Wrong Plays for Personal Reasons

5 February 2023

By John Grochowski

One of the things I had to learn when I started to write about gambling roughly 30 years ago was that it's not the goal of every player to get the lowest possible house edge.

I write about strategies with the lowest edge in mind, but some players will choose other directions because they want to increase chances at a big jackpot, because a bankroll shortage forces non-optimal plays, because they had a bad streak with correct strategies and want to try something else, or any number of reasons important to them.

Every year, I receive a number of messages from players detailing specific plays where they stray from perfect strategy. Let's share a few from 2022. No comment from me. I'll let the readers have their say, then return to the issues raised another time.

JUSTIN: When I play blackjack, it's usually at a $10 table. Those are the lowest minimums near me. I buy in for $200, and I will not go beyond that in one session. If it's a short session, then it is.
I run into a strategy thing sometimes when I'm running short of chips. If doubling down or splitting pairs means I have to break a new bill, then I don't do it. I don't care if it's two 8s against a 6, I'll just play it as a 16.

If I bought more chips, it would be too easy for me just to lose more money. My limit is a line in the sand, and I don't cross it.

KERI: I love Double Double Bonus Poker, I love Ten Play Poker, and my casino has 9-5 Double Double Bonus on Ten Play for quarters.

I know the strategies and I follow them to the letter. I'm a good player. But there's one play I just can't bring myself to make when I'm playing 10 hands at once.

When I have a full house with Aces up, like A-A-A-7-7, I break it up and hold just the Aces on single-hand games, but I hold the full house on Ten Play.

I know the math says this is not a close call and I should stick with Aces and hope for the fourth Ace and maybe even a kicker for that 2,000-coin jackpot. But in Ten Play, holding the full houses means 450 coins, $112.50 worth of quarters. If I break it up, I could wind up with 10 threes of a kind, 150 coins or $37.50.

With a payoff of more than $100 on the line, we're getting into big enough money that I don't want to take the risk. So I make a play that know isn't the best.

I hope that doesn't make me a bad person.

COLIN: I've been playing Three Card Poker probably for 10 years or so, and I always make both the ante-play and the Pairs Plus bets. In fact, I usually bet twice as much on Pairs Plus, maybe a $10 ante and a $20 Pairs Plus.

I've had some big wins that way. You really can get the straight flushes and three of a kind payoffs that make your day. Once, I found a table that paid extra on a mini-royal, paying 50-1 instead of the 40-1 you usually get on straight flushes. Not only did I get a mini-royal that day, I got a straight flush, too. With $20 bets, that was some really nice money.

I know they say the house takes your money faster on the Pairs Plus, but I play for the big wins. I can shake off the losses, but big wins make me happy,