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Gaming Guru
One taco short of a combination plate21 July 2000
Dear Mark,
You would think, James, that after 18
years in the business I would have seen enough to have seen too much.
Then you come along with your brother-in-law's nincompoop gambling
theories.
Dear Mark, Because your jackpot total was in excess of $1,200. Anything above that and the casino reports your winnings to the IRS. You can, however, offset the taxes by reporting your losses if you keep good records. Don't despair if you didn't; that is, if you use a slot club card. Because your play is tracked, the casino should be able to provide you documentation regarding the machines you have played and how much you've previously lost.
Dear Mark, Actually, I received this question via a telephone call from Bill, as we both live in northern Nevada and had access to the same column. I must say, I, like Bill, was surprised that the columnist used John Scarne as his point of reference for blackjack hitting rules. John Scarne's book, Scarne on Cards , was first published in 1949, well before computers could analyze blackjack with multi-million hand simulations. Consequently, since 1962 when Edward Thorp, the first blackjack specialist using a computer (IBM 704), published his book Beat the Dealer, no blackjack author recommends splitting 10s — under any circumstances. Scarne stands alone. Also, since our conversation, I took Bill's question one step further and ran a 20 million hand simulation test using a piece of software called BJ Trainer. The results clearly favored leaving those 10s alone versus splitting them against a 5 or 6. Should a computer be trusted over a highly acclaimed author like Scarne? Not always. I don't have a baseball bat alongside my computers ready to inflict a mortal wound for nothing. But for crunching numbers to compare the variables of blackjack, I'm in favor of using computer results over advice written in 1949. Recent Articles
Mark Pilarski |
Mark Pilarski |