Dear Mark,
I recently received a
flyer in the mail from a casino showing some of their current specials.
One was being paid 2 to 1 for blackjacks on Wednesdays. A good deal for
the player? Louise J.
Geez, Louise, I just love it when the
marketing department of a casino makes the rules. They may, or may not
have known it, but when that casino decided as a promotion that it will
pay you 2 to 1 for a blackjack versus 3 to 2, by God, they gave you an
edge over the house. How much? Well if you played perfect basic strategy
on a $5 game, you'll gain an extra $2.50 once every 20.7 hands. That's
an improvement of 12 cents a hand-enough for some extra greenback in
your wallet and a cheap buffet as well. But what's most important here,
Louise, is that opportunities like this do happen occasionally, and
anytime you can one-up the casino, jump on it!
Dear Mark,
When a pit boss brought
in new cards on our blackjack game, a friend I'm with tells me to lower
my bet on the first shuffle. Does it really make any difference? John D.
Whether I answer yes or no, John, it's
still bound to stir an argument among purists on both sides of the issue.
First, a study I recently read stated
that a new deck of cards only becomes random after it's been shuffled
seven times. It's also my experience that most casinos only require a
dealer to shuffle, even with a new deck on the game, from three to five
times. So why are these statements important? Because, when a new deck
of cards arrives on your game fresh out of the box, it comes in a
predefined order (A-K hearts, A-K clubs, K-A diamonds, K-A spades),
which contains 10-value card clumps not completely broken up by the
initial shuffle.
So though my answer leans towards yes,
albeit mildly, I do confess I also back off until the second
shuffle-which should make the cards as random as they can be.
Dear Mark,
What are those funny
little blackjack abbreviations like H17, RSA and DOA mean that I've seen
on casino newspaper advertising or internet gambling forums? Bud T.
Authors Ovid Demaris and Ed Reid's
conception of DOA was the cautionary advice they gave in their 1963
book, The Truth About Las Vegas. "The surest way to beat Las
Vegas is to get off the plane that has taken you there and walk straight
into the propeller." It's actually the rule variations/conditions that
each particular casino offers for blackjack. Below are some you would
typically see.
BSE = Basic Strategy Edge
H17 = Hit
soft 17 (dealer must hit)
S17 = Stand on any 17 (dealer must stand)
DOA = Double On Any first two cards
D10 = Double on 10 or 11 only
DAS =
Double After Splitting is allowed
RSA = Re-Splitting Aces is allowed
ESR = Early Surrender
LSR = Late Surrender
O/U = Over/Under 13 side bets
are allowed
Dear Mark,
In some of your columns
you mention the word "grind." What do you mean by that? Ray R.
In the language of casino gambling, Ray,
grind can be used in a variety of ways. A grind player is generally
a term associated with a low roller. A grind joint is a casino
that caters to these low rollers. Then there's the grind down. This is
where the casino eventually wins all the player's money due to the
built-in advantage it has on all wagers. Finally, the grind system
. This is any system used by a player that attempts to win small amounts
frequently against the casino. Unfortunately, the latter is highly
unlikely.
