, right? Well, yes. This is why it amazes me that the game hasn’t taken off anywhere else in the world. It does take up quite a bit of floor space, but the amount of people you can get betting on it is huge and it’s a fast pace.

However, there is only one casino in Australia that has a Two-Up ring, where the players can throw the coins and that’s in the Burswood Casino in Perth. But the game is played in pubs and clubs, especially on ANZAC Day (25th April), even though the legality of the game is somewhat a grey area.

So, let’s say we’re at the Burswood Casino and we’re at the Two-Up ring. What’s going to happen? Well, like craps, we need someone to start the action. A player is chosen and they’re called the Spinner. The name gives away what they’re going to do. Yes, they’re going to spin the coins. They place the coins on a “kip”, which is a piece of wood that the Spinner will use to spin the coins. Now, again similar to craps, a players has the choice of a few bets and they are:

Single head – the player spins two heads.
Single tail – the player spins two tails.
Spinner’s bet – only the current Spinner can bet on this and it means they have two choose to throw three heads or three tails before they “tail out” or “head out”, depending on what they choose to spin.
Five Odds – The current spinner throws a heads and tails combination five times in a row before throwing a pair.

The house edge on these bets is around 3.25%, except the Five Odds bet, which has a house edge of around 9%.

The game is a lot of fun and I really do wish they would export it across the world, as you can really get the crowd in the casino going with Two-Up, just like you can with craps. Any game that gets the players involved is a winner with me. It’s just a shame you have to travel to one specific casino to play it, although Perth is a beautiful, so it might be worth a trip!

The other problem with Two-Up is that it doesn’t translate well online, but Playtech casinos do offer a “Heads or Tails” game, which is the same general concept as Two-Up, without the complexities, or, sadly, the rowdy atmosphere. However, if you head over to Vegas Red Casino, you can get a taste of what playing Two-Up is like before you book your trip to the Burswood Casino. It’s actually quite a lot of fun, especially if you’re fed up with the traditional casino games and you can take a break from trying to remember whether to double or surrender playing blackjack

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