Dear Mark: I enjoy playing the
carnival game Let It Ride. I know, bad odds
but its fun. So I don't play the side bets,
Bonus or 3-card bet because I feel these are
sucker bets and the house has big enough
odds against me without adding to it. But
every time I would have won at one of these
side bets the dealer never fails to point
this out and chastises me for not betting
it, and then the other players join in with
the dealer and make me feel like a fool for
not making the bet. I still don't make the
side bets but I want to ask you, are they
right and I should be betting the side bets
and if so which one or both? Any help you
can give me would be appreciated. Bill
The game you speak of, Bill, Let It Ride,
(for those unfamiliar with it) is a
variation of five-card stud poker where the
player wagers on a poker hand consisting of
three cards in the player's hand and two
community cards in the dealer’s hand. When
the game is played using perfect basic
strategy, the casino's advantage on
Let-It-Ride is 3.51%, and even though the
house edge is almost six times the edge in
blackjack when using perfect basic strategy,
you enjoy playing it, know in advance the
toll it could take on your wallet, and there
are in the casino worse games (and better
ones) than Let it Ride that you could play.
But now, lets talk about this dealer who
used the wisdom of hindsight to be critical
of your play. He, or she for that matter, is
dead wrong. It’s easy to have a perfect
understanding of a wager that could have won
after it has happened, but in actuality, the
Let-It-Ride side bets, where for $1 you are
offered an additional payoff with certain
paying hands, carry a double-digit casino
edge making them nothing more than sucker
bets.
SSkip those side bets, Bill -- better yet,
any interest in switching to blackjack?
Dear Mark: Can you please recommend
a book and/or author that give the BEST
strategies for playing video poker? I think
it would help my odds considerably, if at
least, I played “by the book.” Mike S.
Because video poker often has a positive
expectation, it is the one machine game that
really offers the player the chance to get
the best of the casinos. A caveat to that
statement is that you must select the best
machines and play the proper strategies on
those machines. br>
I could easily recommend the most
technically accurate video poker book on the
bookshelves today, but it isn't going to be
of much use to the average player if the
poor guy or gal has to struggle to
understand and apply its strategies. So,
Mike, I’m going to limit my picks to three
straightforward, and easy-to-grasp books:
Victory at Video Poker by Frank Scoblette,
or either Precision Play or Optimum Play by
Dan Paymar.
MMy advice for those of you who are now just
recreational players but who want to become
serious video poker players, is to get any
of these books and watch with pleasure which
direction your hard-earned money then flows.
Dear Mark: I read your casino column
every Thursday and thanks for all the advice
on video poker. We are planning a trip to
Las Vegas and I would like to know where to
find '' a printed video cheat sheet.''
Robert B.
Using a printed video cheat sheet gives you
not only the discipline to play video poker
correctly, but it also gives you an
understanding of the "Expected Value" of the
hands you are dealt. Each hand dealt has
what’s called an “expected value,” which is
the average value of all the results
attainable after the discards are replaced,
assuming that the optimum cards are retained
(per your cheat sheet) and that each
possible draw occurs. br>
AAs for where to find a printed cheat sheet,
you can either purchase the books
recommended above, copy their strategy
charts and use them in the casino, or check
out the Gambler's Book Shop at 800-522-1777
(http://www.gamblersbook.com), which carries
a decent selection of laminated cheat sheet
cards for different video poker games.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week:
"In poker, you should be rewarded for good
decisions and penalized for bad ones. That's
the essence of the game." --Mike Sexton,
"Shuffle Up and Deal"
