Gambling Guide
Ask the Wizard #29
Frank from Steubenville, USA
As I work through the various kinds of software for reviews in Casino Player magazine, I am paying more attention to games I normally don't play. At this point, I can only report on three kinds of software as follows.
Microgaming: 95.67% (Based on actual returns at the Golden Palace while they used Microgaming software.)
Cryptologic: 92.42% (Based on actual returns at the Safari Casino. The Sands of the Caribbean and Inter Casino had similar returns.)
Real Time Gaming: 97.1% (Based on the theoretical return at Casino Merlin assuming maximum coins played. Other licensees may select from returns ranging from 95% to 98%.)
Chris from Tyler, USA
Yes, it was luck. It helped that you stuck to the low house edge bets. However, next time, make the line bets with odds only, and don't bet the field, especially if it pays 2 to 1 only on both the 2 and 12.
Eddie from West Memphis, Arkansas
No, you should not make the Fortune side bet, or any other side bet. Generally speaking, they are sucker bets that carry a high house edge. For more information on the Fortune side bet visit my pai gow poker side bets section.
Sandee from Norwood, USA
The probability of getting 6 out of 94 correct is 1 in combin(94,6) = 1 in 814,216,767.
John C. from London, Canada
I wrote my own combinatorial program which cycles through every possible event and keeping a running tally of all the possible outcomes weighted by their probability. Except in cases where re-splitting pairs is involved, my calculations are exactly right.
Jim M.
Since you asked I added information about the put bet in my craps section. That should tell you what you want to know.
Gil from Fullteron, California
First it is very possible that they are shuffling after every hand. Even if they do penetrate into the shoe I doubt they play through the entire thing. The average number of cards per hand is 4.94. Assuming 15 burn cards, a six-deck baccarat shoe would have about 60 hands. However, mathematically speaking, it doesn't make any difference when they shuffle.
Harvey from Kansas City, Missouri
I would wager 10X for the 100% bonus. If you make the bet size small enough you can still stay under a 5% chance of going broke. I don't have the exact number, but if each bet were 1% of the total deposit, then I doubt the probability of going broke would be more than 5%, even betting ten times the bankroll.
