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.
aol.com
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.
