Dear Mark,
Just to update your column, when I placed the bet at the Plaza, I had agreed beforehand
that if the ball landed on the double zero, it would be declared as a no bet,
allowing me to go again. This was better than the Hard Rock agreement as they
refused to budge on the double zero. Ashley Revell
Do any of you recognize the name above attached to the e-mail I received this
week? It is from Mr. Revell, the British punter who put his entire life savings
of $135,300 on red at the roulette table in Vegas earlier this year. His comments
pertained to a column I had written challenging his gambling acumen for choosing
roulette when risking his total net worth. I wrote that his choice of wager,
a bet on red, broke the most fundamental principle of all of gambling; finding
the best bet and conditions. There was no brainy betting when he decided a single
spin at a double-zero roulette table is where he'd lay his bold bet. I figured
there were plenty of wagers in the casino that offer a better deal than double
zero roulette, where the house edge is 5.26% on every bet you place on the table,
including betting red.
I STAND CORRECTED. My reply to a question from Danny R. was based on seeing
a taped broadcast of the event, running it in slow motion, and clearly seeing
the double zero on the wheel. As well, nowhere had I read anything regarding
the agreement Mr. Revell had with the Plaza. Missing minutiae will get you every
time.
Though Ashley and I could go back and forth on the sanity of someone betting
his or her life savings on one spin (this columnist has recommended countless
times that you should only bet what you can afford to lose not everything you
own), he did negotiate with the Plaza the appropriate conditions, especially
if roulette is where he wanted to put his life savings.
Dear Mark,
If every hand dealt in video poker is random, and the chances of hitting a royal
flush is 40,000 to one, are not the chances of hitting that second consecutive
royal one in 40,000? Also, do you know if two consecutive royal flushes have
ever happened? I came one card away last weekend. Jimmy S.
…and the rest of us mere mortals, Jimmy, are always one card away from
our first.
Once hitting your first royal flush, the odds of another on the following hand
remain the same, one in 40,000. But, Jimmy, if your question meant what are
the odds of hitting two consecutive royals in a row before your first royal
appears, that answer is one in 40,000 times multiplied by one in 40,000, or
one in 1.6 billion.
When I worked at the Cal Neva Lodge at Lake Tahoe in the early 80's, I recollect
one graveyard shift us paying off a consecutive royal flush. The kicker was
that the player had to invest just five, and not 10 quarters. Reason being,
once his jackpot was paid, the casino, on our dime, inserted five of our own
quarters to clear the machine and let him play through. This lucky guy came
right back with a natural royal flush, again in spades.
Someone from Reno is going to have jog my memory, but I vaguely remember a person
hitting three consecutive royals at a Raley's supermarket on Virginia St. about
twenty years ago. Drop me a line if you recall any of the details.
Gambling quote of the week: "You can't ever assume that because
someone wrote a book on gambling, he must know what he is talking about."
Darwin Ortiz, Casino Gambling for the Clueless
