I love buffets, but...
Dear Mark,
My brother likes to play single deck blackjack games, while
I enjoy a casino that offers a decent buffet and a cocktail
waitress that comes to the keno lounge more than once an hour.
So, we cannot always gamble in the same casino. I probably
already know what you will say, but what in your opinion of
what makes "the best" casino? I am appealing to
your love of the buffet. Jack M.
Granted, Jack, I have my favorite buffet stops across the
American casino landscape, but that doesn't necessarily
mean a superior feeding-frenzy-forum equals "the best"
casino.
It is no secret that casinos have a mathematical edge over
players on all their games. This fact alone makes it tough
for players to win. The higher the casino's edge, the lower
the chances the player will end up a winner. With the casino
enjoying this mathematical advantage over the player, they
key to "the best" is to know where to play, which
games offer the best chance at winning, and learn how to
beat them.
You should judge a casino "the best" if its gaming
rules maximize a player's chance of winning. Consider this
Starving Player's Checklist: single versus double zeros
on a roulette table; blackjack dealt from a single deck
with liberal rules like doubling on anything, re-splitting
and surrender; a crap game with five or ten times odds in
lieu of two-times odds; 9/6 video poker machines; a mini-baccarat
table with low limits; casinos that advertise 98.5% paybacks
on their slot machines, and then tell you which machines
those are when you ask.
Besides, Jack, my New Years Resolution (authored by my wife)
was to avoid the buffet chow lines, but not a decent-paying
video poker machine.
Dear Mark,
I realize this question might be hard to answer in this setting
(your column), but what is the exact pronunciation of Baccarat?
Susan D.
My first inclination was to suggest you to look it up in
a dictionary, but far to many players mispronounce baccarat.
The "t" in baccarat is silent and correctly pronounced
it's ba-ka-ra, not back-a-rat (a small rodent found nibbling
on buffet leftovers).
Dear Mark,
Deuces Wild is my favorite video poker game. The casino where
I normally play offers only a four coin return for four-of-a-kind.
You suggest finding a machine that returns five coins for
four-of-a-kind. How much more of an edge am I giving the casino?
Grant S.
Plenty! Try six percent. With maximum coin play and perfect
strategy, a five-coin return for four-of-a-kind gives you
a slight edge against the house-a 100.76% return versus
94.34% if the machine returns just four coins.
Dear Mark,
I was reading one of your columns in which you mentioned 'scared
money'. I'm new to gambling and wondered what this term means.
A. A.
It's June 1 and your rent is due. With insufficient capital
to pay your landlord, you decide to gamble, erroneously
believing you can chase down luck. That's scared money!
Which leads me to give any gambler this sagacious advice:
Only bet what you can afford to lose. Money for rent, car
payments or any of life's necessities has no place in a
casino.
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