Hold, house edge, and
no-no-no
14 March 2005
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
In casual conversation with a pit boss while
noting that everyone on our blackjack table was
losing, I asked him how he thought the casino
was doing that evening. He replied; "we're
probably going to hold about 50%." Seems high,
especially since you have stated that blackjack
is one of the best games in the casino to play.
Harry S.
Don't confuse, Harry, the "house edge", which is
nil against a perfect basic strategy player and
approximately 5% against the Average Joe who
plays by the seat of his pants, with what the
pit boss referred to as the "casino hold".
The "hold" percentage is nothing more than the
ratio of chips the casino keeps to the total
amount of chips sold, generally measured over an
eight hour period, which in your case, was
probably swing shift. For example, if the
blackjack table you were on sold $10,000 in
chips and dropped the currency in the box, and
the table ended up keeping $5,000 of those chips
(players cashing in the other $5,000), then that
particular table game would hold 50% for the
evening. If every player were to lose their
entire purchase of chips they bought off the
game, then the hold would be 100%. (It can even
exceed 100%, Harry, if players purchase chips
from one table and lose them on another, like
the table you were on).
Dear Mark,
My Brother-in-Law seems to think that by
mimicking the dealer in blackjack, the house has
no advantage, even on a shoe game in AC. For
instance, he always hits up to 16, and always
stands on a soft 17 or more. What do you think
of his system? Clark B.
Listen up, Brother-in-Law of Clark B., the only
advantage the dealer has over you in blackjack
is that you must act on your hand before the
dealer takes action on his. Rule variations have
some effect on the player's expected return, but
not on the casino's sole advantage of having
players whack away and bust before the dealer
exposes the hole card. The one advantage most
players have over the casino is the ability to
quit while ahead, though that probably would
exclude your B-in-L when making use of the
foolhardy system of mimicking the dealer.
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