Gambling Guide
Ask the Wizard #92
"Anonymous" .
Good question. For those who don’t understand the question, unless otherwise requested, odds on come out bets are not active on come out rolls. So if the player rolls a seven on a come out roll any come bets will lose and odds on come bets will be returned. Likewise if the player’s point on the come bet is rolled on the come out roll the come bet will win but the odds will push. The answer depends on how we define the house edge. If we define it as expected loss to total bets made then turning the odds off would not matter. This is because the player is still betting the odds and it still counts as a bet even if it is returned as a push. However if you define the house edge as expected loss to bets resolved then turning the odds off on a come out roll does indeed increase the house edge. I wrote a computer simulation to determine this effect. Assuming the player takes fives times odds then turning the odds off on come out rolls increases the ratio of losses to total bets resolved from 0.326% to 0.377%, or an increase of 0.051%. So if you want to maximize your return on bets resolved then leave those come odds turned on.
"Anonymous" .
I remember my first trip to a casino I didn’t know how to actually get chips to play with and purchased them at the cage and walked them to the blackjack table. The proper way to buy in at the table is simply to lay your cash on the table and at the appropriate time the dealer will exchange the cash for chips. However if you wish to play for amounts too uncomfortable or unsafe to carry in cash you can wire funds to the casino in advance. Then all you have to do when you get there is ask the pit boss for chips and he will have you sign something, stating you are buying chips against your cash account. To get off topic a bit I think it is time the United States Treasury should start making $500 bills, making it easier to carry large amount of money. A 500 Euro note already exists, which is worth $598 U.S. dollars at the time of this writing.
"Anonymous" .
My advice is to try to achieve a very large win or go bust trying. The greater your winning goal is, up to a point, the greater your expected return. Personally I would try to get to about $2000. It is paradoxical but the only way to realize the value of the bonus is to lose everything. So you want a high probability of ruin. Hopefully that won’t happen and you will have a very nice windfall.
"Anonymous" .
If you hold three deuces there are 46 ways you can get the other deuce and another card. There are combin(47,2)=1081 to choose two cards out of 47 left in the deck. So the probability of getting four deuces on the draw with three held is 46/1081 = 4.26% = 1 in 23.5. If you hold two deuces there are 45 ways to get two more deuces plus another card. There are combin(47,3)=16215 ways to choose 3 cards out of 47. So the probability of getting four deuces on the draw after holding two is 45/16215 = 0.28% = 1 in 360.33.
"Anonymous" .
Following are the probabilities:
Player 1 0.048265
Player 2 0.036735
Player 3 0.024823
Dealer 0.012560
The product is 1 in 1,808,986.
"Anonymous" .
Thank you for the kind words. I still say that the house edge is not dependent on the number of come bets you make. Yes, it is depressing to establish one come point after another and then lose everything on a seven. However there are other times when the shooter takes ages before rolling a seven and you win lots of come bets along the way.
"Anonymous" .
I have played blackjack at casinos all over the United States and have never seen a basic strategy card in blackjack given out for free. However most casino gift shops sell them and they are indeed allowed at the tables. I think the casinos aren’t crazy about the cards the alternative of prohibiting them would be even worse. It would cause a lot of bad player relations to try to enforce a no strategy card rule. Furthermore, where would they draw the line? What if the player wrote the basic strategy on his hand, could the casino prevent a player from looking at his own hand?
"Anonymous" .
When a casino says they pay back 98% for example in blackjack it is generally a historical statistic, looking at the last month or so. They should state somewhere the time period on which it is based. The 98% is the ratio of money returned to money bet is 98%. This generally includes money bet on doubles and splits in the denominator. So if a casino had all basic strategy players their return percentage would likely be less than the house edge, which is based on the initial bet only. Heavy hitters can definitely skew the percentages. That is why sometimes a casino will pay over 100%, because a high roller got lucky and won more than all the other players lost.
