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Gaming Guru
You no longer need to cut off both ends of the ham19 November 1999
Dear Mark, Marvin, before you advance your crapology advice to future generations, may I share an anecdotal tale with you?
One day a young girl watched her mother
prepare a ham for Thanksgiving dinner. It is time, Marvin, to let go of your genealogically inspired gambling theories. Though you feel you are hedging you wager by betting the seven, it still doesn't change the house advantage of 16.7%. By sticking strictly to a pass line wager, maybe, just maybe, you will be the first in your clan to win some real money at craps.
Dear Mark
, NEVER, repeat never, hold a kicker. Holding kickers (K, K, A) to any pair reduces your return by more than 5%.
Dear Mark, You are correct in assuming, Kenny, that the don't pass bet (seven rolling before the point) is a marginally better wager-a 1.4 percent casino advantage versus the pass line's 1.41 percent-but craps is a game of community esprit, everyone in it for the win together. By betting the opposite you become the adversary, a villain against the majority of players. Why let the casino off the hook?
Dear Mark, In January, 1994, a computer programmer from London, England, wagered $220,000 on a single spin at the Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas. Placing the whole amount on red, he watched as the ball found the red 7. Picking up his one-roll winnings, he quickly deposited $440,000 in the cashier's cage. The tuxedo-clad gentleman was knowledgeable enough to play on the Horseshoe's single zero roulette table, cutting the house edge from 5.26 to 2.7%.
Dear Mark, The correct answer, Rosa, would be to suggest politely neither. The medium house advantage on all live keno games is approximately 28%. On a video keno game it is 7.5%. Why lower? Video keno has better paytables. Take the 8-spot ticket: By hitting four of eight on a video keno machine, you double your money. You'll never find that on a live keno game. On paper, it looks like video poker is the better deal. Not so fast my friend. At $1 a pop, the most you could lose on a live game is about $15, as that is the average number of games called per hour. A typical video keno player can burn through $15 in quarters in under five minutes. I recommend, Rosa, for those with a keno fixation, video poker instead. Recent Articles
Mark Pilarski |
Mark Pilarski |