The Devil, sometimes
missed, is in the details
30 August 2004
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
Just to update your column, when I placed the
bet at the Plaza, I had agreed beforehand that
if the ball landed on the double zero, it would
be declared as a no bet, allowing me to go
again. This was better than the Hard Rock
agreement as they refused to budge on the double
zero. Ashley Revell
Do any of you recognize the name above attached
to the e-mail I received this week? It is from
Mr. Revell, the British punter who put his
entire life savings of $135,300 on red at the
roulette table in Vegas earlier this year. His
comments pertained to a column I had written
challenging his gambling acumen for choosing
roulette when risking his total net worth. I
wrote that his choice of wager, a bet on red,
broke the most fundamental principle of all of
gambling; finding the best bet and conditions.
There was no brainy betting when he decided a
single spin at a double-zero roulette table is
where he'd lay his bold bet. I figured there
were plenty of wagers in the casino that offer a
better deal than double zero roulette, where the
house edge is 5.26% on every bet you place on
the table, including betting red.
I STAND CORRECTED. My reply to a question from
Danny R. was based on seeing a taped broadcast
of the event, running it in slow motion, and
clearly seeing the double zero on the wheel. As
well, nowhere had I read anything regarding the
agreement Mr. Revell had with the Plaza. Missing
minutiae will get you every time.
Though Ashley and I could go back and forth on
the sanity of someone betting his or her life
savings on one spin (this columnist has
recommended countless times that you should only
bet what you can afford to lose not everything
you own), he did negotiate with the Plaza the
appropriate conditions, especially if roulette
is where he wanted to put his life savings.
Dear Mark,
If every hand dealt in video poker is random,
and the chances of hitting a royal flush is
40,000 to one, are not the chances of hitting
that second consecutive royal one in 40,000?
Also, do you know if two consecutive royal
flushes have ever happened? I came one card away
last weekend. Jimmy S.
…and the rest of us mere mortals, Jimmy, are
always one card away from our first.
Once hitting your first royal flush, the odds of
another on the following hand remain the same,
one in 40,000. But, Jimmy, if your question
meant what are the odds of hitting two
consecutive royals in a row before your first
royal appears, that answer is one in 40,000
times multiplied by one in 40,000, or one in 1.6
billion.
When I worked at the Cal Neva Lodge at Lake
Tahoe in the early 80's, I recollect one
graveyard shift us paying off a consecutive
royal flush. The kicker was that the player had
to invest just five, and not 10 quarters. Reason
being, once his jackpot was paid, the casino, on
our dime, inserted five of our own quarters to
clear the machine and let him play through. This
lucky guy came right back with a natural royal
flush, again in spades.
Someone from Reno is going to have jog my
memory, but I vaguely remember a person hitting
three consecutive royals at a Raley's
supermarket on Virginia St. about twenty years
ago. Drop me a line if you recall any of the
details.
Gambling quote of the week: "You can't ever
assume that because someone wrote a book on
gambling, he must know what he is talking
about." Darwin Ortiz, Casino Gambling for the
Clueless
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