TRENTON — The New Jersey Lottery pulled a new scratch game from retailers three days after its official launch.

High Card Poker instant win ticket
High Card Poker instant win ticket (NJ LOttery)
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The game High Card Poker went on sale Aug. 7 and pulled from stores on Aug. 10 "due to the potential for players to misunderstand the game’s win scenarios as stated on the back of tickets," according to a statement posted on the Lottery website.

Gannett New Jersey was the first to report about the game being discontinued.

All winning tickets will be honored for the game that costs $5 to play and offered a jackpot of $150,000. The lottery on its website said  three jackpots would be available during the course of the game.

According to a statement from the lottery, a player identified as "Mr. Chalet" presented a ticket he believed to be a jackpot winner.

"As the game’s rules state, a player’s high card must be higher than any other card in hand without any pair in order to win the top-tier prize. The New Jersey Lottery has reviewed Mr. Chalet’s ticket and based on the stated rules and win scenarios, it is not a $150,000 winning ticket. Under those scenarios and rules Mr. Chalet’s ticket is a $10 winner," the statement said.

The rules of High Card Poker are inconsistent with traditional poker which led to confusion from Chalet and several other players .

"Given the inconsistency between the actual game rules and win scenarios and traditional poker rules, and in order to avoid any further player confusion based on this inconsistency, New Jersey Lottery discontinued the sale of the High Card Poker instant game on Aug. 10," the statement read.

About 4.32 million tickets were planned to initially be offered. Lottery spokeswoman Judy Drucker said that about 25 percent, or one million tickets, were initially distributed.

A clerk at the Wine Mart in Ewing said representatives from the Lottery removed the game from his store on Aug. 10.

As of Wednesday, Drucker said more than 45,874 tickets have been claimed by players winning more than $621,670.

 

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

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