Split pots and other
mysteries
1 June 2004
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
Is there such a thing as a split pot in Texas
Hold'em? For example, if the up-cards are 2-3-8
jack and king, I have a king and an ace, with my
opponent having the king and queen, do I win the
pot with a pair of kings with an ace high? I
believe I do but my friends say I don't. Who's
right? Robert B.
A split pot is a pot in which two or more
players have hands of equal value, and,
therefore, split the money in the pot. Texas
Hold'em uses exposed communal cards in the
center of the table which combined with the two
hidden cards in each player's hand are used to
form the best poker hand. As you have phrased
the question, you would have won the pot
outright with your pair of kings, ace high. But,
Robert, card suits also come into play, and you
failed to mention the suits of any of the cards
in your inquiry. Had the communal cards all been
of the same suit, while your king/ace and your
opponent's king/queen had been of a different
suit, then the pot would be split since you both
would share a flush, any five cards of the same
suit, with the 2-3-8 jack and king.
Dear Mark,
Both my brother and I play at the same casino
and the same games (video poker and slots). We
both of us use our player's club card every time
we play. We like the comps we get when we use
our cards. What's confusing is that the mailings
he gets from the casino include more and
superior coupons than what I get in the mail. I
am curious as to why they treat my older brother
better. Randy B.
I'm with you, Randy -- being the second-born
sucks. It starts with second-hand ice skates and
never stops.
Some casino rewards programs today go far beyond
tracking coins in or total win. They enable
casino personnel not only to track what players
are spending, but to chart what they potentially
could be inserting in their slot machines. This
super-spy info lets them create parameters for
their marketing efforts so as to get more
mileage out of their comps.
What makes your older brother special is that he
is spending more money in the casino than you
are (possibly playing higher denomination
machines) and they figure by slathering him over
with more goodies, they'll trigger his coin
deposit gland whenever he's in view of their
slot machines.
Dear Mark,
You mentioned that casinos always win in the
long run, but not why. So, why do they? Shelly
D.
Casinos make money on their games because of the
mathematics behind the games. The house has a
well-calculated advantage on each and every bet
wagered. If they didn't have this edge working
in their favor, we'd all have to find a
different form of adult entertainment because
casinos wouldn't exist. With these percentages
working in their favor, a casino is always
guaranteed to win in the long run.
No one better described this than the fictional
casino boss, Gronevelt, in Mario Puzo's famous
novel, Fools Die, when he pragmatically stated:
"Percentages never lie. We built all these
hotels on percentages. We stay rich on the
percentage. You can lose faith in everything,
religion and God, women and love, good and evil,
war and peace. You name it. But the percentage
will always stand fast."
Gambling quote of the week: "The biggest and
first crap game is mentioned in Greek mythology.
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades rolled dice for shares
of the Universe. Poseidon won the Oceans. Hades
won the Underworld. Zeus won the Heavens and is
suspected of having used loaded dice." —Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas (1976)
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