Dear Mark,
I enjoy going to Las
Vegas not only to gamble but to feast on all the different buffets. Why
do you think they don't offer buffets with the same fanfare in the
Midwest casinos as they do in Las Vegas? Chuck M.
On those days, Chuck, when you have to
try as hard as you can to keep up with the losers, your only salvation
is to get up from a losing table and enjoy the comfort cuisine of a rich
bounty buffet.
Casinos here have long realized that the
formula for success in a casino is to attract as many people as
possible, with the least amount of marketing costs, and keep them in
their facility for as long as they have money in their pocket. A buffet
is one of the best ways of doing that. The Rio Hotel and Casino in Las
Vegas is a perfect example of a casino whose tremendous success is
rooted in its Carnival World Buffet.
Why the chow-line dining experience
hasn't caught on at all the heartland casinos, where eating quantity
over quality has always prevailed, is beyond my grasp.
Dear Mark,
When making a bet on the
"bank hand" in baccarat, why do they charge a 5% commission? Wouldn't
this make it an inferior wager compared to a "player hand" bet? Bradley
G.
Based on the mathematics of baccarat, the
player hand should win 44.6% of the time, the bank hand 45.8% and the
tie 9.6%. If we discount ties, the player hand statistically will win
49.3% of the time and the bank hand 50.7%.
Because the bank hand wins more than 50%
of the time, the casino neutralizes this edge you would have over the
house by charging a 5% commission every time you win a bank hand bet. By
charging this hidden tax, the casino's advantage is now 1.17% for bank
hand and 1.36% for the player hand. But even with the commission added,
you can see that the bank hand is still a slightly better bet than the
player wager.
By the way, Bradley, the above wagers are
some of the best bets you can make in a casino, but the tie bet should
always be avoided: house edge, 14.1%.
Dear Mark,
I understand most of the
logic behind basic strategy, but one play always makes me nervous and
that is doubling down on a 10 against a dealer's 10. If I assume the
dealer has a total of 20, then only a ten card or ace will allow me to
win. Am I right to assume that there are more chances I'll draw a 2-9
card than a 10 or ace? If so, why double my bet in such a risky
situation? Allen H.
Blackjack is a game in which the proper
hit, stand, splitting and doubling decisions are necessary to cut the
house edge down to a minimum. These proper decisions are called basic
strategy and have been arrived at by computer simulations of millions of
hands.
Your case in point, doubling down on a 10
against a dealer 10 is NOT one of those times. Basic strategy dictates
you hit your hand, not double down. This stratagem is the same for both
single and multiple deck games.
Dear Mark,
You have mentioned in
previous columns both your favorite books and movies on gambling. Do you
have any favorite songs on gambling? Stathis Z.
Hmmm. A
beloved song on gambling. Yes I do. Two actually. There's A Place in
the World for A Gambler by pop singer Dan Fogelberg and Luck be a
Lady by Frank Sinatra.
There's a place in the world for a gambler
There's a burden that only he can bare
There's a place in the world for a
gambler
And he sees
Oh yes he sees.
