Doubling up on bets and hopes
July 17,
2009
Dear Mark: I like
to play the double-up option on a video poker
machine and I have a few questions about that
bet. One, is it a good bet to make, being that
it seems like a 50/50 proposition to me, and
two, I was also wondering if I would get the
next five cards out of the deck if I didn’t make
a double-up wager? Randy E.
What Randy’s enquiring mind wants to know
regards a video poker machine that offers the
option of risking your current winning hand for
a chance at doubling your money. That wager is
fittingly named Double-up.
This Double Up bet involves five cards being
drawn face down, the machine drawing one card
first, and you selecting one of the remaining
four cards. Basically you are playing high/low
against a machine-dealt playing card.
If you draw a card higher than the one drawn by
the machine, you are paid 1-to-1 on the wager.
The Double Up offer continues after each
successive win until you decide to bring it to
an end, the casino abruptly ends your joyride,
or, you lose.
So is Double-up a good bet or is it just another
way for the casino to whack away at your
bankroll?
It’s the former, Randy, and actually, Double-up
is one of the best bets the casino has to offer.
No whackery here. You have a 50-50 likelihood of
doubling your winnings, IF, and let me repeat
that, IF, ties are a push to the player, and not
a win for the house.
Truth being told, the game is an evenhanded coin
toss, with an expected value of 100%. But if
ties are considered a house win, then the
Double-Up bet has a house edge of 5.8%.
So now that you know that the house is offering
up a square deal by giving you a 50-50 chance of
winning, you start crunching numbers in your
head, like, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc,. String 19
wins together and you can tell your boss to
shove it because you just won $1,048,576.
Hold up giving notice yet, Randy. As in
blackjack, where table limits apply, the
compounding of money by parlaying winnings won’t
work here either. Machines limit the doubling
from as little as five times in a row to10,000
coins returned ($2,500).
As to your second question, Randy, the five
Double-up cards would not be the five cards you
would have received had you not taken the
Double-up option.
A video poker machine is constantly shuffling
its electronic deck at lightning speed, so the
card array would be sequentially different at
the precise moment in time when you would
initiate the Double-up option, from the array a
moment later (accounting for the time it would
take you to decline the Double-up option and
deal a new hand).
Dear Mark: All things being equal in the
level of skill of a player, does the number of
decks affect the house edge in a game of
blackjack? Alastair K.
Yes. Compared to a single deck game, the two-decker
handicaps your play by 0.35%, four decks 0.48%,
six decks 0.54%, and eight decks 0.58%. Given
the choice, Alastair, and the rules being
relatively equal, I would recommend playing on a
game with the smallest number of decks possible.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week:
“It is not uncommon to see a lady in her bridal
gown, married moments ago by a minister in full
Elvis regalia, furiously working the slots with
a Marlboro clenched between her teeth.” --Rod
Wiser, Casino Player
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