Drive Slowly When You Play

29 February 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Last week we looked at the horrible results when fast speeds overtake a casino game. The faster the game, the more decisions at a game, the more hands or bets you make, the better the casino has it over you. Fast dealers can hurt you too.

ABBY: Games are not just their house edges; they are their speed of play as well. Fast speeds can actually make good house edges bad house edges in terms of results.

CINDY: The more decisions that a player has to make, the more the house edge kicks in and slowly (or fastly) eats away at the player’s bankroll. You can’t really get away from this fact.

ABBY: So, knowing this truth of casino play, you plan accordingly. Fewer decisions the better. Proper play counts just as much. You must do everything right in terms of your strategy in order to have a chance to beat the house. Blackjack players who do not use the proper strategy called “basic strategy” are asking for trouble.

CINDY: Don’t make bad bets with high house edges even though those bets seem to pay off handsomely. They don’t actually help in in the long run – or even the short and medium run. They actually suck the money from players’ bankrolls.

ABBY: If you take a look at the games in the casinos, you can usually tell which games have a leisurely pace and which games are fast (as in speed kills!). You also know which games offer a lot of different bets, many of them poor bets. Avoid all bets with high house-edges. That’s a hard and fast rule that you have to take to heart.

CINDY: Roulette is a leisurely game with maybe 40 decisions an hour. Play at crowded tables which keeps the game moving slowly. This is a big help. You might also decide to bet the proposition bets as these will give you a few or many numbers on which to wager with only using a minimum bet or, rather, your minimum bet. Proposition bets are good if you are the kind of player who likes being on several numbers. Play them as propositions and your risk is contained. I like playing red/black.

ABBY: I enjoy Pai Gow Poker too. This is another leisurely game and every decision you make at it in terms of how to play the cards dealt to you has winning and losing ramifications. By the way, dealers will help you play your hands correctly if you don’t know how to play them or you are confused. Give this game a try. But only play one hand, not two or three.

CINDY: I love craps but you must only make one or two bets at the game. Most craps players like to go up on many numbers but that is economically a poor thing to do. Make pass line and come bets with odds and keep it at that. Two bets at most. The house edge on these bets is quite low. Also, as an aside, absolutely shoot the dice. This is one of the fun things about craps!

ABBY: Mini-baccarat is out. Way too many decisions. Even if you cut how many decisions you face the game can have so many decisions that you still face a poor future at it.

CINDY: Do not make any of the side bets at any game. These have been put in to extract more money from players and most of them aren’t good bets to begin with.

ABBY: And slots? You have to play really, really slow because you can actually play hundreds of decisions an hour playing them.

CINDY: Slow speed is best. Few bets are best too.

ABBY: Go get them!