RULE BREAKING 101 and 102
2 August 2004
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
Over the past eight years that you have been
writing your column, I have followed your advice
of only making bets with less than two-percent
house edge, with one exception. Occasionally, I
play Let it Ride. Would you ever recommend, or
do you ever play, a game that has more than a
two percent casino advantage? Jill J.
Occasionally, Jill, my guiding principles are
compromised -- well, stretched -- when I play
Pai Gow Poker. It is my favorite wager among
those that cross the two-percent threshold.
Yeah, even when setting my hands perfectly, the
house still holds a 2.5% edge over my play.
Then, Jill, there's the occasional sporting
event that requires my involvement; the
occasional hand of Sic Bo, where the casino
holds a 2.7% advantage whether I play the Big or
the Small wager; the occasional bet on a
tempting horse that is dreaming of its pasture;
and finally, there's my fondness for 22-black on
a single zero roulette table. Here the house
gets its edge of 2.7% from Yours Truly. As we've
often heard, rules are made for the other guy.
Your favorite wager, Let it Ride, even with its
3.5% casino advantage, isn't the worst bet you
can make in the house, and it's worth a little
dabbling so long as you're playing for fun and
with money you can afford to lose.
Dear Mark,
Our church's yearly festival offers blackjack
with about the same rules as the typical game
you would find in a casino, with one exception.
They win on all ties. Granted, it is for
charity, but I am curious as to how much of an
advantage a blackjack game has that keeps all
ties. Cliff M.
Generally, Cliff, charity games keep the pushes
in blackjack. Casinos do not offer such a
hard-line rule, because players like you would
never belly up to the table. There is one
exception, though: Double Exposure blackjack.
Here, as compensation for losing in pushes, all
dealer's cards are dealt face up, However,
(there's always an "however") because you get to
view both of the dealer's up-cards, the playing
rules are adjusted to favor the casino more than
in standard blackjack. It is a version of
blackjack definitely worth avoiding.
However, Cliff, in your question regarding
charity games, and we are talking about a games
deliberately designed to feed a buck or two into
the community chest, the charity blackjack game
that gobbles up pushes is simply part of the
cost of philanthropic entertainment in support
of worthy causes. But, since you asked, Cliff, a
charity blackjack game that keeps ties has an
advantage of 8.8% over the player.
Dear Mark,
Using perfect basic strategy in blackjack, why
do you always hit a 12 against a 3, but never a
13 against a two? I have always considered them
about the same value of a hand. Dave G.
They may seem similar, Dave, but you will bust
far more often when you hold a 13 than when
holding a 12. With a 13 against a two, you will
bust 38.5 percent of the time. With a 12 against
a three, you will bust only 30.8 percent of the
time.
Gambling quote of the week: "The eternal poker
pessimist, like the compulsive gambler, wants to
lose. Losing makes him happy, confirming as it
does a wide range of his most deeply held
beliefs: that life is a bum rap, that his true
qualities will never be appreciated by a cruelly
misguided world, that he is generally
undervalued and misunderstood. He will go on
cheerfully defying the odds under the endearing
delusion that there is more to him than meets
the eye." Anthony Holden, Big Deal (1990)
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