Getting, and betting, sloshed.
October 1,
2010
Dear Mark:
Enjoyed your most recent column where you
talked about comps. One thing you might want
to mention to your readers is that when
ordering drinks at table games, ask for
shelf liquor, otherwise you get your drinks
from the well. Where I play, you can order
Maker’s Mark all night long. Ben G.
What’s not to like about Luke
Bryan’s first #1 hit; Rain Is a Good Thing.
Bryan celebrates how rain can affect life by
aiding in the growth of corn, which in turn
is processed into whiskey, which in turn
causes his significant other to become,
well, shall we say, a bit high-spirited.
Rain makes corn, corn makes
whiskey, Whiskey makes my baby feel a little
frisky
Catchy lyrics, yes,
but, be it a well drink from a gun, call or
top shelf liquor, getting juiced up like the
plane’s going down while betting your brains
out, is, at the very least, fiscally
foolish.
Free drinks, aka chip
remover, have always been part of the casino
ambiance. But in a casino environment, Ben,
it facilitates the losing process for the
normally sensible gambler. Those enticed by
free hooch, who don’t sip for pleasure but
gulp for effect, can plan on their early
demise.
All bets are off on
your quality of play, Ben, when influenced
by any intoxicating beverage, even if it is
Maker’s Mark.
Dear
Mark: As a senior citizen, and a penny slot
player, how much should I be wagering per
spin? Mel G.
As a
budget-minded gambler, Mel, you have plenty
of betting flexibility in the number of
lines and number of coins per line you can
bet when playing penny slots. Yet be
forewarned. Penny slots are big money makers
for casinos. They tend to get a lot of play
because penny-wise players like you enjoy
playing them, but they also tend to have
relatively low paybacks.
Being
a prudent player, you need to comprehend
base denomination. Penny machines should be
just that, penny machines. Not a buck a spin
when betting ten pennies a line times ten
lines. Because many players are betting the
max per line, the average bet on these
machines has skyrocketed, yet the low
paybacks remain the same.
The
penny-pinching method I recommend is to bet
one coin per line on each line on a penny
slot. From that thrifty level of play, if
you get hot, bet a little more. When your
luck turns south, drop back to one coin per
line.
Dear Mark:
Besides looking for the best pay tables
available, I like to play two video poker
games side-by-side at the same time. If the
pay tables are the same, and I use the same
strategy on both, will the payoff be the
same? John H.
Yes,
John, but only if we are talking long-term
paybacks. But, over your short gambling
timeline, which could be just a couple
hours, one video poker machine can give
while the other takes, even with the same
pay tables.
Gambling
Wisdom of the Week: “Most people
think that poker is a game. It isn’t, man.
It’s work. You have to work at it like
anything else and you get payoffs. You can’t
just sit down and play. I go and think about
the players and the game for a while and
draw up a game plan. I don’t like to play
long hours because I’m concentrating and
figuring odds all the time. Hell, I work
less hours a month than a doctor and I can
take vacations any time I want to. This is
what I want to do. This is my career.” -
Anonymous poker player to writer D M Hayano
1977
