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John Grochowski Gaming Guru  Speed of Play24 September 2023
By John Grochowski Speed of play matters in casino games. More wagers per hour means more exposure to the house edge. In setting budgets, players need to keep in mind they make more bets per hour at sparsely populated tables than at crowded venues, that blackjack moves faster than roulette, craps moves faster than blackjack, baccarat moves faster than craps and slot machines move fastest of all. That's part of the reason slot machines are so profitable for casinos. Individual wagers may be small, but play is so fast a penny slot player betting 80 cents a spin has an hourly wager about on a par with a blackjack player betting $10 a hand at a crowded table. Blackjack speed is highly dependent on the number of players, from about 50 hands per hour at a full seven-player table to 250 with one player heads-up with a fast dealer. A dedicated slot player who hits the button as soon as the reels stop can play more than 1,000 spins per hour, though most play a bit slower. Video poker? I was once clocked in tournament play at more than 800 hands per hour, though in relaxed recreational play I cruise at 600 to 700. In calculating average results per hour, I often use 500 as a middling number. Experienced players will find that slow, but it's breakneck speed to less experienced folk. Craps has an extra component. Some bets are decided in fewer rolls than others, so decisions come faster. Propositions such as the field, any craps, any seven and others are decided on every roll. If you always want one in action, you're making a fresh bet every time. Pass and come, place and buy bets, and the hardways move at a more leisurely pace. It takes an average of 3.38 rolls to settle a pass or come bet. Place bets depend on the number, with an average of 3.27 rolls on 6 or 8, 3.60 on 5 or 9 or 4 rolls on 4 or 10. Average rolls per decision are the same as place on buy bets and hardways. Those averages carry serious implications for those who like to hedge their bets with a small wager on any 7 to go with their pass or place bets. Imagine you're betting $6 to place 6 and hedging with $1 on any 7. To always have that hedge working, you'd need to make 3.27 times as many any 7 as place wagers. To work with whole numbers, let's say you do this 100 times, meaning your place bets on 6 total $600. You'd also make 327 any 7 bets, and at $1 a pop that's $327. The house edge on placing 6 is 1.52 percent. With average results, your $600 in wagers would bring $9.12 in losses. That's a close enough call that a minor short-term swing to wins above average can take you to profit territory. What about the $327 in any 7 wagers? The house edge is a whopping 16.67 percent, leading to average losses of $54.51. The hedge to cover the 7 that loses on the place bet is far worse than the problem it tries to fix. The high house edge is an important reason to avoid any 7, but so is the speed with which the decisions come. You can look for full blackjack tables and take time over your decisions. You can discipline yourself to slow down at slots, relax and take your time. But relative to decisions per hour at other craps bets, one-roll propositions are speedy bankroll gobblers. This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Basic Blackjack Strategies10 September 2023
Several times a year, I receive inquiries from readers about what to do about basic strategy when you have more than two cards. Mostly, it's easy. There are exceptions for card counters or those using composition-dependent strategies, but mostly, if basic strategy calls for you to hit, then hit no matter how many cards you have. ... (read more)
Those Roulette Edges3 September 2023
QUESTION: When you calculate the house edge in roulette, you always use single-number bets or the even-money payoff bets where you get 18 numbers (red or black, odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36). What about something in between like the corners or columns? How do they wind up in the same place as singles or ... (read more)
Buying Numbers at Craps27 August 2023
QUESTION: I'm fairly new to craps. My brother-in-law taught me all about pass, come and the odds, and that's all I play. I do OK, win some, lose some. Some of the wins have been pretty wonderful with the 3x, 4x, 5x odds I play. A hot roll will make up for a lot of little losses when the shooters are going point-7 around the table. ... (read more)
Craps SystemsCraps players love systems, trying to mix and match bets in hopes of finding the magical formula that will beat the casino. Just about any system will work sometimes, and when a player wins with a system, it encourages another try, and another, and another. In the long run, of course, the casino comes out on top. ... (read more)Multi Strike PokerIt was a Friday morning in Joliet, and I'd been playing a little video poker aboard Empress II, waiting for the 11 a.m. opening of Empress I and its video poker room. Soon, if it hasn't already happened by the time you read this, Empress' new barge will open, ending such little scheduling inconveniences, but on this day, I found myself passing time with a little quarter Triple Play Poker. ... (read more)Comps - The BasicsA colleague of mine likes to refer to casino comps as "free stuff." And for those who know their basic strategy in blackjack, optimal strategies for certain video poker games and who know how comping systems work, the "stuff" really is free--the value ... (read more)Basic Strategy for Spanish 21In the last couple of weeks, we've looked at basic strategy in blackjack. Sit down at most blackjack tables in any jurisdiction, play basic strategy and you'll narrow the house edge to a half-percent or so, perhaps a little more or a little less depending on house rules. ... (read more)Single-Deck Basic StrategyThose whose casino memories stretch back far enough may recall a time when the standard "Las Vegas Strip" blackjack game was dealt from a single deck of cards, with the dealer standing on all 17s. That started to change in the 1960s as operators grew ... (read more)John Grochowski |
John Grochowski |
