Ask the Wizard #26

I don’t think the board would say "20-5" but rather reduce the ratio to 4-1. That means that the bet will pay 4 to 1. So you will win 4 times your bet, plus get the original bet back, if you win. Thus a $20 wager at 4-1 would win $80. When you take the ticket to the window they will give you $100 ($80 winnings plus original $20 bet returned).

I have actually seen these rules when I went to Helsinki in 1986. Without a doubt, the worst blackjack rules I have ever seen.

To answer your question, my blackjack house edge calculator says the house edge is 0.54%, before considering the rule that ties lose on 17-20. My list of rule variations says the effect of losing on 17-20 ties is 8.38% in the house's favor. So, the overall house edge would be 8.92% (ouch!).

Here are the hands from highest to lowest, for both five- and seven-card poker: straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair.

Unlike most slots, this game has different types of wins according to the number of coins bet. The first coin enables the player to win the small frequent "bar" wins, from 2 to 60. The second coin enables larger "seven" wins from 100 to 500. The third coin doubles the wins for sevens, except it also qualified the player for the progressive jackpot for three sizzling sevens.

The ways these games are programmed is to give the player a slightly higher return on each additional coin bet. For example, the first coin might have a return of 92%, the second 93%, and the third 94%. You seem to think the return for one coin would be very low, due to the small wins, but those wins happen more often than the wins for sevens.

In Nevada, regulations require slots to theoretically pay at least 75%. Even the games at the airport, which are very tight, still pay at least 85% or so. I'm quite sure that the return for any number of coins bet in Blazing Sevens conforms to industry norms.

Assuming you draw five cards, and count all hands with exactly two jacks, then the probability would be combin(4,2)*combin(48,3)/combin(52,5) = 6*17296/2598960 = 3.99%.

I played it in practice mode and it seems to be a legitimate no-zero roulette wheel. There is no system that can either beat or lose to this game in the long run. The more you play the more the ratio of the net win to the total amount bet will get closer to zero.

Update: This casino has since closed.

Your comp offers will depend on the product of your average bet, time played, hands per hour, house edge, and some "comp" constant, which is usually 33% to 40%. I indicate what one Vegas Strip casinos assumes for house edge and hands per hour in my house edge summary.

Saying the odds of something happening are x to y means that the event in question will happen x times for every y times it doesn't happen. To make the conversion let p be the probability of some event. The odds could also be expressed as (1/p)-1 to 1. Lets look at an example. The probability of drawing a full house in five-card stud is 0.00144058. This could also be represented as 693.165 to 1.

If you could see both the community cards, then your edge would be 42.06%. I don't know the advantage for one card, I'm afraid, but I am sure it would be high, especially if the second one were exposed.

Assuming you played conventional 8/5 strategy the return in your example would be 99.68%. However, if you played optimal strategy for this jackpot the return would be 100.08%. So, Wong was not wrong.