Buying the 4 and 10

Dear Frank:

I am very aware that buying the 4 and the 10 is not a good bet but I must admit that when I am making money on a very good roll and numbers are hitting, I will buy either the 4 or the 10 and try to parlay them. I usually will buy the 4 or 10 for $25 or $50 and hope to hit twice for a final payoff of $225 or $450. A few months back I had a shooter on an unbelievable run and I hit the $50 parlay twice during his roll. After the first hit for $450 I regressed back down to my original $50 which I had to pay $2 for (this is in Illinois and you have to pay when you buy rather then if it wins like in Vegas).

At this point the Boxman (woman actually) asked me if I was going to parlay it again if it hits to which I replied "yes." She then gave me a little tip that many people would not even think about. She suggested that I buy the 10 for $53 rather then $50. I still only had to pay the $2 vig and if it does hit I will be paid $106 for the win giving me a total of $159!

Now when I parlay the $150 it will actually only be one extra dollar that was in my rack because I will have won six extra dollars. So the total vig to buy the parlay will only cost a total of $3 rather then $9, a savings of $6.

My question to you is this - If you are a player who insists on parlaying those outside numbers all the time (and I see a lot of them), what will hurt you more in the long run: Keep losing that extra $3 on your first wager if it does not hit? Or not putting the extra $3 down and losing the full $7 on the second wager if it does not hit? My answer would be that eventually, in the long term, the extra $3 that the boxman is advising me to bet would hurt your bankroll much more because most of the time you will not even have the opportunity to make the 2nd bet because the first one won't win enough.

Michael

Dear Michael:

The extra $3 on the buy bet is not hurting you because your vig is just $2. It's $2 whether you buy for $50 or $53. You can think of that $3 almost as an odds bet where the house has no edge over you at all.

In Atlantic City you can buy the 4 and 10 for $55, paying only the $2 vig. So in terms of house edge, there is none on the extra money - although some might argue that there is. However that argument dies when we simply say, "You pay $2 for $50 or $53 or $55. How am I paying more? I am not."

Now there is another question and that has to do with your total bankroll. Even if a bet has no house edge, can your bankroll withstand a losing streak? It seems to me that yours can so bet that $53 (and see if they will raise it to $55).

I am giving you two free months on my private web sie The Craps Club at www.goldentouchcraps.com. The info will come in another email to you.

All the best in and out of the casinos.

Frank Scoblete